Tuesday’s visit to Mooseland did not turn up any moose, but there were an amazing number of Moose tracks on Toomey Williams Forest Road. The bird of the day were the two northern Minnesota grouse species. I finally realized that while scanning the snags and trees for hawks and owls, I really needed to spend more time focusing upon the immediate road in front of me. On three separate occasions I almost ran over grouse … both Spruce and Ruffed. The birds only avoided my car by inches, and I was not driving fast.  However. grouse are not noted for intelligence. Given grouse season has already started it further showed just how remote these roads are … these birds had not been hunted recently or they would have spooked way earlier. I did stop and take some nice images of this Ruffed Grouse. I was standing about ten yards away from the bird.

The raptors were hunting even before sunrise, but I waited till a few minutes after sunup to watch this Broad-Winged Hawk hunt (thus … the yellow light of sunrise). According to Frank Nicoletti from Hawk Ridge they saw over 9,000 Broad0Winged Hawks yesterday. It is amazing what a decent NW wind will cause in terms of migration towards the end of September.

Yesterday morning I was up a bit before 5 am, and left shortly thereafter for Pine Island State Forest which is about a one hour drive from my cabin. While Mr. Moose (see blog post) did not make a repeat visit, I discovered that the local Spruce Grouse population was worried that I might be considering an attempt to become the “top male” of the forest. Even though it was the 2nd of September, just like their cousins, the Ruffed Grouse (see post), the Spruce Grouse were in a courting mode. Twice, I managed to walk within ten yards of two different birds, and each time the local challenged me and strutted!

The grouse need to be careful, the number of raptors in the forest was HUGE, and I’m sure most of them, including this Red-Tailed Hawk (photographed at Moose Land) would love grouse for breakfast.

Time now to review some Northern Lights photographs. I was not planning on heading outside at 3:45 am, but when one looks out the window of one’s bedroom, and realizes the Aurora is dancing over the lake, who could go back to bed?!