Merlin on the Hunt!

Year 5

I was down on Park Point before the sun rose this morning. At first birding was slow, but when the golden orb’s rays finally began to provide some warmth the birds appeared. Apparently the songbirds had spent the night deep in some thick cedar trees. I suspect the branches kept them both warmer and shielded from the strong SW wind.

Most of the song birds did not venture far from the cedars. The SW wind made migration unwise, and the Merlin which was hanging around made a decision to forage near heavy cover a life extending wise decision.

Merlin in search of songbirds

Yellow-Rumped Warbler giving a Bronx cheer to Mr. Merlin

Hermit Thrush

Friends Don’t Let Birds Fly Drunk!

Year 5, ,

It is the season for drunk birds. We’ve had cold weather including snow and significantly sub freezing temperatures. The end result is the Mountain Ash berries when birds eat them tend to ferment in their gullets. As a young boy I would watch drunk Evening Grosbeaks in our yard. Today I found drunk Robins. Hundreds, if not thousands of Robins were migrating down the North Shore of Lake Superior. At the mouth of the French River there was an extremely popular Mountain Ash tree. Here are a few images:

Underneath the tree I found this Swainson’s Thrush. As first I thought it was picking up sloppy seconds (berries knocked off the tree by all the Robins). However the thrush proved me wrong by finding a nice juicy grub.

My morning actually started up at Sax-Zim Bog. While the Tamarack Pine needles were golden, the birds were not in evidence except these few wild turkeys.

McDavitt Crossing

Wild Turkeys

The rest of the “fall color” photographs are from my own yard and were taken yesterday afternoon. It was a gloomy day, but I finally got some bright clouds.

Blue Jay … White Throated Sparrow … White Crowned Sparrow … Dark Eyed Junco … Fox Sparrow

200k Views Coming Soon!

Background, Year 5

A bit under five years ago, on January 23, 2014 on my wife’s birthday I started this blog. Sometime within the next few weeks I will hit the magic number of 200,000 views. I find this number amazing!

I need to figure out how to celebrate when this mark is achieved. I welcome suggestions via this post’s comments. At a bare minimum, I have some coasters which incorporate my photos which I will have to figure out how to give away!

And here is the first photograph I ever posted to my blog … Riley the Snowy Owl!