Everything is Just Ducky!

Year 6

As noted in my Ruby-Crowned Kinglet post, I have been birding / hiking the Lester Park Golf Course the past two days. I plan on being over there again shortly after sunrise tomorrow morning. Each day seems to bring different birds, which is fun after the long winter. The past two days’ selection have been ducks. One nice thing is on ponds the number of ducks is smaller. It is really hard to get close to large flocks of ducks. Once one bird flushes, the next 200 also take off. However with golf course ponds in the early morning I can slowly approach … directly in the sunlight which makes me hard to see. When I get to each pond I then sit down, even on the wet grass. Standing I am a dangerous human. Sitting I am often tolerated. Here is a collection of images I took over the past two mornings.

Greater Scaup (and a Horned Grebe in the final pic)

Buffleheads a Courting

Phoebe (not much of a duck!)

Guess who is interested in the migrating songbirds? A Merlin!

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet!

Year 6

Yesterday our ugly weather finally went away. While the sun did not shine, the snow, sleet and high winds were finally a thing of the past. I decided to walk the Lester Park Golf Course and check out its five ponds. As the course is still closed due to the wet spring, I had the links to myself, which also meant I both did not have to dodge golf balls, or have golfers scare birds. I did have to put up with some light fog, but that was a minor issue.

I was quickly pleased to see a huge number of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets were migrating through the area. However capturing one in a photograph was difficult. Light fog means low light, and these birds move fast and rarely sit still. Thus, I observed the habits of this bird. Most of the kinglets would move around the shores of the ponds, picking great bug ambush spots. Thus, I need to think like a bird and guess likely landing locations. The process worked and quite often the birds landed on the reeds which I had already focused my camera upon. Thus … in wildlife photography … anticipate!

Ruby-Crowned Kinglets

By this morning the kinglets were gone, but my first Tree Swallows had occupied the same ponds. It was nice to see the swallows. This morning there was sun (and 33F!)

May Day Winter Birding

Year 6, ,

Nobody is dancing around the May Pole in northern Minnesota. On the first day of May, winter continues to resink its grip. A bit up the Lake Superior shore from Duluth over a foot of snow fell two days ago. Thankfully we did not get whacked. This morning the strong winds out over Lake Superior directed me to head inland. Deep in the Boreal Forest I found some courting in progress. As you look at the pictures of Tom Turkey there are a number of oddities …

  • Snow on the ground on May 1st … more expected tonight and tomorrow.
  • Turkeys in the northern Minnesota Boreal Forest. I do not think of a turkey as a forest bird, and they used to be a rare sighting in these parts. Over the past two days I have seen turkeys five times, but three times in a deep forest location. These birds have dramatically expanded their range over the past ten years, and into habitat not traditionally associated with turkeys. I understand turkeys are almost becoming a “pest bird” in suburbs of large cities.

I also found my first shore bird of the season yesterday afternoon, just not down on Park Point. The sand spit jutting out into Lake Superior and which forms the Duluth harbor is still covered in ice. Thus, smart shorebirds head inland while migrating north. This Greater Yellowlegs was hanging out at the Forest Hill Cemetery Pond.

Oh yes … Molly and I got “beared” last night. Yogi knocked down four feeders. The bent pipe has a one inch diameter. Thus, Yogi is not lacking for strength. The bummer is I never got to see the bruin, who decided to attack our feeders in the middle of the night. Often we get to watch the destruction in progress, but last night our final visitor before my bed time was a skunk underneath the feeders.