Happy Valentines Day - Steaks

Susan bought these awesome steaks (heart-shaped rib eyes) for our family to have on Valentines Day. They were pretty tasty. We used Alton Brown's method for cooking them.

Preheat oven (place cast iron skillet in oven) to 500 degrees.
Season steaks with salt and pepper and coat then lightly with canola oil
Place steak in dry preheated cast iron skillet on high heat for 30 seconds on each side
Place steaks and skillet in preheated oven for 2:30 minutes on each side (medium rare)
Let rest for 2-3 minutes before serving.






Heart-shaped Rib Eye Steaks in Various States of Preparation.

Saturday Birding - Busted Great Gray Owl Search

On Saturday, Steve and I decided to drive over to Teton Valley to look for Great Gray Owls. They often come down from the mountains to hunt voles in the valley in winter. There really haven’t been many reported this year, but we decided to give it a shot.

Kevin had a basketball game in the morning, so we all went to watch his team get slaughtered, but it’s not about winning right? Anyway, he did a good job and the game was entertaining. I then drove up to see if I could find a Lapland Longspur amongst the hundreds of Horned Larks on the bench. It took a while, but I did finally found one as well as a Snow Bunting.


Searching for Lapland Longspurs, Walker, ID 2010


I met Steve and we drove over to Teton Valley. Since the owls don’t usually come out until dusk we drove around town looking for other birds. We both needed a Black Rosy-Finch for the year, so we drove around neighborhoods with feeders and eventually located two birds mixed in with a few more Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches. We then drove around looking for other birds. We found a Merlin, several eagles and hawks and other common stuff. We also found an obliging Porcupine.



Rosy Finches (and one House Finch), Driggs, ID 2010


Merlin, Driggs, ID 2010


Porcupine, Driggs, ID 2010


As dusk approached we started driving along the wooded creeks in the valley hoping to stumble across Great Gray Owls. The problem was that the fog rolled in and visibility was horrible. We did find a few Great Horned Owls, but we never could locate a Great Gray. It was a fun night and I may try again before spring.


Fog, Tetonia, ID 2010

Landscapes Mentioned in Previous Post

In my previous post I mentioned that "In the late afternoon I took my favorite winter drive up in the farm fields SE of Rexburg. The light was spectacular. I made a few photographs of the landscape and of Horned Larks".

Here are the some of the landscapes:


Potato Cellars, Walker, ID 2010


Snow and Sky at Sunset (with crusty snow from snowplow in foreground), Walker, ID 2010


Snow and Sky at Sunset (without crusty snow from snowplow in foreground), Walker, ID 2010


Snow and Sky at Sunset (with Power Poles), Walker, ID 2010

Bald Eagles and Horned Larks

Sick of bird photographs yet?

We had a sunny day today and it was warm (for Rexburg), a pretty unusual combination around here in early February. It was really a gorgeous day. Jon and I tried to fish, we got skunked, but it was still fun. There were 6-8 Bald Eagles in the area and I managed to get pretty decent photographs of four of them.


Bald Eagles in the Shade, Burton, ID 2010


Bald Eagles in the Sun, Burton, ID 2010

In the late afternoon I took my favorite winter drive up in the farm fields SE of Rexburg. The light was spectacular. I made a few photographs of the landscape and of Horned Larks, maybe my favorite bird.


Two Horned Larks (profile view), Walker, ID 2010


Horned Lark (front view), Walker, ID 2010

White Winter Drive

I'm not a huge fan of winter, but I do like to drive the through the sparse landscape of the agricultural fields on the southeast edge of Rexburg. It's so weird to be in a place that is white (really white) from horizon to horizon. The only things that break up the monotony of the big white space are the occasional irrigation pivots, the road (which is sometimes snow-covered and also white), the occasional potato cellar (corrugated vinyl structures that are white), power lines, farm trucks (I'd say 75% of those are white), a few scattered farm homes, and flocks of Horned Larks.

I've decided photographing that sparse winter landscape is difficult though. I can't make my photographs bright enough without technical issues ruining the images (I'll save you the technical photo geek specifics). There are too many subtle differences in the light values for digital capture or film to render. Maybe I should paint them, although I don't know how to paint. For now, I'll just enjoy the experience of being in the place and I'll still try to make photographs that work.


Snowy Field and Power Poles, Walker, ID 2010


Potato Cellar, Walker, ID 2010


Horned Lark, Walker, ID 2010

Winter Birding III

Cliff, Steve, and I decided to take a quick dash to the Boise area over the weekend in hopes of seeing a reported Iceland Gull from the Boise Dump. We also planned to get in a little birding at Hagerman WMA and along the Snake River near Grandview. We had a good time and the weather was great (cloudy and around 40 degrees most of the time we were birding). It was just nice to be somewhere without snow for a couple of days. We did find the Iceland Gull as well as a few other goodies including a confusing 1st winter gull that may have been another Iceland Gull, a Snowy Egret (previously undocumented in Idaho for winter), a big flock of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, an obliging Canyon Wren, and a Cackling Goose among other things.

Here are some photographs of birds..


Cooper's Hawk, Hagerman WMA, Hagerman, ID 2010


Cackling Goose, Hagerman WMA, Hagerman, ID 2010


Snowy Egret, Hagerman WMA, Hagerman, ID 2010


Canyon Wren with Bee, Hagerman WMA, Hagerman, ID 2010


Iceland Gull with Spread Wings, Ada County Landfill, Boise, ID 2010


Iceland Gull in Flight, Ada County Landfill, Boise, ID


Intriguing 1st Winter Gull, Ada County Landfill, Boise, ID 2010


Intriguing 1st Winter Gull, Ada County Landfill, Boise, ID 2010

Basketball

Kevin is playing city basketball again this year. When he played two years ago he enjoyed himself, but wasn't terribly excited about it, and didn't seem that into the games. He didn't make a shot the entire season (we were fine with it, and he seemed fine with it as well). This year he is much more aggressive, he seems much more into the games, and is more aware of what is going on. The games are a lot more fun to watch also. Oh yeah, and he has scored in both games they've played. Here are a couple photos.

Winter Birding II

Here are some more winter bird photographs. Most of these were taken on Saturday, the Swans were taken earlier in the week. No contest this time, enjoy the photographs.


Rough-legged Hawk, Camas NWR, ID 2010



Trumpeter Swans, Menan, ID 2010


Common Redpoll (front view), Camas NWR, ID 2010


Common Redpoll (side view), Camas NWR, ID 2010


Song Sparrow, Camas NWR, ID 2010


American Tree Sparrow, Camas NWR, ID 2010


Bald Eagle, Hamer, ID 2010

Free Kittens Here

Home with Christmas Decorations and Free Kittens Sign, St. Anthony, ID 2010


Free Kittens Here, St. Anthony, ID 2010

Hattie

A former student of mine who now teaches a few classes for us has been doing some really neat volunteer work for Mountain View Hospital in Idaho Falls. Our school newspaper wrote a nice article about her work. The article can be found here.

Landscape Interrupted Exhibition

My colleague Brian Atkinson and I currently have work in an exhibition titled Landscape Interrupted at the Cococino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff Arizona. Brian sent me an article about the exhibition, which is found here. The article doesn't mention me, but it does mention Brian and one of his photographs. If anybody is in flagstaff and sees the exhibition, please let me know how it looks. If you can take a few snapshots of the exhibit, even better. These are the two photographs I have in the show....


Potato Harvest Interrupted by Snow, Walker, ID 2008


Cove Dam Site Before and Bfter Dam Removal, Grace, ID 2004 & 2007

Two Unrelated Photographs

Taxidermy Shop (For Lease), Rexburg, ID 2010


Hawthorne Tree with Magpie Nest at Sunset, St. Anthony, ID 2010

Winter Birding

We got a new camera and lens for the photo lab and I wanted to see how they did for bird photography. Surprisingly, I have done very little bird photography, but it was a lot of fun. So, let's see if you can identify all 8 species. Whoever identifies all 8 correctly first wins a dollar or a little print, or whatever else you think I'm good for. All of the photographs were taken last week in St. Anthony, Mud Lake, or Howe, ID. Good luck


1


2


3


4


5


6


7


8

Rexburgia

A couple of my photographs were used in an article on Rexburgia (a cool little blog/website all about Rexburg). The article is here


Teton-Vu Drive-In, Rexburg, ID 2006

Crested Caracara

It's Christmas Bird Count time. I was scheduled to go on the Howe CBC on Wednesday, but my foot has been giving me a lot of trouble, so I stayed home. Later that night I got a few phone calls on my cell phone saying I made a big mistake by missing the count, but there was no specific bird or reason mentioned. So, I called Steve last night and he said they had found a Crested Caracara on the count. Crested Caracara is a subtropical falcon that nests no closer than extreme southern Arizona. I talked Jon into heading out there with me yesterday. He and I met Steve at Sage junction and headed out towards Howe. Some birders from Sun Valley eventually refound the bird. We eventually all got good looks at it. It was a pretty fun bird chase. Tomorrow is the Rexburg CBC. I hope we find something good, but I don't see how it could top a Caracara.

Here are some photographs. The bird photographs were taken by Jon. I took the photographs of the birders.

Enjoy.








Steve looking at Crested Caracara in a bird guide


Several local birders enjoying the Caracara

Happy New Year - I'm blogging again

I had a nice break from blogging, but did miss it. On my way up to my office, I made a detour and made this photograph in the snow.


Trees in Snowstorm, Rexburg, ID 2010

My 300th post... That's probably enough for a while.

This is my 300th posts, which is a good run I think. I may be done doing this for a while. Enjoy this image, a panorama from four horizontal images, that I took earlier in the week.

Henry's Fork of the Snake River, St. Anthony, ID 2009

Grand Teton National Park

My parents came up this weekend. We decided it might be fun to drive over to Jackson and visit Grand Teton National Park. Susan had already scheduled a hike with some friends to Table Rock, so she was out. The rest of us drove over the pass and into Jackson Hole on Saturday morning. The weather was really nice. Jackson was really busy. There was a race of some sort and a festival in the town square. It was too crowded for us, so we decided to go to the grocery store and grab some stuff to eat up in the park.

We ate fried chicken at String Lake. The boys and I went looking for frogs while the Grandparents hung out near the lake. It didn't take us too long to find a few. Kevin had several chances to catch one, but eventually Ethan succeeded. They were pretty proud and were excited to run back and show Grandma and Grandpa. They did a pretty good job pretending to be enthusiastic about their catch. We then drove around String lake and really had a good time enjoying the scenery. I've been back in Idaho for 9 years now and hadn't been back to the park yet, so it was nice to get up there. I should really take advantage of being so close more often. Anyway, here are some fun photographs from the few hours we spent in the park.


The View across Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, 2009



Frog at String Lake, Grand Teton National Park, 2009


Kevin with Frog at String Lake, Grand Teton National Park, 2009


Kevin and Ethan Releasing the Frog in String Lake, Grand Teton National Park, 2009


Jacob showing me his lip (he had a cavity filled the other day and chewed on it pretty bad while it was numb - disgusting eh?)


Jacob Pretending to be a Deer

The Boys at Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, 2009


The Boys and their Grandparents at Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, 2009

Chester Area

Wednesday and Saturday nights I went out to Chester to take advantage of the beautiful light and to check on the progress of the Chester Dam Construction. Wednesday night I had the boys, which was nice, but a little distracting. Ethan caught a whole handful of grasshoppers. I didn't get a photograph unfortunately, but it was as disgusting as it sounds. The shot I really wanted, which is the first shot below, would be better in early morning light. I went out Saturday again because it was overcast and I didn't think direction of the light would be as big of a deal. It didn't really work because of a several rain storms and then bright sky looking right into the scene. I made a few other photographs though and it was a pleasant night. Here are three photographs from the two expeditions.


Chester Dam Under Construction, Chester, ID 2009


Sealy's Access, Chester, ID 2009






















Trees with Clearing Storm, Chester, ID 2009