Tag Archives: MN North: Amity

Day 090: 60 Species in 90 Days of Photos!

Year 1

Well … actually 61 species!

Today is my 90th day of 365 Days of Birds … my year long bird photography project. Now that I am about 1/4 of a year through the effort, I wanted to reach 60 bird species on my 90th day. When I started this project on my wife’s birthday back in January, I was worried about even finding birds to photograph in the middle of the northern Minnesota winter. Even today on April 22nd there is over one foot of snow on the ground in the forest, and none of the area lakes are even near ice out. For this reason the annual bird migration has been slow to get started.

Reaching 60 bird species in my photographs was made easier by spending some time down in Florida helping my Dad, but also made much more difficult given my stay up in the Colorado Rockies while working as a volunteer for the YMCA of the Rockies. Up in the mountains there were basically two birds present, crows and magpies.

Today I captured with my camera an Eastern Phoebe and a Kildleer. One of my goals of this project is to maximize the number of bird species of which I take photographs. Thus, I will often forgo a cool photo of a bird I have already photographed, and work hard to take pictures of birds I’ve yet to capture on my camera.

090-Birds-365-Eastern-Phoebe 090-Birds-365-Killdeer

Day 084: Blizzard Birds!

Year 1,

Even if it’s April 16th, we’re in the middle of a big winter storm up here in northern Minnesota. Eight to fifteen inches of snow are expected by tomorrow morning. The current wind is 30 mph, with gusts over 40 mph. Thus, it’s not nice weather for either birds of photographers!

These black-capped chickadees were in the middle of an old fashioned food fight. When food is found after a long winter, it is valuable. For some reason this particular branch and spot is a preferred location for perching and breaking seeds.

On the other hand, just before the snow started these goldeneyes almost seemed to be playing! (or picking upon the third bird)

Food Fight
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Tag! You’re It!
084-Birds-365-Goldeneyes-Tag-Your-It

Day 081: Signs of Spring

Year 1, ,

One of these “Signs of Spring” is more obvious than the other. Our first purple finch appeared our bird feeders this afternoon. The last purple finch seen up north by me was in early November. However, the second photograph … Ice Flow Mergansers, may not been as obvious to most people as a sign of Spring.

Lake Superior has the only open water anywhere near this far north. All inland lakes are socked in with ice, and will remain in that frozen state for weeks to come. Thus, the Mississippi River Flyway migration has slammed to a stop for waterfowl on what little open water may be found on the biggest fresh water lake the world. In fact, even the Coast Guard cutters are having difficulty dealing with the late season ice. Here is a link to the slow start of this shipping season.

081-Birds-365-Purple-Finch 081-Birds-365-Frozen-Mergansers