Tag Archives: MN North: Pine Island State Forest

October Otters!

Year 11,

Molly and I are enjoying some beautiful weather up at our cabin a bit south of the Canadian border. Yesterday I spent some significant time starting at sunrise west of Big Falls in the Pine Island State Forest. Although the weather was gorgeous … crystal clear and 39F to start my expedition, the mammals and birds did not really cooperate. However, the strong southerly winds gusting to 25 mph had lowered my expectations. It is unusual on the first of October when the temperature climbs to the high 60’s. Only this Spruce Grouse strutted its stuff for me.

This morning one could really feel Autumn. I took a hike in the dreary early morning to a remote lake. Although birds were again not really present, I found a family of five River Otters which let me watch them catch breakfast. While I love to bird, watching this family of otters for over 15 minutes was a real treat, and trumped my birding efforts! (video link of one otter’s fishing efforts for email subscribers … if you listen closely towards the end of the video you will be able to hear the otter chirping and squeaking … communicating with the other four family members).

Finally, here is an image I took yesterday of a “bog stream”. Toomey Williams Forest Road reaches deep into some amazing Boreal Bog. All that water must eventually drain out of the bog, and quite often the “streams” are amazingly straight (and wildlife magnets).

Boreal Forest Birding Bliss

Year 11,

Sleep and Food at home are wonderfully rejuvenating! With a limited endorsement from my wife and medical team, I drove north starting at sunrise both yesterday and this morning to the Greenwood Creek Bird Feeders. My goal was to refill the feeders and take hikes into the bog, but my real goal was to rebuild confidence. While I’m still getting medical care, I had been released from the hospital w/o restrictions, but I suspect Essentia St. Mary’s have a limited number of patients where this means escape off the grid to the Superior National Forest.

Regardless, mission accomplished! I have had a fantastic time both hiking on Superior Nation Forest Road and cruising the first 10.5 miles of Stony River Forest Road (still in rough shape … not yet repaired).

Here are a sequence of cell phone pics from my walk followed by a Spruce Grouse that strutted its stuff for me this morning. The hiking pics are driving exactly 6/10 of a mile in from Lake County #2, and parking by the rock pile. This walk was 1.4 miles round trip and quite easy.

Spruce Grouse from this Morning

Now, if everyone will grant me some leeway. Just prior to entering the hospital I took a few bird outing including a trip to the Toomey-Williams Forest Road in the Pine Island State Forest Wilderness a bit west of Big Falls, Minnesota. The images are all about two weeks old just before entering the hospital for 8 days. I finally have the energy to process photographs.

These White-Winged Crossbills were mad at a two Broad-Winged Hawks that were “hanging in the area”

And a Red-Tailed Hawk hunting back by Big Falls

Finally a Bald Eagle preening at Stony Point.

Finally the real treat for this morning was having a super long conversation with the Fond-du-Lac Tribal Conservation Officer about wildlife. I think we talked for over 45 minutes, and he gave me two pieces of amazingly tasty Moose jerky which he had made himself.

Toomey-Williams Treats

Year 11

As i had previously noted, in addition to the White-Winged Crossbills on Toomey-Williams Forest Road, there were other birding treats this past weekend. In addition … Mea Culpa on bird identification. Yes folks I make mistakes, but nobody caught me (or everyone was too polite to call me out). Upon reviewing my crossbill images from my earlier post, I noticed one bird did NOT have a classic hooked beak. In the second image in the previous post, one actually seeing a Pine Siskin (image republished below)

My Mea Culpa leads me to note there are certain bird species that often “hang out” together. It is not unusual for Pine Siskins to be present with White-Winged Crossbills as both bird species eat similar food … pine cone seeds. However, siskins to not have the specialized beak for prying open certain kinds of cones. In addition, Black-Capped Chickadees, Red and White Breasted Nuthatches, and Downey Woodpeckers often flock together.  Expanded species groups help everyone with food foraging and watching out for predators.

Now on to additional Toomey Williams Forest Road Treats. I saw lots of birds migrating, but here are two species which I managed to get good photographs:

Belted Kingfisher (in a unusual setting for me … Boreal Forest Pine Tree Bog)

Broad-Winged Hawks (two unique birds … both hunting songbirds)

Hawk #1

Hawk #2