Category Archives: Year 8

Highway Birding – Part 2

Year 8

On the road again,
Just can’t wait to get on the road again,
The life I love is making music with my friends … Willie Nelson (video)

Yup, Molly and I are heading back north to Duluth, and just like nine days ago it was time for “Highway Birding“. In my earlier post I commented on how I use Google Maps to find good habitat. Correctly so in the comments Roy had talked about using eBird. If you travel to more populated or popular birding locations, eBird is an excellent source of finding out quickly known good birding spots. However, if you’re like me your travels may bring you to locations not well documented via eBird, like Osceola, Iowa. Thus, I returned to my pond with wetlands again as we stayed in the same town last night heading back north.

Last week the migrants at the pond were Spotted Sandpipers and Catbirds. Yesterday evening it was Baltimore Orioles! After a very white winter, I enjoyed all the flashes of orange from many Orioles.

And one more scene from the Ozarks … a cascading stream down to the Buffalo River. Molly and I should never have found this beautiful location, but when I sent us off on the wrong trail for our hike, this beautiful mountain glen appeared shortly (video link for email subscribers).

Ozark Mountains Red-Headed Woodpecker

Year 8

Red lives down south in the Ozarks. Red lives in NW Wisconsin, but not in the Boreal Forest of NE Minnesota. These birds love oak tree savannas, and not heavy forest. Thus I was thrilled while visiting an Arkansas State Park yesterday when I spotted a Red-Headed Woodpecker. Although I often search for woodpeckers holes for days and weeks with little to show for the effort, I got darned lucked with a flash of red seen through the oak leaves led me to their home. For over an hour I watched (and photographed) the comings and goings of Ma and Pa Woodpecker. They were obviously feeding young, which is amazing since they will not migrate into NW Wisconsin for a couple of weeks yet.

Hanging out by the hole

Down the hole (notice how the hole is only a touch bigger than red … no wasted energy drilling out a hole!)

Leaving the hole

Preening

In a nearby tree

Ozark Mountains Colors

Year 8

Our cabin in the Ozarks is lovely with a great view. Branson is well over one hour distant, and not the focus of our vacation. Spring has just sprung down here with temperatures in the 40’s pm at night rising to about 70F at 6 pm. Our one mistake was believing we could bicycle in this area. While the region is a meca for mountain bikers, the roads are very crooked, narrow and steep (no sight lines for drivers). Thus, we hike daily … not a real problem!

While I have not seen unusual birds down here, and the total numbers is not overwhelming, it has been fun to see birds which will not reach the Duluth area for a few weeks. The numbers of these species I have seen suggest most are migrating through the area.

Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds

Indigo Buntings

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Eden Falls … this morning’s hiking destination. Just upstream from the falls, the stream comes  directly out of caves in a mountain.

The big surprise is to see the HUGE numbers of these blacking / purple butterflies in the yard. They love the purple flowers growing wild. I have discovered I do “not” know my swallowtails. I always thought the yellow swallowtail pictured which I see often in northern Minnesota was a tiger swallowtail. The purply black ones are tiger swallowtails. I never see this specie at home. See all the kinds of swallowtails.