My daughter took me birding shortly after sunrise this morning. I was hoping to find winter finches between Duluth and Two Harbors, but this long, beautiful stretch of warm calm weather has not encouraged many “Canadians” to push south. We have reached 70F with south winds the past two days … unheard of for November 8th (last year in mid November temperatures plunged well below zero and a huge blizzard snowed us for over three days). I checked almost every fruit tree around, but scored zero on the winter finch count. I know they are up the shore in some numbers, but 100 miles up the shore.

Be careful what you wish for … the wind swings around tomorrow. Rain and them temperatures will peak in the mid 30’s. Maybe my finches will arrive if we put snow on the ground. My own bird feeders only have locals at this point. Other migrants have pushed south.

As I’ve noted before, I love to bird cemeteries. In the Two Harbors plot I found seven Wilson Snipe and one cooperative Pileated Woodpecker. Thus, it was still a fun time.