06/07/09

Storm Chasing. North Western Missouri. A long day of travel and positioning put my partner Tom Sadowski, and I in place for a tremendous storm which eventually produced both a tornado, and grapefruit sized hail. Both of which, I'm glad to say, we managed to avoid. We started our chase just North of Kansas City, MO in Cameron, and proceeded West into Kansas at about 4:00 p.m. We followed two developing cells which were slowly building across Northeastern KS from Falls City and Auborn Northeast towards Amity, Weatherby, and eventually back to Cameron. The chase took hours and many miles, but we basically ended up right where we started. Here's some of what we saw.

05/31/09

Storm Chasing. South Dakota... Left Minneapolis @ 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning. My friend Seth Iverson flying right seat navigator on this journey. We rolled west on I-90 watching the sky for the developing thunderheads, stopping here and there for pictures. At around 5:00 p.m. we were in position just east of Sioux Falls SD. We were waiting for a developing line of thunderstorms to build into our location. At 6:30 it was finally clear where we needed to be. We rolled south on I-29 to SD county rd 18 and then blew west to intercept a hot supercell developing near Mitchell SD tracking southeast. We rolled hard to intercept. Just south of Alexandria we clipped the leading edge into perfect light. Jackpot!

05/09/09

A red-headed woodpecker,.. from my friend Mark's backyard. And one last storm chasing image from the end of April chase trip.

04/28/09

Today, Tom's final day for storm chasing paid off big, but still no funnel cloud. We ran across a group of Dutch meteorologists visiting from the Netherlands, and followed them from Pecos, Texas to Carlsbad, New Mexico. It proved to be a good decision to chase the chasers as we made an epic run down a very poor gravel road south into Eddy County at questionable speeds, and ran right up to the mothership. It was an amazing sight and a perfect ending to our chase adventure. Tom and I return tomorrow to DFW where Tom catches a plane home Thursday a.m. and I'm left to continue the adventure alone... mostly shooting birds, but keeping a sharp eye out for developing weather.
Thanks to everyone who has written over the last few days with your support and encouragement. For more images and Tom's perspective on our little adventure check out his blog.
http://www.sadowskiphoto.com/blog/

04/27/09

Birding yesterday produced some nice images. We're headed to OKC and northeast Texas this morning. Stay tuned for the update...

04/26/09

11:00 p.m. Settling in for another night of severe weather. Today Tom and I started out shooting birds south of Enid as we waited for the weather to reach us. It was well worth the wait. Beautiful wall cloud, and serious hail which we managed to move ahead of, and still get great shots of the approaching storm.

04/26/09

11:00 p.m. Settling in for another night of severe weather. Today Tom and I started out shooting birds south of Enid as we waited for the weather to reach us. It was well worth the wait. Beautiful wall cloud, and serious hail which we managed to move ahead of, and still get great shots of the approaching storm.

04/26/09

Just up at 7:00 a.m. after a restless night with tornados repeatedly firing up on the same line through Enid, OK where Tom and I stayed at the Trail Motel. Heavy rain and hail over night, and this morning is promising to be hot already with wall-clouds and hook-echoes showing just north of here in Kansas. Tom and I are currently watching the dry-line extending northeast from the panhandle of Texas up east of Wichita Kansas. Stay tuned for MORE!

02/14/09

After an exhaustive search for a Northern Saw-Whet with my new birding friend Scott, and coming up empty handed today I decided to get out and take some photos since the sun was out. Although the sun was out it was still quite cold, but I did find a nice cooperative flock of Cedar Waxwings. Tomorrow I'm back to the Saw-Whet search. I'm determined to get some pictures before the cold weather retreats.

02/10/09

BORSCHT... This delicious soup originates in the Eastern European countries, and was typically cooked by peasant families during the long cold winters. While there are slight to significant differences between the regional recipes the ubiquitous constant is the BEET. I use Red, Golden, and Chioga beets in my recipe. A dollop of sour cream, fresh chopped Dill weed, and Bon Apetit!!

01/31/09

SAX - ZIM BOG this morning 6:00 a.m. cruising with my friend Tom. On the look-out for owls. Hoping to find a Great Grey, or a Snowy... maybe if we're lucky a Northern Hawk Owl. As it turns out, apparently we're lucky. It's a new bird for me. So, besides some great shots I also got to log a new bird.

For more on today's trip check out Tom's blog at his Site.

This section of my sight is where I get my YA-YAs out.