Yesterday morning I “did the ponds.” These small bodies of water are great birding opportunities. Better yet, if the ponds have small islands to make wildlife feel safe, even better. Quite often cemeteries will have ponds. The best ponds do NOT have manicured lawns next to them. Tall grasses and wetlands are the best. In Duluth I often visit Forest Hill and Sunrise Cemeteries. In addition, Sam’s Club has a nice pond opposite its car service area. One final advantage of urban ponds, the wildlife is often accustomed to people which makes getting close much, much easier.
Pond Pics … A Otter, Kingfisher (female) and Green Heron
After a day at the ponds, I was out hiking before sunrise at 5:30 this morning. My local Red-Eyed Vireos started screeching in alarm and thus I was rewarded with finding two owlets.
They’re back! Like a herd of dust in a cloud to turtles! I had been hoping the Great Horned Owl owlets would return to my favorite pine grove. As a reminder, I have been following the parents for three years, and each of the past two summers the owl family has moved back to my favorite pine grove for July and August. I had always felt the move corresponded to other birds fledging and thus prey opportunities had changed. Young Robins, Grackles, Flickers, Blue Jays and Crows are now great targets for young owls learning how to hunt.
Thus, this morning I was hiking by 5:30 am, and was shortly rewarded by spotting two owlets sitting within inches of each other. Although the photography conditions were still somewhat dark in the pine grove, I set the ISO high on my camera. For some strange reason, I could not get a focus lock. Yup, good photographers make dumb mistakes, and I made two such mistakes this morning.
My lens was still set to manual focus (moon photography a few days ago)
Above problem now being solved … while moving to a better vantage point … crack … I stepped on a dry stick. I know better. While my owls put up with me being close, they hate loud unexpected noises like a stick breaking. Both owlets flew off immediately.
After 30 minutes additional hiking I located the third owlet with some thanks to the local robin population which were clucking like crazy and helped me locate junior. Here are two images.
A wood duck family I found just after sunrise yesterday morning. The sun is very low in the sky, making me almost invisible to the duck family. The sun was directly behind me back. In the second photo, something caught the duck family’s attention, but I personally had no idea at what they all were looking.
Finally, here are two short videos taken over the past few days … the wood duck family and the Common Loon on its nest. (video links for email subscribers … wood ducks … common loon).
Live in Northland (or visiting the Duluth area)? Folks need to bird a hidden gem not known to most people named the Canosia State Wildlife Management Area. My favorite entry point is at the end of the public part of West Lismore Road (parking area and DNR trail gate). With a short round trip hike (1 mile) I can visit an active osprey nest, a huge Great Blue Heron rookery, and enjoy a large beaver dam which attracts all kinds of other birds and mammals (rookery involves some bushwacking). Keep your eyes open while driving along the Lismore Road (off Lavaque Road). The pond and surrounding woods often yield other sightings. Most years, early in the morning I find Sandhill Cranes.
Here are a few Sandhill Crane images I took at sunrise three days ago. My goal was to see if the Osprey chicks were yet making an appearance, but given they were still too tiny to really show above the edge of the nest, I spent time with the Sandhills. One photography note for these cranes. You need to take your photographs soon after sunrise. Their plumage is pretty but the light colors get blown out by bright sun later in the morning.
