Northwoods Bird Feeders

Year 13

I may regret this action, but some (not all) of my remote Northwoods bird feeders are now being filled. However I am only putting out sunflower seeds; suet would be suicide for the feeders. Black bears smell suet from a long distance, and this Spring/Summer/Fall even without suet has been a horrible year in terms of bear attacks on the feeders at my house. Anyhow, the main Greenwood Creek Bird Feeder is now being filled, and the birdfeeders in back of French River Lutheran Church are also now getting sunflower seeds. For more information on either set of public feeders I maintain, browse to my “Birding KnowHow” and scroll down to BirdFeeders.

I took this photo of a Ruffed Grouse “in the drizzle” on the trail near the Greenwood Feeders yesterday morning. Given the male is “displaying” there must have been at least one female around which I did not see. Taking a hike this weekend from the parking area where the feeders are located would be a nice excursion. Round trip it is exactly two miles and you will walk through boreal forest to the bog. When you get to the pond, turn around. The Tamarack Pines are at their golden best. You can get the GPS link to the feeders via the link referenced above, but the trailhead immediately off Lake County #2 is 50 minutes from the start of the Two Harbors Expressway just past Lester River in Duluth.

A BIG Beaver (and a few birds)

Year 13

Last week while hiking near Greenwood Creek in The Nature Conservancy / 7 Beavers Wilderness Area, I discovered a amazingly hidden beaver mound. Leading from the mound were two trampled down paths which screamed beavers. I decided that these paths would be a fantastic spot for a trailcam and set up a camera very near the pond. Look below, I did capture a HUGE beaver on camera last night! LOL.

Bull Moose at the Beaver Pond (video link for email subscribers)

Beaver Moose … the Movie!

About one half mile away from the location documented above, this Canada Lynx was checking out the “spruce scent tree”

Finally back at the feeder parking area, birds were gritting up.

Blue Jay and Spruce Grouse

If you’ve read this far, get thee to a Bog! The Tamarack Pine are almost at peak. Right now the forest is a study in gold!

The Owls that Came to Dinner!

Year 13

As noted in my prior post about my cabin owls, Ned and Nancy … the Northstar Lake Barred Owls often hang out in my Minnesota Northwoods cabin yard. This past Wednesday evening was no different. Sunset was expected at 6:40 pm, with means the sun actually dips below the treetops 30 minutes earlier. Thus, here was our evening / dinner schedule: (my birding buddy Steve was visiting)

  • 5:30 Light charcoal BBQ
  • 5:35 Watch owls till 6:15 (sun disappears below trees)
  • 6:15 Grill steak
  • 6:30 Eat dinner (steak and tater tots!)
  • 6:45 Dinner music (owls hooting … Who Cooks for You … answer: Rich for Steve)
  • 7:00 Owls quiet down and start evening hunt
  • 7:00 Clean dishes
  • 7:10 Relax in small knotty pine cabin
  • 8:45 Owls return to yard by announcing their presence via Pi
  • 9:45 Rich decides he is tired and goes to bed soon … Steve follows shortly
  • 9:50 Owls still hooting … continue hooting through the night

Now picture this … Steve and my dinner was by candlelight! Please understand that, my wife (Molly) and I in 43 years of marriage have always eaten every single dinner at home or the cabin by candlelight! Even though Molly was out of town, I decided Steve deserved the “true Hoeg dinner” experience! Thus … candlelight … Frank Sinatra Channel (the boss) for dinner music plus my Birdnet-Pi live audio feed playing via my tablet. I guess we two old old guys mellowed and chilled out over our meal!

To set the scene for this final fall foliage Northstar Lake Barred Owl post, here are two images of my cabin’s interior:

And finally … the sunset owl photographs!

An explanation of how I use the “live audio feed” of my BirdNET-Pi might be nice. As noted in many prior posts, I often build these small Raspberry Pi computers which use the Cornell School of Ornithology’s database to automatically ID birds within the range of my computer’s microphone (See BirdNET-Pi posts … categorized on my site’s “Birding Knowledge” web page. Upon browsing over to that page, scroll down to the “Birding Identification” section.

BirdNET-Pi Live Audio Feed

  • Click or press upon “Live Audio”
  • Sign in to your system (account is created when the Pi is built)
  • Click or press upon the “small triangle”

Note: Closing the browser window stops the live audio feed. These screenshots are taken of my home BirdNET-Pi, but my cabin’s BirdNET-Pi looks and works 100% identical.

Steve and I were reading books inside at 8:45 pm (by choice my cabin does not have a TV). At 8:45 it was pitch dark outside and getting cool (about 45F). The live audio feed meant it was not necessary to wait outside in the hopes the owls might come back at some point.