Today is the Summer Solstice! While I will not be at Stonehenge to welcome the celestial event, here in northern Minnesota today is still cause for celebration. First I will take everyone on a tour of my yard … wildlife and bird friendly in particular. Over the next few weeks the flowers will explode in color! (video link for email subscribers)
Hoeg H’Arbor!
Summer weather means it’s time to visit grassland birds. Yesterday I arrived at Sax-Zim Bog at 5:45 am. While I did not find any juvenile Great Gray Owls, I enjoyed watching grassland birds just south of the Bog near the Meadowlands.
Killdeer
Eastern Kingbird
This morning I was hiking in my forest by 5:30 am. I did find one of my owls, but it was not willing to pose for a photograph. When I arrived home from my hike, I took the video shown earlier in this post … then it was on to the Wisconsin Grasslands along Wisconsin Hwy #13 near Cloverland. A good time was had by all!
The many personalities of a Bobolink
A Wilson Snipe checks over its territory near some ponds.
Make sure you get our and enjoy the grassland birds. They are the last to migrate north, and the first to leave us to head south. It’s all to brief a visit.
Beautiful!! I loved the tour of your beautiful property. So pretty and peaceful! Thank you for sharing.
Hi Rich,
I was delighted to find a meadow recently near where I live in NW Wisconsin that is home to bobolinks, dickcissels and killdeer. I will be looking out next time for Wilson’s snipe, but apart from meadowlarks, what else do you think I should be keeping my eyes and ears open for?
Jill … you’ve noted my favorites, but two neat birds which I have seen in this kind of habitat are: 1) Upland Sandpipers (very rare but are found in NW Wisconsin) 2) If you have a few oak trees around, red headed woodpeckers are a possibility!
Thanks Rich – an Upland Sandpiper would be wonderful and I’ll let you know if I see one. What about sparrows?
We are lucky enough to live in excellent Red-headed Woodpecker habitat (Luck Golf Course, if anyone is interested) and they are regulars at my bird feeder.
Nice! Any Meadowlarks? For other folks who may be monitoring comments, Don is the king of birding in west central Iowa. He is well known for being extremely knowledgable at finding Northern Saw-whet owls as they winter in his region every winter. If I am not mistaken, Don has quite a Facebook following.
Thanks,
I have about 4 pairs of Bob-O-Links below my home in the tall brome grass.
Don