All posts by richardhoeg@gmail.com

Down on the Farm Eastern Towhee

Year 6

Molly and I visited friends down on their farm in SE Minnesota. As we drove south winter was left behind, and eventually we discovered this rare thing called Spring! It is amazing what getting away from Lake Superior and its cold waters will accomplish. One treat for me over the weekend was finding an Eastern Towhee. I’ve only seen this type of bird once in my life and then it was the much less colorful female.  My two videos document two of the different Towhee songs I heard.

In addition, after the Towhee images but before the videos in this post, you will find three Google Searches you may wish to bookmark on your computer or mobile device. In an earlier life when I worked in software I became a search expert. These three searches will let you explore birding news both in Minnesota, and America. Descriptions are next to each search query.

Google Search Bird New Queries
(search results relevancy will diminish as one scrolls through the results)

Minnesota Birding News (articles from media sites published within the past month)

National Birding News (articles from media sites published within the past week)

National Birding Posts (blog posts from organizations published within the past week)

Eastern Towhee Song Videos

Winter Storm Ice Out Birding Piping Plover!

Year 6

The last few days have been quite the roller-coaster of weather here in northern Minnesota. Last night a late winter storm hit with huge winds and 6 to 10 inches of snow across the region. Here at my house it snowed hard, and by morning the ground was covered with white stuff. However one fringe benefit from the storm is the HUGE winds out of the northeast chopped up and melted the remaining ice. Here are two photographs I took two days ago at sunrise before the start of the stormy weather. I am standing out on Minnesota Point looking back towards town.

By this afternoon the weather had improved enough that I decided to go out birding. When I realized that the beach was now free on Park Point (Minnesota Point), I decided to look for shorebirds. As they say in birding, a little luck never hurts as I found two Piping Plovers (very rare / endangered) near Dune Bridge. I eBirded the discovery. Unfortunately about ten minutes into my observing of the plovers they were scared off by two unleashed dogs.

I waited a few minutes for the owner to reach my location and politely explained about Duluth’s Leash Laws, and how the dogs had scared endangered birds in a designated nesting area (referred him to the sign on Dune Bridge). Unfortunately I would not expect the Piping Plovers to stick around, both because of the foot traffic in this particular area and the fact that there is so little beach / sand between the high water wave mark and the dunes.

Good Grebe Morning (Reprise!)

Year 6

Another day … another Grebe, but in this case a lifer for me! I drove over to the Superior Entry shortly after sunrise in hopes I might get lucky and find some Red-Throated Loons feeding upon smelt while taking a break from their Arctic migration. No such luck, but this Eared Grebe which was definitely at the extreme eastern edge of it migration range was present.

Then I was dumbfounded as the only two Red-Breasted Mergansers present at the Superior Entry (HUGE area) swam right over to within five yards of me. It never hurts to be lucky; however given the angle of the sun they would have had difficulty seeing me. A good morning. Just wish I would find a Red-Throated Loon that is not 1/2 mile distant out on Lake Superior.