Thousands of warblers, sparrows and other song birds were migrating through the Duluth area yesterday afternoon. The Merlins and Peregrine Falcons were very aware of that fact. The songbirds flew out into the open at their peril. The Peregrine Falcon was having sparrow for dinner near the Lakewood Pumping Station, while the Merlin preferred a yellow rumped warbler. Perhaps it all tastes like chicken!
Yellow Rumped Warbler (it survived)
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Peregrine Falcon (immature)
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Merlin
In the past few days I am starting to see the early stages of duck migration through the Duluth area. Capturing these two ring-necked ducks were definitely the highlight of the morning’s birding adventures. The forecast calls for a northeast wind and rain tomorrow. Our long string of gorgeous days may finally be at an end, but it has been great.
I actually went looking for hawks this morning, but although movement was slow, other bird species picked up the slack!
Ring Necked Ducks
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Flickers x2!
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Palm Warbler
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Peak-a-Boo Blue Jay
Decided I needed to do some exploring this morning, and I was rewarded with finding some American Golden Plovers. A small flock of about 15 birds was at the Beaver Bay sewage treatment ponds just inland from Lake Superior on hwy #4.
Finding these plovers was an “exclamation mark” near the end of a beautiful drive inland from Lake Superior along various back roads. A worthy explore is to drive northeast from Finland on Lake County #7 (Cramer Rd) as far as the Trestle Inn (about 20 miles from Minnesota #1). This road snakes through a gorgeous river valley. The Fall foliage is nearing peak color and was gorgeous in the early morning sun … Uff dah!
American Golden Plovers
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Nine Mile Lake Reflecting the Morning Sun
(just south of the Trestle Inn)
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My route this morning
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