Snowy Arrives!

Year 8

After many missed connections over the past few days across northeastern Minnesota, I found my first Snowy Owl up in Sax-Zim Bog this afternoon. This is the view I had for over 80 minutes, I hoped said bird would mover closer to me when it decided to hunt, but it actually moved almost a mile distant. Oh well … the first is always special.

There have quite a few Snowy Owls seen across Minnesota over the past few days. I think the HUGE winds including 50 mph wind gusts out of the NW blew all the owls down here a bit quicker. I am hoping we might have an irruption year, but it is definitely still to early to predict.

Thanksgiving Birds!

Year 1

Over the past 24 hours I have spent significant time looking for Snowy Owls, but my timing has been off. These owls are now starting to arrive in the Northland from up in the Arctic. Will this year be an irruption year? The jury is still out, but Snowy Owls have been seen in Spain for only the second time in history. Ornithologists suspect these owls may have hitched a ride across the Atlantic on freighters. Read more via Project Snowstorm.

For those of you who live in the northern Twin Cities area. Three different Snowies were seen yesterday in Crex Meadows! In Wisconsin quite a few Snowies have been seen in and around the Green Bay area (Door County, the Lake Michigan shore (harbors) and inland of Green Bay at various grasslands).

I was back from birding by 7:50 am this Thanksgiving morning. We have four of our almost 7 grandkids visiting. The oldest is ten, which means a bundle of activity in the house. Happy Thanksgiving.

From yesterday’s Snowy Owl search at sunset in Two Harbors. The EdnaG was built in 1896 and is all decked out for the holidays.

Earlier in the day at the crabapple tree. Pine Grosbeaks.

The Eternal Golden Hour!

Year 8

We have entered the time of the year when the “Golden Hour” never ends. As long as the sun has risen for the day, the harsh overhead light of mid summer is gone. In fact, as I enter this post at 12:30 pm, the sun is at its zenith here in the Northland … 20% above the horizon. (Golden Hour is a term photographers use to define perfect light … normally in points south the hour after sunrise and before sunset).

Photography presents other challenges in the winter including staying warm, and dealing with the harsh reflective glare of brilliant white snow. Yesterday up in Sax-Zim Bog it was a balmy 11F, which actually is warm compared to mid winter temperatures in our future.

This morning I took an early season tour looking for Snowy Owls throughout Superior, Wisconsin. While Snowy did not appear, I enjoyed time out on Wisconsin Point, and finding this Rough Legged Hawk at the Superior Middle School. While I prefer the perches I find outside of town, this hawk has learned to be “people tolerant”.

Wisconsin Point / Superior Entry Lighthouse

Rough-Legged Hawk