Category Archives: Year 7

Birding … A Great Social Distancer!

Year 7

Not to make light of the problems of the present Coronavirus crisis, but outdoor activities are a fantastic way to take a breather from the constant news cycle. When one walks in the woods under a warm sun, the problems of the world are a bit further removed.

I practice what I preach. Molly and I are down in the Twin Cities for a few days. We were supposed to be attending the first Nordic Skiing World Cup event to be held in America in years. However, not to surprisingly the ski race was cancelled. Rather than mope about this situation, I decided I needed to enjoy a climate which is much warmer than northern Minnesota. Spring tends to arrived in the Minneapolis area three weeks prior to northeastern Minnesota. I know from past experience, if I can find bits and pieces of open water when most streams and lakes are still ice covered, birding can be fantastic. Ducks will often let you stand closer than normal. Waterfowl want to lay dibs on preferred habitat, and other areas of open water are often far away. Thus, the duck which would normally fly when you get within 100 yards, will let you stand only 15 yards distant.

I found 100 yards of open water in a suburban stream. In addition to the ever present mallards, I watched a pair of Hooded Mergansers with love on their mind! One side note, raptors will often hunt these small stretches of water. Ducks in love are easy prey. Thus, keep your eyes also scanning the branches and trees above.

Early Season Hooded Mergansers

Great Gray Owl on the Hunt!

Year 7

I watched this Great Gray Owl hunt for ten minutes this morning about 8:30 a.m. up in the Bog. It was hunting later than normal after sunrise, but the past few days have been so windy that I suspect hunting has been very difficult. It plunged twice to the ground but came up empty each time. Darn!

Awaiting Owlets

Year 7,

My Great Horned Owlets will arrive in this world any day now. In fact, one of the chicks may have already hatched. Once per day I hike over to the nesting area and check on my owl family. At night, the male serenades our home with his song.

I took this photograph yesterday morning while Mom was sitting in a different position than normal. Upon maximizing the image you will notice what I believe is the Great Horned Owl’s tale which leads me to speculate she might be covering up her young. As noted, I have never seen her sitting in this manner.  Our air temperatures are still only reaching the mid 30’s Fahrenheit during the afternoon. A newly hatched owlet would not get much time out from under its mom.

My morning actually started with a trip to the harbor. However, do not hold in your mind a picture of an industrial area. While there definitely are wharves, bridges and ships in the Duluth harbor, the St. Louis river estuary has lots of wilderness. I found this Bald Eagle in the exact same tree where I photographed the immature Bald Eagle two mornings ago.

In fact, here is that photo I took a couple of days back. It is likely this eagle is 3 to 4 years old and will soon finally get its classic white head and tail.

Finally, my apologies to any of you who experienced difficulties using my web site yesterday. I experienced difficulties which are now solved. My thanks to Bruce and Arlene, two of my readers who contacted me during the outage. Their emails alerted me to the problem and I was able to bring the site back up quickly.