Who’s there?

Another fall ramble on the Ice Age Trail, this time the Ringle segment, but because Poplar Road was closed, I started at a different trailhead and oh, it was amazing. The fall colors and the majesty of the forest was at maximum wattage and there were large landscapes and small slices that attracted my attention. Up on this part of the trail there are far fewer boardwalks than further down toward Poplar road, but there were some.

Crunching through leaves is one of the best things about fall and just look at all that crunchy goodness up there. Unfortunately the light wasn’t right to light up the bench at the back of the shot, but it’s there. Believe it or not, but this next shot is right smack in the trail itself. All those verticals combined with the amazing yellow made me stop. I think the fallen tree really adds some interest, too. Diagonals and intersecting angles are a terrific way to center and build an effective composition.

Individual leaves are great too, and this one caught my attention pretty quickly so I had to try. The contrasting colors and textures work so well. Plus I used a little Photoshop magic to make some distractions disappear. Amazing what can be done these days.

This shot is looking out from the trail into the trees that the logging operations didn’t take. I think the break is an access road or similar and the total absence of conifers makes the harvests a dead give away.

As you can see, there is a lot of greenery in the undergrowth, most of it ferns. Up above the green is Maidenhair fern, but others were still hanging on as well and this pair stood out in their delicate grace –

But here is the highlight of the whole day for me –

Squee! Can you stand it??

Ok, yes, I buried the lede, but I didn’t take any of these photos until I was almost back to my car. I did see the bird however and so knew that when I came back to where I parked, I might get another opportunity. It happened like this, I came onto the trail from the forest road and spooked this beautiful Barred up into a tree. It stayed there for a few seconds and then took off again and flew out of sight before I could get the long lens on.

But since if you only section hike the IAT, everything is an out-and back so I knew I’d be in its neighborhood again. When I got to the area, I approached quietly and cautiously while scanning the trees ahead. Bingo! There was the silhouette and so I got the 100-400mm on the camera and took a few photos from farther away. Too many branches in the way made things difficult so I moved closer, ever worried that it would spook again and take off. To my amazement, it didn’t and that full body shot is at about 185mm and barely cropped. This one is about 195mm down the lens –

Isn’t it wonderful? I had to walk right under it to pass by and all it did was turn its head to keep me in sight. Other than a lot of sleepy blinking, that was all it did. So patient and forbearing. What a privilege to spend time with this forest beauty. Oh and this is funny – there was a red squirrel very close by who started yelling at me as soon as I approached. It continued scolding the whole time I shot and I kept thinking that I wasn’t the thing it had to be worried about. Silly rodent.

So 2024 is turning out to be a two Barred-owl-year! Between those two encounters plus the Kingfisher, the young Bald Eagle, and the Green Heron, my bird photography was pretty darn great this year. So many incredible moments with wildlife that I’m sure that the shots will end up in my Best of 2024 collection, but which ones?? It’s going to be a tough decision.