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


Sparrowhawk Song (the movie!)

Fishermen have favorite fishing holes. Well, birders have favorite thickets of trees, and this morning a bit after sunrise “one of my favorites” paid off big time! Over the past few weeks I had gone over to Cloverland (see Wisconsin Wetlands … my birding locations). During the last three summers, I had found a pair of red-headed woodpeckers nesting in this particular thicket of trees. Unfortunately, my red-heads have not appeared this summer (the Northland is the fringe of their range). However, my thicket of trees on the corner of Green Acres Road (think 1960’s TV comedy) and Wisc. Hwy 13 continues to produce.

This morning I found recently fledged Sparrowhawks, or American Kestrels. Normally it is impossible to get close to these birds, but by using my thicket of trees for cover, jackpot! This little guy was trying to sing for his supper (or breakfast), but mom and dad were having none of it … fly or no food! The movies where you will be able to hear the fledgling begging follow the still images.

Sparrowhawk Fledgling

Begging for Food … the Movies (movie 1movie 2)