Soon the “Butcher Bird” will leave us for points further north. The Northern Shrike gets is nickname for various reasons … perhaps because it breaks the neck of its prey … or perhaps because it impales its prey on barbed wire (think storage for future consumptions). This bird attacks birds almost its same size. In short this is a bird with an attitude!
Northern Shrike this morning in Sax-Zim Bog
Folks might think just watching the Snowy Owl hunt yesterday would have been enough drama for one day, but nope! When the day dawned sunny and calm, I decided after taking care of my chores and a workout, I needed to get outside. According to the weather forecast we were experiencing a day of calm blue skies between winter storms. Thus, my first plan of the day was to visit Sax-Zim Bog. While the number of winter human visitors can now be a bit overwhelming in the Bog, I hoped the storms would limit sightings of the human persuasion. Additionally the prior night’s cold temperatures should make birds more hungry and therefore easier to find.
My prime Sax-Zim Bog entertainment was watching the grosbeaks. Pine Grosbeaks will start to migrate back north within two weeks, and even though some Evening Grosbeaks nest in northern Minnesota, most will fly north to Canada’s boreal forests. Without further adieu, the Battling Grosbeaks of Sax-Zim Bog.
Okay … I lied … one final comment. It was intriguing to see that while Pine Grosbeaks fought other Pine Grosbeaks, and Evening Grosbeaks also battled amongst themselves, there was nary an interspecies conflict. I suspect the male hormones in advance of mating are now starting to flow freely.
An Innocent (??) Evening Grosbeak
Evening Grosbeaks Fight Sequence
Can’t We All Be Friends?
Battling Pine Grosbeaks
And one more image from yesterday’s Snowy Owl Event … seconds before liftoff!
Strange title? Yes, but very appropriate. The last 48 hours have seen …
My most reliable “hoot” seems to start at 6:10 am and lasts for 30 minutes. Sunrise is at 7:20 am. My morning routine has been to get up around 5:15 am, have a bowl of cereal in front on the fireplace, pull on my thermal layers of clothes and then head out into the darkness. We have had record snow already this winter and I live on the edge of the forest next to a stream / ravine / hill. The combination with the cold does not make for easy hiking.
The end result is I am dead tired, but I have learned where all the packed down deer paths in the deep snow. These paths have helped me stumble around less in the woods while “homing in” / triangulating the hoot of my local Great Horned Owls. My neighborhood owls will nest soon, and I think I have narrowed down my nest search area enough that it’s time to look during the daytime.
Okay … flashing back to yesterday … it was fun to spend time with the Northern Hawk Owl during the early afternoon, and then once more right at sunset. Man alive are Northern Hawk Owls EXTREMELY difficult to photograph in flight. Unlike almost every other raptor which telegraphs that the bird is about to take off, Northern Hawk Owls tell you nothing … and they are very, very fast. . I should say I am really happy with the blurry wings as it demonstrates motion and speed, but I would be telling a BIG fib. I was just happy to capture the owl in the frame (near Sax Road and Hwy 7 yesterday afternoon, but do NOT try and cross the small DEEP stream next to the road to get closer to the owl … there is open water in many places and thin ice everywhere else).
Northern Hawk Owl
And a moment or two before sunset
This Bald Eagle was hanging out near some roadkill