Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

February 25, 2008

February is dwindling....


We've had a bunch of turkeys hanging around the Ottertail all winter. Sometimes when you walk out the door, a bunch of huge birds will take off wildly, heading for the woods.



These photos show where some birds took flight and left the marks of their wings in the snow.....









Blow these pics up and you can see the prints a lot better.










We have had an unusual amount of ice on the roof this year. One of the corners of the lodge had a thin icicle that went all the way to the ground!! I think I may be ready for spring, eh?




One of the Ottertail staff photographers took this photo as the moon came up over Marquip early in the evening of the eclipse. That was nice enough, but who could have predicted the sight that showed up later. I stood out on the deck under under those icicles that night, leaning against the wall steadying the binoculars.



It was only -15°, so I was able to stand out there for 10 minutes at a time..... then I would go in, warm my hands (maybe have a pull on the brandy bottle) and then head back outside. I was amazed by the variety of changing colors, the intensity of some of them, the subleness of some. I was also amazed at how long the whole event took and how well I could see the moon the whole time.



It was really worth the effort and cold in order to see this amazing event. The next chance at this is December of 2010, so I hope you didn't miss this one!

I gotta go, Carlo

2 comments:

yram said...

great photos. i like the turkey wing marks...and the moon pics are really nice. you captured the mysterious redness of the whole thing. yeah...10 minutes was about all we could do at one time. sheesh...

Anonymous said...

Great pictures of the turkey tracks. Enjoyed all of them and the photos of the eclipse. Keep up the good work.

lucy