Tag Archives: MN North: Amity

Friends Don’t Let Birds Fly Drunk!

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

Blue Jay Bonanza

The Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory which is up on the ridge about two miles from my house counted over 5,500 Blue Jays yesterday. The southward migration is definitely in full force working its way down the North Shore of Lake Superior and ultimately to points south. Over the past week it has been rare for me not to have at least a few Blue Jays in the feeders. I have learned that Blue Jays give way to the Common Crow and Morning Dove. Otherwise they rule the feeders. Here is just one of my visitors.

And short movie of the American Golden Plovers I took a few days ago …

Hummingbird and Not Hummingbird!

Summer is a great time. Some of the best birding and nature outings are only a few feet from my front door. Having observed up to five hummingbird moths and three ruby-throated hummingbirds visiting my bee balm at the same time in the early evening, I made the HUGE trip from my living room to the bee balm (about 20 yards).

Although I thought it was a pipe dream to get both species in the same image, this sequence of five photos put me in seventh heaven. A hummer showed up, and decided to drink nectar from the same blossom as the moth. Although for a moment it looked as if the hummingbird had to decide if it would share the blossom!

Bellying Up to the Bee Balm Bar!

Hummingbird Moth (White-Lined Sphinx Moth)