Finding this year’s nest!

Year 13

I am working hard at triangulating this year’s GHO Nest. Up here, Amy and Les the Second normally nest by mid February. My sound listening device can listen “live” for me and play the audio feed also in real time while I sit on the couch, in front of the fire, and enjoy a glass of wine. Last year I either had to open a window to hear the owls (it’s 12F outside right now), or bundle up and be outside! This is much nicer!!!

Oh yes … saw three Snowy Owls at the Superior Airport late this afternoon. Pics coming! Also drove up to Greenwood at sunrise this morning. Hiked the snowmobile trail to swap SD cards for my trailcams. Never any snowmobile traffic during the week. Appears to be five unique individual moose hanging out near my feeders, plus a few wolves, fox, and a Canada Lynx. The hour prior to sunset is a common time for the mammals to be active. Friday and Saturday evenings are poor times as that is when the snowmobiles tend to be on the trail. No snowshoes are necessary. Trail well packed. Stop and listen. I see lots of Black-Backed Woodpeckers.

Loggerhead Shrikes Shazam!

Year 13

Okay, I will admit it … I like watching Loggerhead Shrikes (and their Up North cousin, the Northern Shrike). These little songbirds have an attitude, and think they are a full fledge raptor. They even sometimes impale their prey on barbed wire. Uff Dah!

In case you missed it, my previous post … Loggerhead Shrikes Love! However over the past two days I have had some great shrike watching … first at Estero Bay State Preserve, and then at West Harns Marsh. Even though I had drizzle / cloudy conditions, the shrike couple performed for me this morning. Enjoy! Home to Northern Minnesota tomorrow morning.

Estero Bay Loggerhead Shrike: I actually saw this shrike fly over and land extremely close to where I was standing, on the other side of a palm tree. I knew I dare not move, but there was a small gap in through the palms which allowed me to watch the bird hunt.

West Harns Marsh

Loggerhead Shrike … The Movie! (video link for blog email subscribers)

Loggerhead Shrike Love!

Year 13

In my previous post I wrote about my search for the Reddish Egret. This morning while awaiting sunrise, I decided it would be fun to see if I could find some additional Reddish Egrets. Like many birding excursions, things took an unexpected but fun twist. eBird sightings revealed that “red” had been seen in some local ponds at the Estero Bay Preserve State Park. Better yet, this park was less than a 20 minute drive from my AirBnB.

You guessed it, I quickly drove over and much to my delight discovered Estero Bay was a park which was 100% undeveloped, and had some hiking trails that let through sparse deciduous hardwoods to salt water marshes and ponds … once again like the prior morning this park / nature preserve was 100% my own … nary another person. This was not a developed park, but a wildlife preserve.

Very quickly I discovered raptors very much liked the habitat which had great hunting perches. After hiking to the first pond, I became distracted with Loggerhead Shrikes. Apparently down here in South Florida it is courting time for shrikes. These songbirds with an attitude (Loggerhead Shrikes … Cornell Link). The female Loggerheads would sit atop various perches while their prospective mates would deliver food! Super fun to watch and document.

Loggerhead Shrike #1

Loggerhead Shrikes #2 and #3.