The Northern Hawk Owl has been my signature bird ever since I started/created my 365 blog/website 12 years ago. It has been on my web site’s banner since day #1. This past Sunday right after church, I attached my new license plates. HawkOwl!
During year #1, before social media exploded, I found a Northern Hawk Owl a bit north of Duluth. For a week I watched the owl by myself. Shortly thereafter while volunteering at Sax-Zim Bog, I happened to mention to some other staff that I had found this cool bird. Oh wow, did everyone want to know where and see the NHO! Quite frankly I had no idea at the time how rare a bird I had found. You’ll now know it’s me when you see this vehicle on the back roads of Minnesota. If it’s in winter, I may be looking for a Northern Hawk Owl!
It’s Fat Bear Week in Northeastern Minnesota! While folks may better know the national park “fat bear competition” than our local version (YouTube Overview), we still enjoy our bruins efforts to pork up before the big winter sleep. We even have a salmon run up from Lake Superior, but it definitely does not rival the runs in Alaska.
Last night was the third night out of five that my local bears competed in the event. Earlier this week the competition centered around a young male which always visited Amity (i.e. our home and bird feeders) by its lonesome, but now Momma and her cubs are back and are making a serious pitch to me named this year’s winners. Two nights in a row this trio has pulled down my platform feeder. Momma has even taught her youngsters the fine art of bird feeder destruction that she waits till the main feeder is down, and the hanging feeders are spilled before coming on the scene.
Molly and I were watching from inside our home, only a foot or two away from the black bear family. We don’t bother them, and the bears do not bother us. Please note we definitely DO NOT bake fresh cookies just before sundown and leave our windows open!
Fat Bear Week … Northern Minnesota Style!
Ten Ton Tillie (i.e. Momma Bear)
One of the Yearling Cubs
Mom acquired this name last night from a friends little girl. I was sending updates to friends via a private birding group, and Momma was given her name!
All the pictures were taken by my trailcams, or cell phone. About 30 minutes before the competition started Molly and I arrived home from a writing / photography gig. Foolishly, given it was pitch dark, I decided to leave all my photography gear in the car. After all, what photo ops would appear at this time today? Foolish me, the bears had been visiting nightly around 1 am, and I thought they would stick to this pattern.
In the video, the first two segments were taken by my trailcams. However by final three segments I was watching live and using my Google Pixel mobile phone to record the 30 minute visit.
Fat Bear Week … Northern Minnesota Style … The Movie! (video link for blog subscribers)
