Tracking Wildlife

We had family home for the holidays. One of which was our oldest granddaughter who lives in Georgia. She loves snow, something she doesn’t get very often in Georgia. She also loves being outdoors at any time of year. After a fresh snowfall she wanted to go outside and follow animal tracks.

TrackingWildlife

Ruffed Grouse

Living in the northern boreal forest we have a lot of wildlife around our house. We tracked deer, fox, pine marten, fisher and two ruffed grouse that we stumbled across as they were resting under the snow.

We followed them for about fifty feet before they flew up into this balsam. I set up the camera and Addie took this photo.

RuffedGrouse

Pine Marten Tracks

After following pine marten tracks we discovered a brush pile that our resident pine marten is using for its home. Tracks were everywhere and there were several entrances where it could get under the brush.

PineMartenTracks

Pine Marten 001

Then we saw the pine marten.

PineMarten001

Pine Marten 002

It ran under our bird feeder looking for suet or trying to catch a red squirrel, which is the pine marten’s main diet.

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Pine Marten 003

Addie thought it was pretty neat when it stood on its hind feet to get a better view.

PineMarten004

Pine Marten 004

You can see how long their claws are.

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Icicle Railings

We also spent time looking at the icicles along the East Bay walkway in Grand Marais.

IcycleRailings

Icicle Sunrise

I returned the next morning to photograph them with the sunrise. I got a nice photo but was surprised that someone had broken all but a few of the icicles. Over 25 feet of beautiful icicles were all smashed. Now a lot of people will miss seeing the beautiful works of ice art created by the recent storm.

IcycleSunrise

"In Grand Marais"

Jerry Vandiver, a singer songwriter from Nashville, TN put together a YouTube video using my photos. Titled “In Grand Marais” it is a musical love story about falling in love in and with the village of Grand Marais, Minnesota. Please click on the below link to watch this video.

https://youtu.be/BG_0n_OqeQ0

HjordisGrandMaraisHarbor