Category Archives: Year 13

Northern Minnesota Birding Locations & Links (new PDF download)

Year 13

Early last year I created a PDF document which contained descriptions of my favorite northern Minnesota Birding Locations and Links. Apparently due to changes by Adobe, web links in older PDF versions of my document … including Google Maps locations … may no longer work. Thus I have created an updated version where the links work … version 8.0.

For website viewers and subscribers, version 8.0 may be directly downloaded from this blog post. However, on May 1, 2026  (in 8 days) the direct download link will disappear from this post, and everyone will once again need to use the normal download request form (still free).

Great Egret Courting at the Grotto Lake Rookery

Year 13

For years I have been aware of the Grotto Lake Rookery in the Fergus Falls, Minnesota town park. However the distance from Duluth always made me reject making the long round trip drive (9 hours). However, when my friend Jim suggested reserving a Prairie Chicken blind at the Hamden Slough Wildlife Reserve which is also within easy striking distance of Grotto Lake, I jumped! After a fantastic morning with the Prairie Chickens out on the prairie in the blind which started loooonng before dawn (blog post coming), I suggested we try the Great Egret Rookery in the afternoon. Jim was game, and we made the now much shorted drive to Fergus Falls (now only 2 hours round trip).

Oh my did we strike hit the jackpot! The ice on the pond had only gone out shortly before our visit and the Great Egrets had apparently only just arrived via their Spring migration within the past 24 to 48 hours. The birds were courting like crazy, while at the same time decked out in their finest mating plumage!!! My apologies for the HUGE number of photographs. This was an amazing time with the Great Egrets and I as much am documenting the experiencing for myself. (Audubon, Minnesota and Fergus Falls are essentially due west of Duluth via a four hour drive … from the Boreal Forest to the Great Plains and Prairie Potholes)

The Rookery (on a nest)

You brought me a stick!!!

Take-Off!

On the nest …

Great Egret Mating Displays

A Great Egret Couple Mating

A slight disagreement!

The Joy of Flight (Take-Off)

A small view of the Great Egret Rookery (two nests out of many, many trees)

Bird Migration Paused on the North Shore

Year 13,

Some fellow birders/naturalists recorded yesterday several “reverse migrations” in progress near my home. Our cold weather and nasty winds when coupled with the snow one may still find in the woods inland from Two Harbors made many bird species decided they would migrate back south along the North Shore of Lake Superior. These birds will eventually turn around and continue their northern spring migration, but for the moment conditions dictate going further north is dumb (no food, ponds and lakes still iced).

Actually, I did find the pond at Forest Hill Cemetery beginning to lose its ice, and these Ring-Necked Duck males were chasing the few females that had arrived in the Northland. It is normal for the males of bird species to arrive back on prime habitat before the females return. This helps them “win” the courting / breeding competition.

Ring-Necked Ducks at Forest Hill (the female has the brown plumage)

Soon the Spruce Grouse will be busy strutting their stuff. I saw this male on Stoney River Forest Road yesterday morning while placing out birdsong listening stations. There obviously were no females around because the male never displayed even once in the five minutes I observed the bird.

Spruce Grouse Male