Life is tough when you are named after a country! This “Canada Jay” (also known as a Gray Jay) was being picked upon this morning up in Sax-Zim Bog. You can just barely see the victor of this battle flying away at the top of the image.
Meanwhile not too far away I found a couple of male Pine Grosbeaks. Red is also cool. Regardless it was a gorgeous day to be outside up in the Bog.
It was delightful spending time introducing your children to Northland owls, but particularly Hoot and family. Here are links from my blog to information about which I spoke: (email me with any other questions)
Pine Grosbeaks are aware of this fact, but I get ahead of myself …
Crabapples (ornamental or pygmy) are almost non existent in the Northland this year. The combination of a late frost followed by a summer drought killed over 95% of the crop. I have only see a few trees with fruit … all close to the shores of Lake Superior. One of the locations with apples are the five trees near Two Harbor’s steam engines. For almost two weeks I have been checking these trees, and today I struck paydirt (payapples?!). The immature and female Pine Grosbeaks had found these trees. I spent over 20 minutes with the birds on two different occasions. The sun even came out briefly which made the photographer in my happy. Why crabapples? Ask the Pine Grosbeaks. The Mountain Ash trees have lots of berries, but they were being ignored for the moment.
Birding has been difficult lately … snow, rain and now wind (40 mph winds today out of the WNW). Finally, most of the feeders are now filled up at Sax-Zim Bog. The Welcome Center opens on Saturday, December 4th (10 am to 3 pm daily). In December, I will be volunteering on Sunday, December 5th and Saturday, December 18th. Stop by and say hello and get your birding questions answered (I hope!).
