January 16th, 2010 St. Cloud Ice Bowl

I briefly attended the 18th annual 2010 Ice Bowl Frisbee Golf Tournament.   Tons of people showed up for the event, we helped out as spotters while I took a few snapshots of the action.

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January 16th, 2010 Monticello Swans

I took a brief stop at Swan Park in Monticello on our way to St. Cloud where a local resident feeds our local population of Swans from 1/4 to 1/2 ton of corn per day, an enormous expense which she pays for herself and relies on donations.  I spent quite a bit of time speaking to many other friendly photographers where we exchanged some other tips and locations.

(for more detailed information see my March 15th, 2008 post)

The Swans were repopulated in the region after being run to extinction but, they lost their ability to migrate South so a number of feeding stations have been setup along the Mississippi in open water areas typically downstream from power plants.  A number of attempts have been made to get them to migrate which included cutting off the feeding stations but, none have been successful as of yet.

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December 18th, 2009 St. Paul from the Smith Avenue High Bridge

I was meeting a group advising I would be late about 40 minutes. I setup for 5-10 minutes took a few quick shots then headed to Applebies for a late dinner.

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July 31st, 2009 Disc Golf

I first played disc golf back around 1982. I have since played it far less than I play regular golf which is pretty infrequent. A few days ago I found myself out at Bryant Lake Regional Park a very nice 18 ‘hole’ course. We only had a chance to play 12?? or so before the sunset and it became readily apparent we would begin to lose disc’s. The next day I hit the 18 hole course at the Hyland Park Ski Area in Bloomington (conveniently located just a mile from work with a nice cafeteria that is open year round). This evening my throwing arm is pretty sore, the throw is far from perfect. After dinner I found myself browsing used discs at play it again sports in Burnsville. I picked up a Innova Tee-Bird and a Discraft Buzz for $8 each. Moir Park is conveniently located about a mile away however my 106th Street bridge is currently closed I have to take the long way around (as well as to get to my favorite parking lot on the 106th street bridge to access Central Park). So I am sitting here watching the line of non severe weather approach the cities from the West pondering setting up a few targets in my yard and placement.

I could put up 4 or so with two fairly long shots, well it still needs some work. I play about as well as I do golf… I enjoy it but, you probably wouldn’t want to play with me, drive by my house, park in my driveway, or be my neighbor.

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January 10th, 2009 The Elusive Snow Owl

On our way back from Ft. Snelling State Park we stopped at the airport on cargo road.  Now as we were passing Ft. Snelling National Cemetery Alison described an almost perfect Snow Owl with it’s back facing the highway but, it was well inside the Cemetery, and with the turnaround from 494 it would have been a 15 minute journey but, she had seen an Owl.  We took the 24th avenue exit, and drove around the side of the airport, underneath a runway to the fed-ex building where a snow owl has been spotted daily since early December.   We watched the airplanes for a few minutes but, short of spotting the owl we were not really expecting to see anything so we headed to Black Dog Road.  I have not seen a large number of owls this year as I usually do but, they have Eagles.  This was a quick trip, we did not go as far as the East outlet from Black Dog Lake.  The kids had gotten their fresh air for the day and were not afraid to express it.  Once I arrived home I noticed I had a text from Bill D that their were not any Snow Owls at the airport with a timestamp dated before we even stopped (opps).  After I got home I saw that someone had reported one in Dodge County, I don’t think that is going to happen.

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