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.

• Video links for email subscribers: Canada Lynx | Fighting Bull Moose | Bull Moose Walk About

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.

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!