All posts by richardhoeg@gmail.com

Birding the Fearful 40’s!

Year 6

It’s was ugly outside early this morning … the temperature hovered around 40F, NE winds were steady at 25 mph with occasional gusts to 40 mph, and rain … thus the fearful 40’s. Now some folks would think these are horrible birding conditions, but those people would be wrong. Instead given the northern migration which is in progress, I knew there were good probabilities to see birds I would not normally find. The ugly conditions would convince birds to hide from the wind and pause their migration. Just like when bicycling, who wants to expend all the energy to fight a fierce headwind.

The key to successful birding on days of this nature is to understand the weather, the current date in the migration and your local habitat. Thus, I dressed for the weather and went out to the Park Point Recreation Area (big sand spit / dune which forms the Duluth harbor). The playing fields were under lots of water, and in addition to all the ring-billed gulls, I found some gulls and terms migrating up to the Arctic / northern Canada. Enjoy.

Courting Bonapart’s Gulls

Caspian Terns

The two types of birds jointly in one image

Not Another Owl Post?!

Year 6

Nope! There was a smelt run on the Lester River last night. I arrived at the mouth of the river with Lake Superior before sunrise. I took these images and video just as the sun kissed its way above the horizon. In addition to the cormorants and ring-billed gulls, there were quite a few mergansers. This was about 1/10 of the birds present. I didn’t stay long as I needed to head to the “owling grounds”.

Smelt Run on the Lester River (sorry about the highway noise in the video)

Great Horned Owl Family at Sunrise!

Year 6

Are my Great Horned Owl family posts getting repetitive? Sorry (not really). By tonight the bad weather moves in again, and my birding opportunities will be curtailed. Duluth actually had 2.4 inches of snow on Sunday. However, yesterday and today have lots of sun, and I have made the most of my opportunity.

I arrived at the nesting tree about twenty minutes after sunrise (5:50 am). Even with knowing which tree would be most likely to have the owls, it still took me over 15 minutes to find the birds. It then took me another 20 minutes to find an angle which allowed me to take photographs through all the branches.

Much to my glee, shortly after I set up the Mom returned to the tree and posed for me in the only open gap available. It ‘s great to be good, but luck always helps!

Mom Great Horned Owl at Sunrise

Eventually Mom joined her twins on the same branch about ten feet below her on the White Pine. The trio was kind enough to pose for a family portrait. Actually, most of the time the owls just slept. At 7:30 the Mom flew off to hunt. Young owls of this size require the parents to hunt during early morning and evening, not just after dark. I could hear Dad being attacked by crows somewhere off in the distance. I am rather convinced the Dad pulls the crows away from the nesting tree of purpose. He is a good parent.

Great Horned Owl Family Portrait (minus Dad … the experience was a bit like taking family photographs of my family. It is really hard to get five young grandchildren to all look at the camera at the same time)