All posts by richardhoeg@gmail.com

The Wonder of Woodpeckers!

Background, Year 5

While we have many year round woodpeckers that grace northern Minnesota’s presence year round, late June and July are the time of Woodpecker Wonder! These neat birds which drill holes in trees are finishing up their nesting and fledging their young. It is fun to watch the young woodpeckers stick their heads out nesting holes as their parents load them up with food. However, this sight requires one to find woodpecker holes which is no easy task.

Yesterday I made a trip over to the Wisconsin Grasslands (Cloverland, Wisconsin) and the Johnson Mitigation Wetlands. This neat habitat area is dramatically different from my Boreal Forest in NE Minnesota, and only a 35 minute drive! As a added bonus, for the past few years I have always been able to find Red Headed Woodpeckers in this area. A review of the range map from Cornell demonstrates my region is at the extreme northern edge of this woodpecker’s range.

Two visits within the last week have yielded a Red Headed pair, and I have their nesting area determined to about a 100×100 foot square. I will find the hole! I’ve made some maps such that you may enjoy this area!

This second map is specific to the Red Headed Woodpeckers. The lines indicate areas where I have repeatedly seen these birds feeding on fence posts and telephone poles.

I also found a tree from which an American Kestrel hunts. It’s nice to capture an image of the Sparrowhawk not on a power line.

Finally, when I returned to my home on Amity Creek, back in the Boreal Forest, another woodpecker demanded equal access from my camera. While trying to track down my Pileated Woodpecker nest hole, this Sapsucker gave me some great photo opps!

Waiting for Godot!

Year 5,

Well … sort of. My love-sick male red-bellied woodpecker found a mate. On Friday I learned their chicks had hatched, but the youngsters have not yet appeared at the nest hole opening. Given today’s pouring rain, I have not checked the nest hole. Now if I could only find the nest holes for the Red-Headed and Pileated Woodpecker pairs I have been watching. Godot will eventually arrive!

The Red-Bellied Woodpecker Nest Hole

My Red-Headed Woodpecker friend.

A Savannah Sparrow seen on a trip to Sax-Zim late last week.

Morning on the Ridge!

Year 5

Yesterday I started to head to my favorite wetlands in Wisconsin, but when I reached Lake Superior (only 600 yards from my house) and looked across the lake, it looked like fog had socked in NW Wisconsin. Not wanting to leave my beautiful clear blue sky area, I quickly adjusted. For ten minutes I watched six Common Mergansers at the Mouth of the Lester River, and then headed up to Hawk Ridge.

Early Morning Mergansers

While Hawk Ridge is known for its raptor migration, in the Summer it is a great place for songbirds. Two birds which rarely come out of the deep cover, were kind enough to pose for my camera. Both birds first attracted my presence by their early morning song.

Common Yellowthroat

Catbird

My good luck continued this morning during a trip to Sax-Zim Bog. While I have no photographs, I saw my first ever Black Fox. I did not even know this coloration of a red fox existed. I needed to talk within someone who had more knowledge that me to confirm what I had seen with my eyes. I measured exactly the distance to a particular landmark such that I have this foxes territory now defined! Cool!