Tag Archives: MN North: Amity

Birding and Biking on Hold

October 20, 2020Year 7MN North: Amityrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Just a brief update on Tuesday, October 20th. I will have surgery to either repair or replace a defective heart valve tomorrow morning. Otherwise, my heart checked out fine via various other tests yesterday. Thanks for everyone’s best wishes and prayers. My prognosis is good, and I hope to post again this coming weekend. I will photograph and review the varius birdfeeders I use, and why …

Till then.

Hospital Birds

October 17, 2020Year 7MN North: Amityrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Surreal. Being awakened at 3 am in a hospital bed because the battery on your heart monitor has failed. As I slowly woke up I found myself looking up into the eyes of a nurse with a flashlight. The reason for the heart monitor and hospital, I have problems. Thursday afternoon I collapsed / blacked out while trail running (Oct. 14). After recovering enough while lying on the ground, with the help of a Good Samaritan I was able to hike slowly down to the Lester Playground parking lot. After an ambulance ride to hospital I am now in St. Mary’s (Duluth) having had many tests, with more tests on Monday. Heart surgery is almost a certainty in the near future. Posts will be few and far between for a while.

Shortly before my ill fated trail run, I took these images in my own yard. The Red-Bellied Woodpecker had been violently attacking another Red-Bellied all morning … defending my suet feeder.

This rare northern bird down from the Arctic also showed up to hunt songbirds … a Northern Shrike.

From three years ago exactly … saving Silver.

Bluebird Breakfast

October 8, 2020Year 7MN North: Amity, MN North: Lester Parkrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Perhaps I should have named this post … Bluebirds for Breakfast! After yesterday’s SD card disaster I walked over again to Lester Park Golf Course at sunrise. This course is just inland from Lake Superior, and given it was closed this year by the City of Duluth due to budget constraints, it has become a great wildlife / birding refuge. I know from others who walk the course in the late evening that Hoot enjoys a periodic hunt at the links!

I easily saw over 200 migrating Bluebirds this morning, mostly in flocks of 3 to 8 birds. This Merlin also saw lots of Bluebirds this morning, and benefited from the experience.

Winds were calm this morning, and the Bluebirds tended to stay much higher in the trees (yesterday’s strong winds forced the birds down towards the ground for easier flying).

Upon getting home from my morning jaunt with the Bluebirds, I found my first Fox Sparrow on the season under my own feeders. This is one of my favorite sparrows, and I am lucky if I see a few each fall migration. It is working its way south from the Canadian tundra.