Here’s a picture of Gunflint Lake during a snowstorm. That little dot on the ice is a timber wolf. Obviously, I haven’t figured out digiscoping yet. Seeing it was one of the highlights of the trip, though you’d never know from this sucky picture. I saw the wolf was just after dawn, and though Pole was up, she wasn’t out yet. By the time I got her, the wolf had gone.

After breakfast, we went dogsledding. Pole was in the front sled and saw two more Pileated Woodpeckers. I missed them both, of course. In fact, today was a bad one for Little Year, since we didn’t see a single new bird. Lots of pine siskins, pine grosbeaks, black-capped chickadees, and blue jays, though.

I took the photo with a camera that perplexes me: a 7.2-megapixel Sony Cybershot. OK, maybe I’m just a lousy photographer, but the thing is really complicated. And the screen is so tiny that it’s impossible to tell if you have a nice shot until you get home.

Taking photos is something a birder ought to know how to do, and even an artist like Roger Tory Peterson called himself “an obsessive photographer”. This blog could certainly do with more photos. Maybe it’s time to chuck the Sony and get something easy to use. And something good for digiscoping. I’ve tried to take a few pictures through the telescope, but I get jittery when putting something hard — like a camera — near the objective lens.Now, for those of you good enough to read the whole entry, here’s a special treat.

A close up of the Timber (or Gray) Wolf, Canis lupus. What a magnificent animal!