Tag Archives: MN North: Cloverland

Northland Glassland Birds

Year 9,

One does not think of “grassland birds” and the Northland at the same time. Boreal Forest is the habitat which quickly comes to mind in our area, but if you know where to look, there are some great grassland habitats both in Northeastern Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin.

Driving Wisconsin 13 towards BayField but not further than the Cloverland Town Hall and the Johnson Mitigation Wetlands provides excellent grassland habitat (once one leaves US53 a few miles behind). I found this Upland Sandpiper (a rare find for our area) on Poplar River Road. Believe it or not my viewing opportunities for this bird are already getting shorter. Within a few weeks it will be one of our first southward migrants … on its way to South America.

The other area I like is the farmland in and around Meadowlands, and just south of Sax-Zim Bog. A drive through the grasslands may be combined with some great Boreal birding only a few miles apart. This Dickcissel, which is always a later arrival (and some summers not at all) , was advertising for a mate on Andrews Junction Road.

And of course … old reliable, the Bobolink!

Finally a grassland drive is quite pretty right now. The wildflowers are beginning to be spectacular. It is Lupine time near Lake Superior!

Birding Humor & the Orange Flambe Marshbird

Year 9

This morning I heard and then spied the rare “Orange Flambe Marshbird”! What? You’ve never heard of this bird? You’ve obviously never read The New Yorker Magazine’s: Wine for Dummies Guide to Birding (for Dummies)!

“First, describe what you see! Sure, that bird has a technical name, and probably a genus, but how much does that tell you? Instead, how does the bird make you feel? What impression is it making on you? Is it funky? Meaty? Flirty? Assertive? Aggressive? There is no wrong answer.” (quoted from the New Yorker Magazine)

When you sip a glass of cold Chardonnay, do you describe that elixir as cold effervescence that enhances any successful birding expedition  … with albeit a slight peachy aroma and taste? Thus, knowing the name of the bird that I saw this morning is totally unimportant. The key is the bird gave me a warm, happy sense of solitude!

An Orange Flambe Marshbird (seen this morning near Cloverland, Wisconsin)

Now I realize many of you live in much more urban areas than me. Thus, it is important that this blog present additional urban birding opportunities, such as going birding at Fleet Farms (homes good store like Home Depot and Menards). Everyone, including eMail subscribers, make CERTAIN you watch the video! The creator has disabled the embedding capability; thus everyone must click to view on YouTube … well worth it.

Please realize I have always realized it is important to not take birding to seriously. Here are a couple of posts I made on this blog back in 2016 while Molly and I were taking a self-supported bicycle tour around Scotland. I did not know most of the bird’s name of the feathered friends which I was seeing!

I also play the accordion, and once again never take myself or musical performances too seriously, but that is a story for another day! Seriously folks, I hope everyone watched Birding at Fleet Farms, and the New Yorker’s  Wine for Dummies Guide to Birding (for Dummies)! Cheers!

Northeast Minnesota Spring Birding Migration

Year 8,

Although it was 14F at sunrise this morning, there are starting to be signs of spring migration. With that thought in mind, both for myself, and everyone else I compiled a spreadsheet of bird sightings / locations using seven years of my data from the months of April and May. You may download your PDF copies (no cost) immediately below the sample rows. The migration PDF’s have active web links to the appropriate blog post and Google Maps location. Each document has 160 sightings.

Sample Content (first ten rows sorted by date)

Date Bird Species Location
2-Apr Fox Sparrow Amity
6-Apr Common Magpie Sax-Zim Bog
6-Apr Hooded Merganser Sax-Zim Bog
6-Apr Trumpeter Swans Sax-Zim Bog
6-Apr Western Meadowlark Sax-Zim Bog
9-Apr Trumpeter Swans MacQuarrie Wetlands
9-Apr Snow Bunting Sand Lake Pine Forest
9-Apr Spruce Grouse Sand Lake Pine Forest
12-Apr Rough-Legged Hawk Sax-Zim Bog
12-Apr Snow Bunting Sax-Zim Bog

With that thought I visited some of my spring haunts this morning. Birds were scarce, but I did find a Red-Tailed Hawk couple establishing their territory, and a Ring-Billed Gull standing on the ice. Once we get a few warm days a few area ponds will start of have some open water (attracting early season ducks). Oh yes, I checked on my owl family this morning. The youngsters were well covered up by Mom given the cold weather.