Unbearably Good Birding: Black-Breasted Yogi

Year 1, ,

Birdcast says the bird migration is now great in northern Minnesota (see my post about how to use Birdcast), and it is! While eating lunch today, I thought … boy, that is a noisy squirrel! I checked the feeders and voila! It was the rare Black-Breasted Yogi. After a great lunch at “Chez Hoeg’s Bar and Grill” which has had fine dining for bears since 2011, I managed to get this photo of Yogi relaxing near my house after its meal.

In addition to Yogi, birding has been very good today. Some of the birds I’ve seen and photographed since sunrise when I started the day down at the Park Point Recreation Area.

Common Tern (just migrated in from points way down south Mexico or South America way)

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Pied-Billed Grebe

Blue-Winged Teal

Black Bear Welcome Home!

Year 1

I’ve often commented in this blog how I live at the edge of the Boreal Forest. The first bridge on “7 Bridges Road” is only 300 yards from the end of my driveway. Once one crosses the bridge, you now are truly in the forest stretching north to the tundra line in Canada. Given my bird feeders, more than just our feathered friends visit my yard!

While hiking next to Amity Creek this morning, I threw on the brakes. 20 yards ahead of me on the trail was this black bear. Apparently the bear was coming downhill as I was hiking up. I quickly pulled out my camera with no time to check settings managed to get this one image.

Eventually I found the bear again and took this short video. (video link for email subscribers)

Finally, guess who were directly above me when I took the video?! Yup! Here are two images I took earlier this morning of one of the owlets. It was a great reunion homecoming!

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).