Category Archives: Year 11

Your host (Rich Hoeg) interviewed on NPR about birds!

Year 11,

Well heck, what do you think National Public Radio would talk to me about, frogs?! As past readers know, I have been building small computers, BirdNET-Pi’s, which combine my techie knowledge with my love of birds. I donate both my time and the cost of the computers / birdsong listening devices to Northeastern Minnesota Nature Centers. I then combine that effort with my birding knowledge to help with research.

The NPR show, Here and Now, decided to interview a number of us (not just me) about our efforts to perform bird research, preserve habitat and help with the fight against global warming. The Here and Now episode is titled, “This Fairyland Bog is a Beacon for Winter Birding, and a Sponge for the Climate”. You may listen to the piece, or read the transcript! The correspondent, even focused upon how I became interested in birds as a young child. Quoting Chris Bentley interviewing me: “I’m a retired techie, and I had always been intrigued with birds here in northern Minnesota,” Hoeg said. “When I was a young child, I lived next to a forest, and I was allowed to go traipsing around the forest by myself and just had to be home by suppertime.”

Anyhow … your options:

As an aside, I could myself not listen when the episode first broadcast nationwide last week. Minnesota Public Radio has a program, Minnesota Now, which plays on my local MPR station instead of the NPR feed. Uff dah. So much for telling friends and family to “tune in”.

Birding Six Mile Cypress Slough: Night Herons and More

Year 11

If you want a quick spot for a birding outing, but which still gets you away from all the craziness of Fort Myers traffic, then visit Six Mile Cypress Slough. This boardwalk takes you deep into the slough, and makes it difficult to imagine the millions of people which live nearby. Given this wildlife preserve is right in Fort Myers, the best visits will be right at sunrise. As the day progresses the preserve fills up with people.

I followed my own recommendation and was the second visitor to arrive yesterday morning. Thus, birds had not been flushed by the hordes of visitors who will come later in the day. Having said that, many of our feathered friends are people tolerant at this spot. For those of you who like to bicycle, I feel the best cycling which avoids the most car traffic but also allows for nature viewing opportunities in the Fort Myers area is bordered by Six Mile Cypress Road on the east, John Yarbrough Linear Bike Trail on the West and then Daniels Parkway and Colonial Boulevard to the south and north.

Here are just a few of my sightings at Six Mile Cypress …

Black-Crowned Night Heron (video link for email subscribers)

Great Egret (video link for email subscribers)

Pileated Woodpecker

Doctor’s Visit Great Gray Owl

Year 11

I was distracted on New Year’s Eve Day on the way to and from some medical appointments yesterday. Three different Great Gray Owls decided I should take some time out and enjoy nature … one in the morning a few minutes before sunrise, and then two owls in the afternoon.

The first owl was quite concerned about some crows, but not about me or any of the cars rushing by on the highway. I definitely was NOT in a normal birding location while watching the first Great Gray Owl (video link for email subscribers).

Great Gray Owl #1 (in the morning just before sunrise … watching crows)

Great Gray Owls #2 (after my medical appointments)