The family of otter that have their young in an old abandoned culvert under HWY61 have also been enjoying the harbor. Visitors have saw them just about every day. I was biking around the harbor and got some photos while they were napping on one of the docks.

Click here to see the rest of the photos of a calm Lake Superior and otters.

The second kayak trip I took this week was with Karla and my niece along with her seven-year-old son who live in Kansas. They were up for the week and we had many outdoor adventures.

Sawyer had never seen a moose before and was pretty thrilled to come upon one in the cattails. When it stepped out in the open it was pretty exciting for all of us. Notice how many flies are on its butt. With no way to get rid of them it makes me wonder why moose don’t have tails.

Click here to see the rest of the kayaking photos.

Click here to see the rest of the July Full Moon photos.

There is a bald eagle nest in a white pine right on the shore. The young are already flying. Four loons flew in and spent the day on the lake along with the two resident loons. The resident loons had nested but the babies were gone. I am sure the eagle nest within sight of the loon nest didn’t fare well for the loons.

One of the four was the strangest loon I have ever seen. It was stained orange. Your mind could come up with many theories why this was. From brackish water to fire retardant but some chemical discolored its feathers. It looked healthy and spent the day fishing with the rest of us.

There are quite a few deer in this area and we certainly saw our share. We saw most of the white-tails in the farm fields adjacent to the lake as the sun was setting in the evening. We saw one doe with five fawns. We thought there is no way this doe had that many fawns.

Soon they started kicking some of the fawns so they must have been from another doe that was just over the hill. They had a good time playing and running around for a while. In total we saw 28 deer and four of the does had twins so it must have been a good winter for deer in this area.

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After several mornings of monitoring the nest, I could hear little peeping sounds. It was time. One little guy had broken the inner membrane sack and got its first breath of air. The adult started to act like something was happening. I was hoping to be there when they hatched. When the adults did an exchange, I could see that the baby had pecked holes around one end of the egg.

Shortly the baby was out of the shell. A few minutes later it was resting under the adult’s wing. I felt fortunate to have witnessed the hatching of a loon chick for the second time in my life.

Click here to see the rest of the loon photos.

Click here to see the rest of the wildlife photos.

Our goal was to find a loon nest that we had heard about from a friend of Katie’s. We found the nest on a beautiful little island in a back bay where very few people travel. Just like the loons in my prior “Photo of the Week” this pair is also very tolerant of our presence and showed no sign of concern. The longer we were there the more friendly they became. Even fishing right under our kayaks. By means of telephoto lens we were able to capture unique photos and interactions between the pair.

It was pretty amazing the amount of wildlife we saw while experiencing this backcountry lake with the loons.

We saw a black-backed woodpecker nest with the adult feeding its young. Black-backed woodpeckers are not very common and most people have never seen one let alone their nest cavity with young.

We also came across a cow moose and her two young calves.

Later came across a ruffed grouse mom with about a dozen chicks. They scurried in every direction. Mom climbed up a rock and started calling. All the chicks climbed to the top one by one.

Click here to see the rest of the wildlife photos.

Father Hennepin is known for a large population of deer. Every day we enjoyed seeing several white-tails. In total we saw three moms with sets of twin fawns and two that had single fawns.

Father Hennepin is also known for having albino deer. Three years ago, I photographed this doe as a fawn and now she has fawns of her own. Albino deer have a recessive gene that causes a lack of pigmentation in the body. Their hair is white; nose and ears are pink and pink around the eyes. When born their eyes are blue.

Albino deer are incredibly rare in Minnesota with only one in 20,000 to 30,000 births. Each day we would hike or bike around to see if we could find the albino deer and each day, we found her. The color kind of stuck out in the green leaves.

It was harder to find her fawns as she would hide them and bring them out only to nurse. It was only on the last day that we found out she had twins. Each time we saw her earlier she would feed one fawn at a time and hide the other one. She must have trusted us after five days and came out with both fawns. It was early in the morning and the sunlight was shining right on them.

Click here to see the rest of the photos of the white-tailed deer.

Click here to see the rest of the lady’s slipper photos.

When we first saw the loons, we didn’t know if they had young. They were just swimming along the shore and we couldn’t see a baby. One wing was just a little higher than the other so we assumed that at least one little guy was in there. Katie started to video the loon and out comes the little head. It goes back in just as fast.

It wasn’t long before the baby came out looking for breakfast. They look like such cute little round balls of fur. It was such a beautiful morning just to watch them swim around. Both adults started feeding various larvae to the chick. For the first five days the young will ride on the backs of the adults. The baby kept switching from napping on the back to feeding alongside the adult.

After being with the loons for about three hours they moved off into the bigger part of the lake. I couldn’t believe how great of a time we had with the loon family. I have had numerous encounters with loons over the years and this one was definitely in the top three.

Click here to see the rest of the loon photos.

After getting back to Minnesota a friend asked if I wanted to head back into the Superior National Forest and search for moose. We didn’t have to go far. It was a four moose day. Two yearlings crossed the road in front of us. A cow was feeding in a swamp next to the road. Soon we come around a corner and see this beautiful bull feeding in the lake. He wasn’t afraid of us at all and even came closer to feed.

There were five of us watching the bull for about a half hour. One of the girls had never seen a moose before so it was a special thrill to see such a nice bull on your first moose sighting.

Click here to see the rest of the moose and wren photos.

Click here to see the rest of the Northern Cardinal photos.

Frank has also become tame enough that he lets me sit on his drumming log next to him.

Click here to see the rest of the cinnamon ruffed grouse photos.

Scottie is old by grouse standards as he has been drumming on this log for at least five years that we know of. After five years of photographing the same grouse, they usually disappear. There are many predators out there that eventually get them as they age. One of the earlier grouse I had been photographing for five years became blind in one eye and I knew he wouldn’t be there the next spring which was sad.

After spending hours with grouse, they do bond with you and let you get close. Scottie will allow me to sit on his log right next to him.

Click here to see the rest of the ruffed grouse photos.

I currently have three drumming grouse that I have been keeping track of. It is so calming for me to spend time in the woods watching and listening to not only the grouse but all the birds migrating through or building their nests.

Click here to see the rest of the ruffed grouse photos.

Click here to see the rest of the photos of the May Flower Full Moon.

Many birds migrated up the shore this week. Driving into town we saw flocks of juncos. Definitely more than I have ever seen migrating through before.

One of the prettiest little birds that comes through every spring and fall is the snow bunting. You always see them flying in flocks along the road due to white feathers under their wings. This one looked colorful with Lake Superior in the background.

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That’s when I noticed the red squirrel under the feeder. When the marten made its move, it went by me in a flash. It covered about forty feet in a couple of seconds and got within ten feet of the squirrel before the squirrel noticed.

I thought the squirrel was toast. I don’t think I have seen a squirrel move so fast. The marten was gaining but the squirrel dove into one of its snow tunnel’s. With the hard crust covered snow it was too difficult for the marten to get in. When the squirrel came out the other end they both raced behind the garage and I thought, “Well I won’t know how this comes out”.

Somehow the squirrel got under the snow again and doubled back. It came out of a hollow log we have in our flower garden with the marten right on its tail. It raced back to the pine tree that the feeder was in.

When it hit the base of the tree the marten was less than a foot behind the squirrel. Both went up the tree in a flash.

Click here to see the rest of the marten photos and find out if the marten got breakfast.

At home we still have between one and two feet of snow on the ground. I have been snowshoeing every day this week. Three of those times I have come across ruffed grouse. I have spent enough time with these grouse that if I move slow, they allow me to get close.

Click here to see the rest of the rainbow and ruffed grouse photos.

One of the wildlife species encountered was ruffed grouse. We are far enough into spring that the male ruffed grouse are displaying. Silje saw this beautiful male first. It was in thick brush so she couldn’t see the whole bird and didn’t know for sure what it was as it dipped his head up and down displaying. Soon she hollered, “Grouse”. All of us got to watch it for several minutes. I was glad I had my camera.

Both girls spent two years of preschool at Hartly Nature Center so they gained knowledge about the outdoors. Since the male was displaying Tove started looking for the female. She found it six feet above her head in a spruce tree. Tove was excited. I couldn’t believe the female let her get that close and didn’t fly.

We spent two afternoons sledding and playing on the drifts that was in “Photo of the Week” last week. Everyone had a blast. They slid down numerous drifts. There was a lot of laughing.

The second to the last day it looked like there was going to be a nice sunrise. I woke Silje up and tried to get her to go with me but she was too tired. After she saw the photos, she had wished she would have gone.

It was the best sunrise and largest sun pillar I’ve seen all year. Skim ice had formed over Lake Superior so everything was reflected in the lake. Sun pillars form when sunlight reflects off the surfaces of tiny, horizontally oriented ice crystals drifting in the atmosphere. It was one memorable week.

Click here to see the rest of the snowshoeing photos.