Category Archives: Year 5

Rain Delay Birding!

Year 5

For the first time in centuries it is actually raining this morning in northern Minnesota, with some thunder and lightning thrown in for good measure. Thus, for a change I am sitting at home this morning … a rain delay. This is fantastic news as the bog water levels are amazingly low, and I was fearful of drought / wildfire conditions. Last week when hiking into a Great Blue Heron rookery, I was amazed to discover I could hike across the bog without getting my feet wet … not good. I was wearing muck boots, but they really were not necessary.

As some of you know I spent three delightful mornings birding last week down near Minneapolis in the Plymouth Wetlands. I have a few images I have been meaning to post, but to which I had not gotten around. My biggest excitement was finding three scarlet tanagers. Hopefully they will nest where I found them and provide continuing enjoyment over the course of the summer.

Scarlet Tanager (looked almost orange in the direct sunlight … red in the shade)

Great Egret Take-Off

Wood Duck Sunrise

Baltimore Oriole

Catbirds

Green Heron

Sunrise on Minnesota Point! Terns Galore

Year 5

The early bird gets the worm, or in this case … the Common Terns. Folks often wonder why they do not see the number of birds I find. In many cases, it is my willingness to get up very early in the morning. Here in northern Minnesota the sun now rises at 5:30 am. Knowing that birds are active before sunrise, I left the house at 5:15 am and arrived at the end of Park Point about 5:35 am.

After a short walk over the dunes, and then a brief hike I found hundreds of Common Terns and Bonaparte Gulls “on shore”! The birds were taking their morning bath and preening. Eventually these birds allowed me to approach within fifty yards. For almost 25 minutes I watched their morning preparations and the sun slowly rose just above the horizon. At 6:10 am it was as if someone had thrown a switch and every bird left the beach and moved our over Lake Superior to fish. Thus, anyone who had arrived at 6:15 am, which would have been considered by most people quite early, would only have seen distant birds out over the lake … not the spectacle to which I was treated.

Common Terms, Bonaparte Gulls … and some Ring-Billed Gulls

Mass Exit to Go Fish!

Morning Preening and Bathing

Morning on the Lake Superior Shore

Love Birds!

Year 5

Love Birds! Today there are two special means to this phrase.

  • It might indicate Great Egrets which were sharing a relaxing morning preen till a Great Blue Heron came along and spoiled the party. First there were 3, then temporarily 4, then 3 again and finally 2!
    .
  • The phrase also might indicate it has been 35 years since May 21, 1983! Molly and I have now been married that long, and it has been a great and loving ride!