Molly and arrived home from Costa Rica at noon on Tuesday, and only 60 minutes later I was back in the car driving to Greenwood Creek in the Superior National Forest. One might ask why someone would get back on the road only one hour after spending a day getting home from Costa Rica (flying and driving). The answer is simple, this region of Northeastern Minnesota is special.

Most of the land near my birdfeeders is owned by The Nature Conservancy, and is part of Sand Lake / Seven Beavers Project. I invite you to follow the link in the prior sentence and learn about what makes this land special, and a significant initiative for The Nature Conservancy (learn more about The N.C. Minnesota Chapter). More importantly there is a HUGE parcel of land near Greenwood Creek that The Nature Conservancy is working towards the purchase. I am obviously both a supporter of this local initiative, and also a donor. The Conservancy is using some of my photographs and trailcam videos for their Seven Beavers fundraising efforts (obviously w/o charge from me). Browse back to this post of mine to see some of the video snippets, and better yet … donate to the Sand Lake / Seven Beavers land purchase!

As I mentioned, I immediately visited this jewel of a location … leaving only one hour after returning home from Costa Rica. The birds welcomed me back, including this pair of Black-Backed Woodpeckers that were foraging within a couple of hundreds yards of the feeders. One needs to recognize Black-Backs by their distinctive tapping as they forage This species of woodpeckers never visits bird feeders.

Black-Backed Woodpecker (male)

Female (note … no yellow patch on head)

The Movie (middle 8 seconds in slow motion)(video link for email subscribers)