Lester River Beaver Birding (videos)

My beaver is still hanging around at the mouth of the Lester River. Now that the current has slowed considerably and the water temperatures have risen, the river is starting to yield some fun quick birding trips from my home. The mergansers are often found in the river feeding on newly spawned fish, and small bugs. The kingfishers are actively feeding which means their young will soon appear.

Oh … yes, and my beaver. I was surprised to find Mr. Beaver (or Mrs. Beaver) in the river three days ago. I do not think of Lester River as being prime beaver habitat, and said mammal had to swim quite a ways on Lake Superior to reach the mouth of this river (the barrier falls would have prevented a downstream arrival).

I like to arrive at the river a few hours after sunrise. Given the deep ravine, there is very little light on the river till the yellow orb gets a bit higher. As it is, I am still always dealing with low light photography. Thus, before heading to the river I explored some local highways this morning where this American Kestrel was most cooperative.

Here are some of my finds over the past few mornings “down in the ravine”!

Lester River Beaver (Mmmm Good!)

Common Merganser Family

Research Vessel, Blue Heron (seen from the mouth of the river)

Beaver Videos (video1, video2)

Northstar Lake Eastern Kingbird Kids!

It is amazing where birds choose to nest. Yesterday morning while out kayaking on Northstar Lake, I found a Eastern Kingbird nest. While that fact may not seem unusual, where I found the nest was truly unique. The Kingbird couple chose a old logging railroad trestle bridge support that is out in the middle of a lake channel. While I understand that the location is safe from land based predators, the nest really seems exposed to the elements. For instance … last Sunday morning we had a severe thunder storm hit our cabin with winds in excess of 60 mph and large hail which damage my car and roof. These kingbirds which are nesting only 400 yards from my cabin survived the storm. Uff dah and Wow! Feel free to comment on this post as to some of the crazy locations birds have nested in your yard.

It is a bit challenging to take photographs from a kayak when it is bobbing in the waves, but I pushed the exposure of to 1/1000th of a second and took many, many images. At times the nest was not even in my end photograph. As a fyi … Northstar Lake is the “southern most lake” in the Hudson Bay Watershed.

My thanks to everyone who has already voted for the book cover I should use for my soon to be published children’s book, Snowy Searches for Color. The polls are still open, but close tomorrow (link here). It was fun yesterday reading the advance copy to my own grandchildren.

Breakfast Arriving

Dad Kingbird Surveying the Scene

Snowy Owl Book Cover Poll

My new children’s book, Snowy Searches for Color, goes to the printer next week and will definitely be available by the holidays. One of my final decisions is to choose and cover, and I would like your help! (see my other children’s books)

Please indicate your favorite cover … here are the two options. Remember this is a children’s picture book, and would be in that section of a bookstore.

You will find a checkbox underneath the images.

The polls for the Snowy Owl book cover are now closed! Thank you for your input.

Snowy Owl Stare

Snowy Owl in a Field