Tag Archives: MN North: Lakewood

Woodpecker Time! Use your ears!

Year 13,

For the next two to three weeks, have fun birding by using your ears. The various species of woodpeckers will start to fledge their young, and if you listen … you will find their woodpecker holes  nests … just use your ears. Woodpeckers will still be drumming, and normally that occurs near their nest holes. For the final few days the youngsters will start sticking their heads & necks out of the holes and demanding food. I good app to learn both the drumming and chick calls is Cornell’s Merlin. Open the app … select explore … then the desired species … and finally all sounds.

Here is a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker which has decided a “no parking sign” near my house is a great drumming sound board! (video link for blog subscribers)

Amity Creek Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

And Bald Eagle Roadkill Cafe … I suspect this eagle is about three years old having just acquired its white head and tailfeathers … amazing how close it was willing to eat next to the highway. Eagles normally flush somewhat quickly. Images taken near my house on the Two Harbors Expressway.

Scoring the Owl Trifecta: Boreal, Great Gray & Great Horned Owls

Year 12, ,

The Owl Irruption means crazy birding excursions like mine yesterday afternoon are possible. In just over one hour, I saw all three species of these owls: Boreal, Great Gray & Great Horned Owls. I consider myself lucky to live in the Northland where all three of these owls species both live, but also some of their cousins from north of the border will occasionally pay us a visit. Normally owl irruptions end on or about March 1st, which is only 11 days away. Anyhow, yesterday’s terrific trio! Did I mention it was cold? All three owls wanted sun, but also to avoid the fierce Northwest wind. This morning it is -15F to 25F below zero depending upon where you live (real cold air collects at the bottom of hills).

Boreal Owl (sleeping in the sun … it did apparently not move for the next four hours)

Great Gray Owl (trying to get comfortable within its pine needle mattress before a snooze)

Amy! My local Great Horned Owl

The sun is finally peeking out between the trees at 7:20 am. Time to go make my rounds of all three bird feeder stations. My feathered friends should all be hungry after such a cold night.

Great Gray Owls in a SnowStorm

Year 12

Saturday was a ugly day, and all the owls … both our locals and irruption migrants … decided they needed to hunt DURING the storm. For Great Gray Owls which catch prey by hearing mice and voles running beneath the snow, I can’t believe they had much success. It goes to show, hunger is a great motivator. Make certain you watch the videos. The snow was coming down at an amazing rate (Video links for email subscribers: Owl#1 | Owl#2 | Owl#3). I will be following this post up with a “morning after the storm” addition to this blog!

Finally here are some still images taken during storm. I actually hung out at home till the worst of the storm hit. Thankfully, none of these owls were over 10 miles from my home. I just slowed down my driving and took my time. I was actually somewhat amazed I found any owls given the poor visibility. Luck (and some skill) definitely played a role.

Just prior to the storm … unlike us, owls don’t get to use weather apps to learn that a storm in coming

Great Gray Owls during the storm. The last owl was in a ravine, which I thought was smart, but then it flew up to a non protected area. In the fourth image, the owl is shaking show off its head … thus the bit of blur.

Flight shots. Quite frankly I am amazed I not only found these owls, but managed to photograph them in flight.