Tag Archives: MN North: Amity

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Year 7

Finches are unknown and unseen this winter. While I’ve had a few Goldfinch flocks visit my feeders, I do not know of anyone who has seen any Pine Siskins, Pine Grosbeaks or Common Redpolls except up near Grand Marais (some Bohemian Waxwings are also being seen in the municipal campground enjoying mountain ash berries). However, Grand Marais is 104 miles up the shore, and it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that these birds will work their way down Lake Superior’s shoreline this winter.

One bird which I always enjoy and may be found in abundance in my local pine forests are nuthatches. I particularly like the slate colored blue of the White-Breasted Nuthatches. Here are some images I took early this afternoon.

White-Breasted Nuthatch (my favorite pic of the bunch)

Two more images that better show off its plumage

Nuthatches move fast!

On the eyesight front, I had my first treatment this morning. The doctor is confident my treatments will be successful and gain my much of my vision back. However, it will take about seven days before I know the success of failure. In the meantime, wait and hope (and perhaps a Sax-Zim Bog excursion or two thanks to some friends).

Pileated Woodpeckers … Male vs Female

Year 6

As I noted the weather had been horrible around here, but my local Pileated Woodpeckers know a trip to my yard yields food. Two days ago I captured this female Pileated Woodpecker during a heavy snow. I thought folks might like seeing the female and male images juxtaposed. Males have a “scarlet moustache” Females do not. In addition, for males the scarlet crest reaches all the way to the upper beak. (another blog post of mine which shows both sexes right next to each other in the same tree)

Female Pileated Woodpecker

Male Pileated Woodpecker

Frozen Snow Birds!

Year 6,

Another snowstorm is starting in the Northland. The forecast has us getting blasted with 4 to 8 inches of snow, but more importantly 30+ mph winds off Lake Superior. Earlier this morning my youngest son, Erik, drove me over to Sax-Zim Bog. I thought it would be perfect weather for finding owls … dark, overcast and zippo winds. The owls thought otherwise. However after this storm ends in two days the birds WILL be hungry.

Upon getting home I had a new device to try in my fight against Blepharospasm, prescription swim googles. I did not go swimming, but took a short hike which is something my eyesight has prevented me from safely doing. While I only hiked for 1.5 miles, the goggles created a moisture chamber which allowed me average vision (good vision in my book). The birds rewarded my hike, both down near Brighton Beach and once I returned home.

Pileated Woodpecker as the snow just is getting started. From a photography vantage point you are looking at my top three images … out of 91 that I took in a little over one minute. If you do not use burst mode on a camera these photographs should be a vote in favor of that mode. While I had tons of blurry photographs, I had some nice pics which were in focus with a low ISO (high quality). In addition, the slow shutter speeds (1/15th of a second) allowed me to show the snow as streaming by the bird. In sunny conditions I might have a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second to freeze action.

Mallards on Ice! All the water except Lake Superior have been frozen for over a month. Every winter hundreds of mallards jam into a small area every night where a stream provides some open water as it comes out from under a highway right next to the big lake (warmed by being underground). Our local raptors tend to learn about this duck bonanza as the winter progresses.