MBCI Hawks win provincial semi-final vs Selkirk@

Trailing 2 sets to 1, and 7 points down, the MBCI varsity boys volleyball team scraped their way out of a desperate situation and went on to win the 4th set and take the match in 5; 15-13. See more shots on my webpage

The MBCI (Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute) varsity boys team defeated the 1st ranked Selkirk team on Friday, Nov 12th 3 to 1 sets. It was a great final (well, for us) with lots of noisy and exuberant fans showing up for both sides! To see more shots, visit my website

Gimli fishermen

During the Thanksgiving weekend I was fortunate enough to hook up with a few seasoned fishermen who call Gimli their home port. I went out two mornings to witness (and help, yuck fish are slimy, especially when trying to handle a camera...) the tending of their single net, just outside the harbour. Harvey Benson, the owner of the boat, used to be a high school principal in Gimli over 25 years ago. He's been fishing with his friend, who was born in Newfoundland but found love in Gimli when he was stationed here when he was much younger, for over 25 years. Great bunch of guys! Harvey even taught me how to fillet a pickeral. I changed the photographs into black and white to give them a more timeless look. To see more shots of fishermen, go to Fishermen. Loons and landscapes can be found on my website as well.

Packing up the cabin

Well, the cabin season is officially over. Spent the last weekend doing all the mundane but necessary things to kiss the cabin good-bye til next May. My father lives at the cabin for 6 months of the year but our portion of the cabin still needs to be winterized and closed.

My father is restoring a 56 Thunderbird and had tried to get a welder out for numerous months prior to convincing my our friend Warren to help us out. So while we dragged boats out of the water, disconnected docks, winterized motors etc. Warren spent all his time trying to weld a new bottom onto the old top of the T-bird.

One of my favorite places to go is a bog about 2km from our cabin. It was created by a beaver dam and is a wrotting kind of place. It also is a fascinating place to catch interesting light, fog, and lots of dead stuff. I always go out there to capture something different.

Hawaii or bust

Okay, had to go back to work today. Something about paying for all the bills or something like that. Well, one of the crazy things we did this summer was take the family to Hawaii... yup in summer. It's not as crazy as you think... Weather there is the same all year, and we scored some crazy sale prices on tickets, so we went!

Some highlights were learning how to surf (all of us no less), walking on a few weeks old lava, swimming with a pod of about 40 dolphins, and spitting out the enormous aftertaste of swallowing too much salt water while snorkelling. You can check out some shots by checking out my webpage.

Gallery show in Kenora

Well, I survived my first gallery show in Kenora! Three days of, well, standing around hawking my wares I suppose. I met a bunch of great people and finally got to see a lot of my work printed and up in one place. Like a lot of digital shooters, I had not printed hardly anything in years so I was pleasantly surprised how well the prints turned out.

I now have stock, so have to consider where else to try and sell it; probably in Kenora again next year but who knows. Maybe I'll see you at a local Christmas craft show (beside the pickle jars painted as Santa Claus.... sheesh) (no offense to pickle jars painted as Saint Nick btw)

Grand Canyon rim to rim hike

Some of you know that Sheri and I were away in mid July doing a Grand Canyon north rim to south rim hike. Twenty-four miles; elevation change of 6000ft, starting at 8000ft! We've been to the Grand Canyon a few times previous, and had chatted about doing this hike, but hadn't been "that" serious about it! Well, me and my big mouth, suggested we do it this year when the kids were in camp. After an awkward pause, Sheri started to warm up to the idea.

So on July 12th we flew to Phoenix AZ, zipped our way to Canyon de Chelly for a few days and then headed for the Grand Canyon. We needed to leave our car on the south side, take a 5 hr shuttle to the north side and stay overnight. At 5am the next morning, we were on our way. Awesome experience and without hiking poles, a knee crusher. We made it to Phantom ranch by the Colorado river around 2pm and had the best cup of lemonade ever! The temperature was a cool 108 f.

After a a hearty stew supper, an informative interpretive program about the California Condor (seriously, really interesting!) and a black light hunt for scorpions, we dropped into bed. Seemingly minutes later (4am to be exact) we were on our way again, trying to avoid the 110 degree heat in the middle of the day. After meeting waaaay more hikers than the other day, and mule trains taking supplies and people up and down the south rim, we finally made it back out on the south rim by around 1pm.

What a great experience! Pretty tiring, but if you plan ahead with the proper gear, water, hiking poles, etc. it is totally manageable. To see a variety of shots from our trip visit my webpage at www.merlinbraunphotography.com

Found one young loon

Baby loons are rare around Lake of the Woods. While chatting with the fellow who made the loon nesting platform, he informed me that while on the M.S. Kenora, he had spotted many loon pairs on the cruise, but not one baby. However, he had spotted one pair with a youngin' by Mud Portage (a few kilometers from our cottage) That evening I boated over to the area and found the loon family. The baby was no longer a baby, but was large enough to swim under water for a remarkable amount of time by itself. What I learned that evening is that my encounter with the loons last summer was indeed a rare event. This new family was not at all interested in allowing me to get anywhere near to them. They cried warnings and performed the " scoot across the water to lure me away from their young" trick. It was pretty disappointing but I managed to get a couple of shots in time I was floating around in the bay.

As a side, I'm going to have a photo exhibition based on my loon photos (and other landscape shots) at the Sunset Gallery in Kenora from August 12-14th. If you're in the area come and pop by!

Of lost nests and crashed boats

Update: not good. Sheesh. What does it take to get baby loons around here? The "man-made" platform 2nd laying was looking good til middle of last week. Now, the nest, with one egg, has been abandoned. On a positive note, I met with the crafter of the loon platform and he's planning on making a few more for our area next year.

I was also given a couple of pictures of the motorboat that had crashed just meters beyond the loon platform about a month ago. The loon (as you can see in the shot) was still on the nest with the boat crashed on the beach, just behind her. When the salvage team arrived a few days later, the ruckus caused by their work caused the mother loon to abandon the nest. So, if you're keeping track, the loon platform has had two sittings; both failures. The natural nest by our cottage has also had two failed sittings. There is an itty bitty chance they can lay a 3rd time but its getting pretty late for that.

July 2nd; I think I'm going loony again!

Today Sheri and Matt returned from a Sea-doo run on the lake and had great news! The nesting "man-made" platform that was abandoned because of a nasty boat crash on the island where it was situated, is now hosting another loon. Later today, we travelled to the site and sure enough, one very content loon on the floating platform, nesting! Now we didn't see any eggs as the loon didn't leave the nest while were watching, but the mate was nearby, in the water eating away. Looking very promising. Unfortunately, we have no idea when the 2nd laying would have occurred, so who knows if we'll be around for the birth(s). Anyway, it looks like we might be back in the loon business again!

June 18: Bad news again...

Gee, that lousy weather, rising lake, storms etc. are dooming our loon nesting prospects. The neighbor reports the loons, after a particularly rough and stormy night, are no longer on the nest. She's going to to check the nest out sometime soon (when it stops raining) to see if the egg is still there, but this doesn't look promising. I've never heard of a 3rd laying, so I'm betting this is the end of the run for this year. Sadly, since they didn't have success at this location, they likely won't return to the same spot to try again nest year. We're not out to the lake for another 10 days, so we'll see.

June 13: Great news! (a little tempered)

The great news is that there is a new nest in our bay with a loon sitting on one egg! Apparently the bird(s) have been nesting since last Wed or so and we launched our trusty paddleboat and slowly drifted into the nests' general area. After much patience, the loon got up to check what the heck was underneath her (or him, they take turns) and lo and behold, one egg!

The problem is that with all the rain in the area, is that the potential for the lake to rise is significant. The nest, as with all loon nests, is very close to the water and it would take perhaps another 3 or 4 inches and this nest would be swamped as well. The 27 (ish) days to incubate is a very long time considering the fluctuating water levels Lake of the Woods can experience.... we can only hope.

On a sad note, we checked out the "man-made" nesting platform and the last remaining egg is gone and the nest is almost disintegrated beyond recognition (not from an alien ray beam either) The theory that the crashed boat in their vicinity scared them off is my best theory to date.

To see more of my photos of loons and other stuff, check out http://www.loonphotography.com

Lastly, I might be putting on a gallery show in Kenora at the Sunset Gallery. I would have a weekend where I could show and sell my photos of my loons and landscapes. Anyone interested in a drive out to Kenora??

June 11: maybe, maybe not...

Neighbour has been keeping an eye on the nesting site. Apparently the loons have been on and off the grass throughout the last few days. She is going to get closer and see if she can spot any eggs. If there is an egg(s) then the hatching would come the week of July 4th. (if all goes well; no high water, no sneaky eagle snacking etc.)

June 6: loss and hope

Arriving Saturday, we began to search for loon pairs and boated out to check out the floating nest that we had found two weeks past. Oddly, there was no loon on the floating nest and only one egg. We checked a few more times throughout the day but no loon came to sit. I guess either one egg hatched and one didn't or something else happened to scare away the loons and one egg has been eaten. Regardless, there was nothing to see there. (edit. Sunday. We heard there had been a high speed boat crash involving alcohol and fog, onto the tiny island and right beside the loon nest the week before. Chances are the crash and subsequent rescue and cleanup probably scared the loons away. How sad that our poor decisions always affect someone or something else)

On Sunday we started noticing that "our" pair of loons seemed to be hanging around the 1st nesting area in our bay. As the day progressed, the two even took to climbing on the land for short periods of time. The birds also spent a great deal of time during the day being together (nudge nudge wink wink)

(mature material alert, ha ha ) At one point one of the birds climbed onto the shore (close to the 1st nest) and the other climbed up behind, then on top of the first bird and then over and onto the grass in front of the first bird! Well, this did look suspiciously romantic and I figured we should run back to the cabin and grab some tea candles and some Barry Manillo music...

Well, I'm no expert, but this looks mighty suspicious and after doing a big more research it definitely looks like they're trying to do a second laying. I'll have the neighbor keep a close lookout and keep my blog as current as possible. We are planning on going out next weekend. If they nest again and the gestation period is around 26-31 days, then I'll be on summer vacation and will hopefully be at the lake to photograph some more baby loons... yeee haaa!

To see more of my photos of loons and other stuff, check out http://www.loonphotography.com

May 28th: loons have abandoned nest and the bay

Our neighbor just reported that the loons are no longer in the bay and the nest has been abandoned. She also reports the eggs are gone (probably eaten) This is very sad. We continue to hope for a 2nd nesting. Will be back at the lake next weekend and will check on the floating nest pair. Hopefully with all the storms we're getting, that nest will survive. Check out my webpage for for loon photos. www.loonphotography.com

May 25th: Nest is swamped...

Neighbour at the lake called with bad news. The water was rising and the nest looked like it was getting swamped. The loons hadn't been on the nest in quite some time so she went to have a closer look at the nest and sure enough, the nest and eggs were wet. The loons did not return to nest the rest of the day, so it looks like this 1st laying is a failure. We can only hope that they will lay again this spring. With all the rain expected this weekend the lake will probably rise quite a bit, so hopefully they will hold off building another nest til after the lake level stabilizes.

Hopefully the floating loon nest will still be fine; will check on it next weekend. Check out my webpage for for loon photos. www.loonphotography.com

May 22nd: Loons still on nest

Well, we're back at the lake and the loons are still tending the nest. We're quite concerned, however, that the water is starting to rise and loons build their nests very very close to the shore. The reason behind the proximity to water is that loons have a very difficult time manoeuvring on land. Their legs are positioned so very far back in their body that they find it hard to walk. The position of the legs, however, allows them to swim like fish! They can go down to 200 ft if required to get food. The lake is very low this year; probably 4 ft below "normal". The egg(s) need to be kept dry at least two more weeks to hatch. (since I saw the egg 2 weeks ago, another 2 weeks would be the maximum time required to gestate). This weekend, it seems the loon(s) are spending much longer periods of time on the nest in comparison to two weeks previous.

We also encountered a manufactured loon nest in Clear Water Bay where another set of loons have set up shop. There is a nest and two eggs in it. The "man-made" nest is a floating nest which will rise with the lake. The chance of survival of this floating nest is much higher than the permanent one near our cottage. We were able to find this manufactured loon nesting platform because the fellow who made it had phoned me about my loon pictures in the Lake of the Woods Owners Association photo essay I wrote/photographed in the May issue. Check out my webpage for for loon photos. www.loonphotography.com

May 9th: egg in the nest

As many of you know, last year I photographed a loon family with their baby chicks in our bay in Lake of the Woods. It was a wonderful experience and I was blessed to have been able to capture the birds relatively close up. The two adult loons are now nesting again in our bay, and there is one egg in the nest. It is interesting to observe their taking turns on the nest, and alarmingly, leave the nest for a considerable amount of time before returning to sit! I've read that they can leave for up to an hour. I was able to photograph the egg and the adults sitting this weekend.

The gestation for loons is 27 days, so hopefully in 4 weeks or less, there will be a baby loon here. The birds also can lay eggs on different days, and the average is two. We're hoping to see more eggs when we return two weeks from now. Check out my webpage for for loon photos. www.loonphotography.com