I went looking for Pine Grosbeaks at some old berry / crabapple farms and found instead one of the birds of the Boreal Forest which is unfortunately experiencing the greatest population drop of any kind of bird in North America. Rusty Blackbirds breed up in the Boreal Forest swamps north of the border in Canada, and we occasionally see them here in northern Minnesota during their southern migration. Their population drop has been estimated at 85 to 99 percent over the past 40 years. Hopefully they are not a “canary in coal mine”. 
Tag Archives: MN North: Cloverland
Wildflowers and Birds!
As I type this post today’s how each day holds such different weather here in northern Minnesota. Yesterday was perfect … sunny skies, mild winds and a temperature in the mid 70’s. Needless to say I went birding at sunrise. Today, however, Lake Superior is showing who is boss. We may reach 60F, and their a brisk wind off the lake just to made the constant rain and fog a bit colder. We turned on the gas fireplace in our living room when our inside temperature fell to 62F.
Yes, I went birding to the Wisconsin Grasslands in NW Wisconsin yesterday. The young are exploring the meadows while demanding to be fed. Here are a few photographs taken early yesterday morning.
Killdeer and Wildflowers
Eastern Meadowlark Juveniles
Upland Sandpiper (and Hoot!)
It is a great day for birding when one hits two very different locations, and is still home by 9:30 am having had a fantastic time. I left the house at 5:30 am and drove over to Cloverland , Wisconsin. The grasslands allow for viewing opportunities not seen in the Boreal Forest where I live in northeastern Minnesota. In under 40 minutes I am birding. This morning I enjoyed a rare treat, an Upland Sandpiper. This bird migrates all the way from central South American. It will start the winter migration back south within a few weeks (before August 1st). As I said … I was thrilled to see this bird. My video includes a short clip of it singing.
Upland Sandpiper
Upland Sandpiper Video (link for email subscribers)
After birding NW Wisconsin I returned home and took a hike over to my “owling grounds”. By following some chirping robins I found two of the triplets. I have found that these Great Horned Owl juveniles will often do a “quick hunt” around 9 am before retiring to sleep for the day. This assumes no pesky crows are around to make life difficult. My owls take a snooze starting around 5:30 am … wake up about 8:30 am, and then sleeeeep.
Hoot on the Hunt!
Finally here is a “flight shot failure”. My Great Horned Owl friend had telegraphed that it was about to fly. I changed my settings in an attempt to capture the owl in flight. No go! My camera was not up to taking a photograph in deep shade. I have often talked about my camera, a Canon SX70. I like the camera but it has problems in low light situations like this morning (i.e. if I need fast exposures). I think it is important to show failures on occasion. I still love the SX70. It is lightweight and easy to take on my hikes and bike rides where a DSLR with a long lens would be impractical. Hiking “off trail” and over deadfall is a challenge. I was often high stepping.
Still Image Owl Photo Settings: ISO 100, Exposure 1/100th second, Aperture 5.6
Flight Shot Failure Settings: ISO 1,000, Exposure 1/800th second, Aperture 5.6
Note: I reduced the quality level of the image over 3x in an attempt to get a fast shutter speed.
Bad Image (camera was not able to properly focus … I had four other images in this sequence starting with preparation for take-off.