Monthly Archives: December 2014

Day 331: Christmas Bird Count Black Capped-Chickadee

December 21, 2014Background, Year 1MN North: Amityrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Today I led a team in northern Minnesota as part of the Audubon Societies Christmas Bird Count. We were given an area and go told to count the local birds. Please understand that in the Northwoods in the winter, the number of birds is greatly reduced and the weather during the count can be sub-optimal!

Our count totals: 233 individual birds

Bald Eagle: 1
Black-Capped Chickadee: 17
Blue Jay: 1
Common Crow: 30
Common Raven: 33
Common Redpolls: 132
Downy Woodpecker: 1
Pileated Woodpecker: 1
Purple Finch: 17
Red-Breasted Nuthatch: 3

View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon images to view at full size / resolution)

Black-Capped Chickadee (one of the birds we counted)

Day 330: Hairy Woodpecker

December 21, 2014Year 1MN North: Amityrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Time was a scarce commodity today, and therefore I decided to work with my “backyard birds”. Thankfully, given I live on the edge of a forest across from Amity Creek, there is plenty of opportunity to photograph “local” birds.

View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon images to view at full size / resolution)

Hairy Woodpecker

Day 329: Owls, Owls and more Owls!

December 19, 2014Year 1MN North: Sax-Zim Bogrichardhoeg@gmail.com

John and I drove up to the Sax-Zim Bog this morning. Our goal and hope was to find and photograph a Great Gray Owl. Although the skies were gray once more, we experience a magical day … not one, or two, or three, but four great gray owls made their presence known for our cameras.

The most magical experience of the day was watching two owls (mates?) play with each other in the treetops. Each owl would drive and do other airborne feats on the wing at the other bird, but in a totally nonthreatening manner. Even more hard to believe we saw these two great gray owls at approximately 11:00 am. Whatever happened to “nocturnal”!

Finally we visited a countryside feeder where the home owners had reported evening grosbeaks. We are not disappointed in this quest either, as our eyes feasted upon over 125 birds in the flock!