Actually the owling is great, but I am getting way to used to photographing in dark clouds, dizzle and 30 mph winds. It truly provides a challenge, and I arrive home from my hikes to see the Great Horned Owl family rather cold! Sometime next week this horrible weather is supposed to break, but in the meantime Lake Superior is delivering strong NE winds daily, with accompanying rain. Glad I’m not an owl! Mom Owl is doing a great job as her perch provides a windblock for the owlets to the huge winds blowing in off Lake Superior.
And two very short videos (video links for email subscribers: One | Two)
Migration is both in full force, and stalled out. Many bird species are stopping on their northern journey when they discover the land north of Duluth is locked in ice and snow. While getting back to breeding grounds first is important, being able to find food is also imperative. Over the past few days, I have watched birds raid my feeders forcing me to refill three times each day … using 10+ in bird seen every day.
This morning the rush seems to be a bit calmer. The hordes of redpolls and juncos are now just small flocks. Yesterday afternoon during a 30 minute period, I saw all of these birds in my yard … a few are obviously not feeder birds.
American Goldfinches
American Robins
Blue Jays
Brown Creepers
Common Grackles
Common Redpolls
Mourning Doves
Northern Cardinals
Pine Siskins
Purple Finches
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
Slate-Colored Juncos
Sparrows
American Tree Sparrows
Fox Sparrows
White-Crowned Sparrows
White-Throated Sparrows
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Woodpeckers (each species use the same 3 trees for drumming!)
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpeckers
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Here are three very short videos, which show just how crazy active my feeders have been. From sunrise to sunset normally there were always hundreds of birds in my yard. I have six feeders. (video links for email subscribers: Video 1 – Video 2 – Video 3). It never ceases to amaze me how many redpolls can attach themselves to a thistle seed feeder (vid #2)
Photographs (a photobombing squirrel was even captured in the final image!)
Great Horned Owl Pic of the Day: I visited my owls three times yesterday. Last year Les and Amy were essentially yard birds; this year they are making me hike a bit to see their family.
Golf Course ponds are great places to bird … assuming the courses are not yet open. In my case, Lester Park Golf Course located in the northeast edge of Duluth is permanently closed. Given not a single area lake has yet experienced ice out, and this course has one of the few ponds that has lost its ice, that small body of water is a bird magnate for migrating ducks.
By approaching the birds obliquely and thus taking a zig zag route to get close (not directly), I was able to get amazingly close to the waterfowl. I think the ducks knew there were very few other landing spots, and the 40 mph winds coming in off Lake Superior made them willing to put up with my presence. In fact, a friend in church on Sunday told me Saganaga Lake up at the end of the Gunflint Trail still has 40 inch thick ice!
Hooded Merganser
Buffleheads and Ring-Necked Ducks
Ring-Necked Ducks
Of course, I spend time every day watching Les, Amy and their Great Horned Owlets.
