Pay attention to the wind and weather! During the spring south winds rule, and after a night’s winds from the south you may find many new species of birds have arrived outside your home. Learn more about migrations … read up on BirdCast (my post). In addition if you live near a North / South river, it may be a migration highway. Pay attention.

I drove over to the Mississippi River and the Willowsippi Wildlife Management Area earlier this week. While the Father of Waters is still mainly iced over in northern Minnesota, where there are breaks in the ice waterfowl are resting on their northern migration. Twice I found Trumpeter Swans at this open spot on the Mississippi River.

When I reached the Willowsippi Wildlife Management Area (learn more about Willowsippi), I found a pair of Trumpeter Swans had already claimed prime habitat … even though the wetlands pond was still ice over.

Yesterday I spend time over at Sax-Zim Bog. After my local nest failure, I think a local Great Gray Owl took pity on me and wanted to give me some quality “owl time”. I watched this owl for over 1.5 hours. For the first 30 minutes the owl hooted and calmly looked around for a mate. This was followed by an hour of hunting, when I had to leave … the owl was not finished. Oh yes … the crowds are gone from Sax-Zim. I saw only one other birder / car during the three hours I was at the Bog.

The treat over at the Bog was finding a lone Snow Bunting. These small finches are impossible to approach when in flocks, but when they are by themselves one may approach within yards.