Category Archives: Background

Birds, Wildflowers & the Cornell Merlin ID

July 18, 2015Background, Year 2Birding Know How, MN North: Hartley Nature Centerrichardhoeg@gmail.com

My favorite wildflower patch is really starting to produce. The milkweed will soon be in full bloom, and color is already bursting out everywhere. In short, in northern Minnesota take a trip to the Hartley Nature Center. Stand in the wildflower garden and hide amongst the taller flowers (read over six feet tall!). If you are motionless, the birds will not be recognized as a dreaded human! Here are a few birds I saw and photographed during a 20 minute window of nice sun around 7:30 am.

One bird I gave me some identification difficulty. Enter the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. Even though I am a Dartmouth Alum, and during my college days I would do everything possible to defeat Cornell in athletics, their bird web services including their new Merlin ID App are fantastic. The word app is actually a bit misleading. Although they have Android and Apple apps, it is the windows PC based Merlin ID app which really takes the cake. I used the Merlin ID App to identify this Nashville Warbler. See the screenshots found at the end of this post document how Merlin functions.

Nashville Warbler

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Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

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Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

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Merlin Bird ID Functionality

Sax-Zim Bog at Sunrise: Courting Turkeys!

June 13, 2015Background, Year 2MN North: Sax-Zim Bogrichardhoeg@gmail.com

While people travel from all over the country to Sax-Zim Bog in the winter in hopes of seeing great grey owls, and other feathered friends from the frozen north, summer is also a great time to visit the bog. This blog post documents one of my favorite June birding excursion in the bog (map included).

Shortly after sunrise this morning I had a fantastic time watching some Tom Turkeys court and strut their stuff for a lone hen. She did not seem as impressed as I was with the gobbler’s courting displays! Eventually the group decided I was harmless, and I was able to slowly approach the lovefest!

After watching the turkeys try to improve their love life, the moment the sun popped out from behind the clouds, male bobolinks started singing in their attempts to attract a mate. The farm meadows and pastures at the corner of Overton and Arkola Road are a great place to watch birds. Park your car and sit for an hour. In addition to bobolinks, I saw a sandhill crane and multiple magpies while stopped.

You will find in this post:

Photos and two short videos of the courting turkeys
One photo and video of a bobolink singing to attract a mate
Summer Sax-Zim Bog birding map with annotations

I hope you enjoy these photos, videos, and find the map useful. It was a super fun outing.

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

Turkeys Gone a Courting!

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Turkey Courting Videos (24 and 46 seconds in duration)

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Wild Turkey Time on Overton Road

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Singing to the Sun … Bobolink Looking for a Mate

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23 Second Video: Singing for a Mate!

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June Sax-Zim Bog Birding Map

Birding via your Bicycle!

June 10, 2015Background, Year 2Birding Know How, MN North: Sax-Zim Bog, MN South: Medicine Lakerichardhoeg@gmail.com

I like to occasionally revisit this topic … birding by bicycle. Although a car gets one much faster to a desired location, taking a bike ride with camera gear in tow is a great way to exercise both the body and the mind. This morning I biked a little over 22 miles in the Sax-Zim Bog. Aside from a great ride through a beautiful rural landscape, I found two locations where I saw a bird I had never seen before in my life, a bobolink!

This was actually the second such bird biking trip I rode in the last seven days. This past weekend I biked the Luce Line Trail in suburban Minneapolis. This trail not accessible by car allowed me to find and photograph some bluebirds shortly after sunrise. Thus, birding by biking has another advantage … access to locations not available by car.

My final BIG birding while biking was my wife’s and my Spring North Tour. This spring we rode 1,500 miles through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri. My camera was always available and ready for bird photography.

Thus, do you bird and bike?