Although there is still lots of snow on the ground, the temperature reached the mid 40’s here in Duluth yesterday. While I know there are still snowstorms in our future, the birds are beginning to get into spring patterns. Lending an ear while outside will result in hearing woodpeckers drilling to announce their territory, and chickadees are now giving their mating call. In fact, Hawk Ridge started their annual spring hawk watch yesterday.

Here on Amity Creek I now have Slate-Colored Juncos and American Goldfinches visiting my feeders (they have been absent since late December). Along with Bald Eagles, these birds are our early migrants. Over at Sax-Zim Bog, there have been sightings of Snow Buntings winging their way back to Arctic. Via my “Ask the Outdoorsman / Naturalist” link (top menubar), Jeannette L. asks whether the hawk seen by her neighbor could have been a Cooper’s Hawk. The answer is “yes”. It helps that I know Jeannette lives over in NW Wisconsin. Spring comes almost three weeks earlier in that area compared to the boreal forest in NE Minnesota.

NW Wisconsin includes mixed deciduous forest while NE Minnesota is an evergreen pine forest. In addition, here along the North Shore of Lake Superior and inland, winds out of the south often come across the cold waters of Lake Superior (not true in NW Wisconsin). Once the snows have melted in Wisconsin I often bird the grasslands along Wisconsin Hwy 13. I know from personal experience that I will see returning birds in this area long before my fine feathered friends show up near my house. Check out my “Wisconsin Wetlands” birding locations to learn more. Perhaps you’ll see my out and about!

In addition to paying attention to the different kinds of habitat up here in the Northland, I spent some fun time down south in the Minneapolis area over the weekend. Yesterday morning I went hiking at dawn, and the birdsong was amazing! My walks were in the NW suburbs which are 180 miles south of my house. The temperature differential during the winter is often over 20 degrees, and one is definitely out of the Boreal Forest.

As I started my walk, I enjoyed hearing many, many cardinals singing to greet the sun. This particular individual posed in a tree full of buds.

After enjoying the cardinals, I hiked over to the Great Horned Owl nest which I discovered one month ago. The male Great Horned Owl was out enjoying the sun. I was actually dumbfounded to find him out in the wide open (think crows). However, apparently we all like the first warmth that heralds a new spring.