Tag Archives: MN North: Hawk Ridge

Crab Apple Blossom Birding Reprise!

Year 6,

Same exact tree … different birds (see my Indigo Bunting and Chickadee photos!).

Cedar Waxwings love to eat apple blossoms early in the spring. It is worth learning where the flowering fruit trees are in your own neighborhood. These trees a bird magnets in every season.

Now if you think my comment about today being “early” in the spring, while that might be a wrong statement for where you live, scroll down to see this morning’s temperature in Sax-Zim Bog)

Cedar Waxwings Eating Crab Apple Blossoms

The Temperature in Sax-Zim Bog this Morning

No Owls Were Found!

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Crab Apple Blossom Birding

Year 6

Northern Minnesota can be a strange place. Yesterday I spent the day at my small Northwoods cabin near the Canadian border. I had to deal with a ice blockage in my water system. Yes … it’s been a cold spring. When I remarked upon this about the “strangeness” of blowing out ice in a water system, two friends commented about similar experiences they had had in the past few days. One person was trying to plant white pines in a boggy section of her yard. Her shovel hit ice one inch down into the ground. The second person has a pile of dirt which she wants to use for gardening, but the dirt pile is frozen a few inches deep. In my case, this is the second time in 30 years of owning our cabin where I have had to combat the Minnesota permafrost.

This morning yelled Spring! The blossoms are finally blooming up on Hawk Ridge. One crap apple tree was particularly beautiful, and I waited for the birds to pose for photo ops. Thankfully the blossoms attract bugs which attract birds. Life is good!

Indigo Bunting Blue Morning!

Black-Capped Chickadee

Red-Eyed Vireos and Chestnut-Sided Warblers need to learn to pose in my desired tree!

 

Superior Sunrise Biking and Birding

Year 5, ,

A sunrise on Lake Superior is fantastic. A better sunrise on Lake Superior is one experienced on a bicycle while birding. This morning I left my home at 6:30 intent on getting some exercise while at the same time keeping an eye out for wildlife.

My path was to bike up Scenic 61. On an early Saturday morning the highway is essentially a big bike path. A car might come by every ten minutes. Thus, wildlife viewing opportunities can be numerous. In addition to a large number of deer, I spied this red fox hanging out in some purple lupine, and then down on the rocks.

When I returned to the mouth of the Lester River, I hiked down into the ravine and found this Common Merganser family busily at work finding breakfast.

It was a great morning to bike and bird!