Coyote or Timber Wolf??!

Year 9,

Only its hairdresser knows, but I vote coyote! I did not find any moose this morning up north of Two Harbors, but I did spend some quality time with this canine till another car came and spoiled my fun. The coyote was actually walking right towards. Given we have both timber wolves and coyotes in NE Minnesota, one needs to learn some ID pointers. As noted I am voting “coyote” because of this animal’s more pointed ears and snout. The Western Wildlife Outreach organization has some great information more mammal identification.

Wile E. Coyote

On the home front it has been very blue since early September. According to the official Hawk Ridge count, as of yesterday (October 2nd), they have counted 59,281 Blue Jays! Given I live 1.5 miles from Hawk Ridge, and maintain my feeders year round, it has been rare when I have not had at least four jays in my yard at any one time for the last month, and often quite a few more. From two afternoons ago …

Photo Albums

Background

Over the past few months I have been reviewing and selecting the best images which I have taken over the years. Concurrently I built those photos into albums by topical area. This web site now has a page which displays those Photo Albums. Here are the beginning albums: (also linked from the master menu on any web page)

  • Amity Great Horned Owl Family
  • North American Owls
  • Raptors
  • Hummingbirds
  • Loons of the World
  • Lighthouses
  • Maritime and Shipping
  • Northland Scenes
  • Night Skies
  • Sports
  • Trains
  • Mammals
  • Woodpeckers
  • Game Birds

View the Albums Now!

I will also always maintain this web site’s bird species photo index. which lists birds by category and name … 403 species as of today’s post.

Spruce Grouse in a Spruce

Year 9

Moose were not the only wildlife I saw yesterday. This birding season continues to be amazingly good in terms of seeing Spruce Grouse (normally very hard to find). Yesterday I saw two Spruce Grouse, and unlike on other birding outings, I scared these birds on purpose. While I am not anti-hunting, I knew there were some grouse hunters about two miles behind me on Stony River Forest Road, and I did not want the spruce I had found getting plugged.

Amazingly this particular Spruce Grouse did NOT want to be scared. In the first image I am only three feet from the bird, and it would not spook / fly.

Finally by my jogging towards the bird I convinced it to fly up into a nearby spruce tree. I took a few more images (see below), and once again had to walk within three feet to convince the bird to fly DEEP into the forest. Go figure?? You can tell the grouse is watching me!

This morning I checked berries and crabapples. While I did not expect to find many birds yet at my favorite “fruit haunts” going up the shore from my house into Two Harbors, and inland, I was very curious to learn the status of this year’s Mountain Ash and Ornamental Crabapple crop. The answer is unlike last year when a late frost killed much of the fruit, we have a great crop in 2022. Thus, soon it will be time to find birds migrating south into my area with the goal of eating fruit this winter!