Category Archives: Year 3

The “Other Bird” Starts Out Year #3!

Year 3

The “other bird” … this was not the bird with which I was hoping to begin the third year of “365 Days of Birds”. The “other bird” is beautiful in its own right, but folks … I wanted to photograph a rare Arctic Phase Great Horned Owl! This owl has a beautiful off white color, and occasionally comes south down to Minnesota in the dead of Winter.

Thus, yesterday I hike for 90 minutes looking for my target bird. Walk 25 yards, stop, turn the head and scan all the trees … repeat … repeat … etc. … success! 30 yards from me on a horizontal oak branch was the rare Arctic Phase Great Horned Owl. I was motionless. Only my head was turning. Eureka … perfect line of sight through the branches and soft sunset light was on the owl. There was never time to raise my camera which was turned off and hanging around my neck. I pleaded in my mind for the owl to not fly, but to no avail. Oh no! Madam owl took a look at me and said sayonara! I have a great picture in my brain of this bird, but no pic in my camera! 🙂

Oh yes, the “other bird”. Fifteen minutes earlier while looking for the owl, I found this pileated woodpecker. Normally a pileated posing for a photo makes me happy!

Happy New Years folks, and welcome to year #3!

The Other Bird … A Pileated Woodpecker
Y3-M01-Other-Bird-Pileated-Woodpecker

Red Birds at Dawn!

Year 3

Red was definitely the color of the morning! Arriving at French Park in suburban Minneapolis this morning I was surprised and pleased to find hundreds and hundreds of birds. I think the cold weather up north where I live near Lake Superior had chased the birds south.

I found flocks of robins, juncos, cardinals and red-bellied woodpeckers feeding in the ash trees, and off shore on Medicine Lake the there were flocks of goldeneyes, bufflehead ducks, migrating gulls as well as the usual mallards and geese. In short it was a birders paradise! For this northern Minnesota boy, it was a treat to have a flock of cardinals often within 10 feet of my car / blind!

The ducks, geese and gulls did not take kindly to the bald eagle which kept cruising the shoreline at an altitude of 60 feet, whereas inland the small mammals needed to be on the lookout for the red-tailed hawk which was hunting the lagoon area.

For folks looking for my presentation materials, either scroll down three blog posts, or follow this link.

Flock of Cardinals
Y2-M11-Cardinal-Flock-1 Y2-M11-Cardinal-Flock-2 Y2-M11-Cardinal-Flock-3

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Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Y2-M11-Red-Bellied-Woodpecker