Tag Archives: MN North: Forest Hill Cemetery

Bird Your Local Cemetery!

Year 12

The past few mornings have seen me birding Duluth’s Forest Hill Cemetery. From now till the end of Fall Migration the results can be fantastic, and the permanent residents don’t tend to mind. If your local cemetery has a pond, focus upon the water. Forest Hill has two ponds and the birds know it is a time of plenty in terms of food. Better yet, due to some live humans who frequent Forest Hill, the birds are somewhat accepting of your birding presence. (learn more about Forest Hill and obtain the GPS coordinates via my My Minnesota Birding Locations web page)

I’ll lead off with a Great Blue Heron. This bird has been hanging out at the cemetery for almost one week. Make certain you watch “The Strike Video”. I have slowed down this action by a factor of two. The video also shows you the strike at normal speed. (video link for email subscribers)

Reflective Mornings … Great Blue and Green Herons

And perhaps my biggest treat … a pair of Belted Kingfishers are busy fishing all the time and somewhat permissive of my getting closer. Their young will fledge soon. One fact about Belted Kingfishers which is unusual for bird species … the female is the more brightly colored sex. As female birds tend to do most of the incubation of eggs, their colors are normally more drab to help camouflage their presence.

Red-Headed Woodpecker Time!

Year 12

Over the past two weeks I have been privileged to watch a Red-Headed Woodpecker family. I owe a HUGE thanks to my birding friend who showed me the nest hole location. Red-Headed Woodpeckers are extremely rare in northeastern Minnesota and I promised I would not blog about these birds till the young had fledged and flown, which they have now in fact done. It was a treat to watch the family grow up! On many occasions I have noted how much I love to bird Forest Hill Cemetery, which is where these beautiful birds called home.

Red-Bellied Woodpeckers

Feeding the young. Tombstones are great ambush locations for bugs!

Showing the Juveniles how and where to eat!

And two videos (links for email subscribers: video 1 | video 2)

Migration Madness!

Year 12, ,

The birds are migrating! The birds are migrating!

A few days ago I had a most excellent time in the rain at Forest Hill Cemetery. During migration damp and foggy conditions will often bring warblers down to the ground (rather than high up in the trees). Such was the case in the drizzle, but with calm winds. The warblers still congregated at the north end of the first pond at the cemetery. This area was the most protected, and for over a half hour I had Yellow-Rumped and Palm Warblers within just a few feet of me. It was fun.

A few birds from that fun time in the rain …

Palm Warblers

Brown Creeper

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Once the weather cleared over the past three days I have seen an amazing number of Broad-Winged Hawks. These smaller hawks set up on the side of the roads and hunt for both songbirds and small mammals. This morning it seemed like these raptors were wherever I looked on Lake County Two between Two Harbors and my Greenwood Feeders.

Broad-Winged Hawks a Hunting!

Finally I apologize for the falloff in terms of post frequency. Some of you know that I am re-battling Prostate Cancer. Tomorrow will be my 20th radiation treatment (out of 40 planned). Thankfully the prognosis is excellent, but the treatments and medication tires me out. Essentia Health was very cooperative in terms of scheduling my appointments in the early afternoon. They understand part of the treatment/healing process is to continue doing the things a person loves … for me birding. Thus, a typical days sees me head out for the boreal forest around 6:45 am, and get back late morning …  then on to my daily radiation treatment. Unfortunately I have experienced some radiation side effects which my medical team has helped me battle through. However, by later in the afternoon I tend to be tired and thus blogging frequency has suffered. Sorry.