What Would You Do for New Year's?

(December 31st) After Christmas I returned to Michigan for a week of work, but New Year's came quickly. What would most sane people do for the break? Maybe head to Florida or California. Instead, after I got off from work I headed for a 6 hour drive north to the coldest place I could get to, the Upper Peninsula in the hopes of seeing some winter animals that just don't make it down further south. By the time I crossed the Mackinac Bridge, the land was covered in at least a foot of snow. The morning I woke up early and headed out to see what I could find. Sure enough, the snow was coming down steadily. Ironically I spent most of the morning photographing a species that I could have stayed in bed for. But I really like the look of the snow coming down in this shot of a Black-capped Chickadee.

Most of my trips I do extensive research for to find out the best spots. The Upper Peninsula was no different, but there just wasn't much information to be found. Also, unlike other places where I could find information from photographers, this time I only had the advice of birders. So that meant that the first two days I would spend a lot of time scouting out locations and determining just what places are good for photography. The landscape was gorgeous as I drove around and I stopped for this high-key, minimalist shot of the snow-covered views.

While driving around, I stopped after a flock of Wild Turkeys crossed the road in front of me. I was busy photographing the turkeys when I heard a sound at my feet. Turned out I was practically on top of a Ruffed Grouse. This bird didn't seem to mind me at all and was busy foraging on the buds close enough to the ground to reach. I was quite lucky for this find, these birds are difficult to find normally.

The Ruffed Grouse was content to spend all of its time deep inside the brush at the base of thick tree and brush growth. This meant it was very difficult to get line of sight to it. Also I was lying down in the snow with my tripod, impaling myself on the branches hidden under the snow. Crawling with all the branches and trees was pretty hard. Flash was out of the picture since there were too many branches in the way that it would flare off of, and light was nearly gone. The grouse never came into the open, but I like the mood of the shots with it back in the cover.