Tag Archives: MN North: Canosia Wildlife Area

Day 194: Birds … The Large and Small of It!

Year 1,

Today I managed to photograph one of the largest, and the smallest birds in North America. My first adventure was this morning when I drove over to a nature center / park which now has some great wild flowers blooming. Although I had to wait two hours before the clouds finally cleared enough to allow for the fast shutter speeds required for hummingbird photography, the end result was worth the wait!

This afternoon I took a 30 mile bike ride in the countryside surrounding Duluth. Towards the end of my ride, this turkey vulture posed for my camera. Ugly? No way!

Turkey Vulture
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Ruby-Throated Hummingbird
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Day 169: Attack of the Kingbirds at the Heron Rookery

Year 1

My goal today was to hike into the forest and through a swamp to a great blue heron rookery. I have wanted to visit this rookery again, but the bugs have been horrible and have forced me to give up the hike multiple times. However, arriving around 8 am this morning I limited the number of mosquitoes and flies, and survived the hike w/o too many hundreds of bites. It was well worth the effort. The surprise was that in addition to the great blue herons I was privileged to watch to eastern kingbirds attack a mother osprey on her nest. This attack surprised me. I expected blackbirds or jays to attack the osprey, but not kingbirds.

Hiking into the Rookery
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The path was very wet, perfect for wild purple irises
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The Great Blue Herons at the Rookery
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Attack of the Eastern Kingbirds on the Osprey
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Day 111: Blue Jay Day

Year 1,

Throughout this entire project, whether I have been home in northern Minnesota, helping my Dad in central Florida, or volunteering in the Colorado Rockies, a common bird theme has been the ability to watch blue jays. Yet during this entire time to date, I never posted a photo of a single blue jay. However, with the Spring migration in force, even though some blue jays spend the winter in the Duluth area, southern jays are now migrating into and through the area. Over the past few days I’ve often seen flocks of well over one hundred blue jays. In fact, down on Minnesota Point two days ago I watched as a falcon attacked a flock of over 50 jays and had them completely terrified.

However, today is finally “Blue Jay Day”. The proper photographic conditions arrived for me to show off their deep, gorgeous blue. I’ve also included two photos which did not make the cut for my “bird of the day”.

Bird of the Day: Blue Jay
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Bad Hair Day Osprey
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Broad-Winged Hawk
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