u/ProgramTricky6109

My wildlife photography sessions occasionally go minimalist

Great egrets, American white pelicans, rock pigeons, great blue heron, wild turkey, sandhill cranes, female ruby throated hummingbird, eastern king bird, great egret amongst Canada geese, sandhill cranes landing

Heron, pelicans, geese and maybe a swan or two…

Viddy well, my droogs, viddy well.

They seem particularly numerous and voracious this summer. They mostly attack your head first, and it’s very satisfying to hear them hit the fly strip and stop buzzing. This is from a half hour walk this morning in Meeker County. Only one of the bastards managed to get my thumb.

I can play this on the harmonica, but not on a rack, and not while keeping track of which chord I’m supposed to be strumming. A bit more complex than the 3 chord stuff I usually bash out..

I’ve been targeting them during the heatwave. Much nicer to sit on a shady river bank than cook in a boat.

Yesterday’s catch was a ~7lb fatty out of the Crow River North Fork in Meeker County, which is crawling with nice channel cats.

More than one way to skin a cat as they say. After bleeding it out, I make a shallow cut around the fish behind the head and use needle nose pliers to peel off the skin. I then slice the fillets off starting from the tail, and fillet out the ribs as usual.

I brined and smoked one of the fillets, fried the other half in cornmeal coated chunks. When smoking a skinless fillet (as opposed to a whole fish, as I do with pike and carp) I use a soaked cedar plank to keep it from drying out during the 2.5 hour smoking process. I always use a temperature probe to stop cooking at 145.

This was in backyard in Meeker county.

Tip: Check for ticks after you go picking.

The biggest one (~9lbs) nearly pulled me down the slippery muddy bank into the river. Fourth of July catfish fry on the menu.

Biggest smallmouth I’ve ever landed 20” and change

I just pick songs that fit my limited vocal range, and that that also work with a 10-hole blues harp, and that my 21-chord autoharp has the chords for.

The orioles, goldfinches, warblers and such in my yard sport more colorful plumage, but the brown thrasher has the most colorful language…

From All About Birds: “An aggressive defender of its nest, the Brown Thrasher is known to strike people and dogs hard enough to draw blood.

“Brown Thrashers are accomplished songsters that may sing more than 1,100 different song types and include imitations of other birds, including Chuck-will’s-widows, Wood Thrushes, and Northern Flickers.

“At least one early naturalist thought the Brown Thrasher’s song was underappreciated, writing “Much of the [acclaim] which has fallen to the Mockingbird is really due to the unperceived efforts of the Brown Thrasher. It is the opinion of many ornithologists that the song… is richer, fuller, and definitely more melodious than that of polyglottis” (the Northern Mockingbird).”

So far this spring I have helped a dozen turtles (mostly painters, a couple of snappers, and the soft shell pictured here) off the highway before they get flattened by a semi. But I have seen dozens more mashed in the asphalt, and it makes me sad. And I am speaking as a person who gets a turtle license so I can eat turtle soup once a year.

The painters can’t hurt you, but be careful around snappers and big soft shells, who have incredibly long necks, powerful jaws, and can be quite aggressive on land. You can scoot them off the road lifting from the back end of the shell, which is what I did with this soft shell, who scurried off the shoulder and down the embankment to the lake, where she can annoy me all summer by stealing my catfish bait off the hook.

Camera in “4k Photo Play” and slowed down to 1/8th speed. The slowed-down wing beat sounds particularly sinister.