Fall Colors Birding

Year 13, , ,

There is still time to get out and enjoy the Boreal Forest & Bog’s second foliage season. As I have stated many times, while everyone loves the Maples with their vibrant reds and yellows, not long after these leaves fall the “Golden Tamarack Time” starts. These pine trees which love the boreal bog habitat lose their needles every year, and to the uninformed makes the late fall / winter landscape in these areas look like lots and lots of dead trees. The Tamarack Pine turn bright gold before falling. An early morning drive or hike in northern Minnesota’s bog country is a study in gold. This weekend may be your last opportunity to enjoy the gold.

I practice what I preach. Enjoy these images (and video) from Tamarack Time. I’ll lead off with a short clip from a drive along Toomey-Williams Forest deep in the Boreal forest wilderness somewhat near Big Falls, Minnesota. (video link for blog email subscribers).

Next are some images I took of a Red-Tailed Hawk that supervised my hike swapping out my trailcam SD cards near Greenwood Creek.

On my birding travels I did exit the forest for a farm area south of Sax-Zim Bog where I am often able to spy some Ring-Necked Pheasants … still more gold (and some lingering green)!

Sparring Bull Moose of Greenwood Creek (video)

Year 13

Oh wow … somedays I strike paydirt! When I collected my trailcam SD cards yesterday I did not know what all my time learning how to “read the forest” would yield. I have two sets of trailcams 1/2 mile apart near Greenwood Creek in the Nature Conservancy Sand Lake / 7 Beavers Wilderness Area. I had determined that location #1 was a “Grand Central Station” for moose near the creek, and that location #2 contained a “spruce scent tree” (i.e. a small tree which multiple species of mammals leave their calling card … scent via urine)

  • In the first video you get to watch a Canada Lynx inspecting the Spruce Scent Tree
  • In the second two bull moose videos you get to watch two younger bull moose learning how to fight, and walking the bog. These two “teenagers” tend to hang out together. I suspect by the next rutting season they will try to challenge “Big Mamma” (there is one HUGE bull moose in this area who gets his ways with the ladies)

Thus … without further adieu … it’s movie time from the Boreal Forest and Bogs of Northeastern Minnesota. As a movie preview … three Canada Lynx stills.

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.