Spring Robins

 Flocks of Robins arrived on migration last night and were actively eating last fall's crab apples off the tree in my yard this morning in the mist. There were often eight ot ten in the tree at once.

Many other Robins were flipping leaves in the garden where the sun has melted patches of snow, giving access  to little creatures hiding under the leaves waiting for a warm day.

Additional Robins were under the crab apple tree eating the little apples that fell off.

It was a busy place early this morning.

 The little crab apples are small but nutritious, causing the Robins to sometimes fend off what they saw as competitors for what they felt was their food find.

 There were many Cedar Waxwings feeding on the crab apples as well.  Most of them have been here all winter, so why they waited until the Robins arrived to try this food source is a mystery.

Both male and female Robins seemed to be in the flocks of newly arrived birds, so nesting will probably begin very soon.

Crows

 Everyday this winter in late afternoon hundreds and hundreds of crows fly over my house on their way back to their communal roost in Minneapolis. Many thousands roost there where safety in numbers allows most to survive predators like Great Horned Owls.

 The lighting is usually poor, but it is a great opportunity to try to photograph them as they pass by at full speed, talking to each other.

 They often have little bits of something in their mouth, like this one has.  Perhaps a midnight snack.

These crows spread out every morning in every direction from downtown Minneapolis to forage for French Fries and other suburban food, then return at dusk for the night.

But very soon now they will break up into pairs or family groups to set up territories in our back yards and begin building nests for this year's young.

Ice Caves at Apostle Islands Lakeshore

 My photography is usually of living things, and mostly at Springbrook Nature Center, but the rare opportunity to walk out to the ice caves at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore was too good to pass up.

The caves along the shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin are under red rock cliffs and so normally inaccessible in winter unless the lake freezes.

 Lake Superior has not been freezing in recent years, but this year froze completely over, making the caves accessible after a hike of a bit more than a mile over the ice and snow.

The ice forms from crashing waves that hit the rock, turning to many forms of ice in the extreme cold. I took these pictures on Sunday, March 2nd, with temps below zero and strong winds adding to the adventure.

 The caves have been formed over thousands of years of wave action on Lake Superior, and stretch for 2 miles along the shore, facing west, so late afternoon sun lights up the different ice forms.

It is hard to get a sense of the size of the ice and caves without people in the pictures, so some of these pictures have people for perspective.

 It is hard to understand why there are ice formations in some places and not others within the many caves.  Is it wave water leaking down from above, or just the way the waves hit the walls in each cave?

Some of the caves are quite large, and others very small, and all sizes in between.

 The floor is very slippery ice in all the caves, and often looks as though a wave just froze in place.

The rock in this cave had tree-like rings around the domed ceiling, causing these rounded bands of 2 and 3 foot long ice cycles to hang from the edges of the rings. 

 This same cave had beautiful, mounded globe-like sculptures with a floor of frozen waves.

There were different colors in the ice in different places.  This spot had very green ice, lit from a small opening in the cave to the outside

These caves are beautiful to see, in winter as well as in summer.  The only way to see them in summer is with a canoe or kayak on a calm day. 

The walk to the caves will still be open while the ice lasts, which could change any day, so plan a visit very soon to enjoy this rare chance to visit these caves and their ice formations in the winter.