All posts by richardhoeg@gmail.com

Seattle Sun!

Amazingly we had some sun yesterday morning in the Seattle area. This meant it was time to take birding hikes at my two favorite locations near my son’s home:

Hope everyone is surviving the runup to Christmas. Here is some natural color!

Spotted Towhee in an Apple Tree

Bufflehead

Wood Ducks (one male needed to encourage another to MOVE!)

Steller’s Jay

Great Blue Heron

 

Not in Kansas Anymore … Satellite Birding!

Yes Dorothy, you’re not in Kansas anymore! Molly and I arrived in Seattle late last night to spend Christmas with my youngest son and his wife. This transformation took me from the deep winter Boreal forest wilderness environment, to urban birding. In short, I was out of my element in a major metropolitan area. Enter birding via satellite (see prior post on the subject).

My son and his wife had recently moved to a new neighborhood which I did not know, but I still wanted to enjoy my favorite pastime … birding. The question one would immediately ask … where to go birding? Although I have previously asked myself similar questions for the Boreal forest, here were my queries for urban birding:

  • Does Google Satellite show …
    1. Green space or nearby parkland including significant breaks in the asphalt jungle? Wildlife will use these areas for both shelter and food opportunities. Developed areas still generate plenty of food sources, but the green space will be preferred for “homes” and more natural food opportunities.
    2. Is water present? Wetlands, creeks, streams and rivers combined with #1 make for even better food options. Birds and mammals prefer the best possible habitat in terms of food production with ease of access to water.

Here were my searches / screenshots of my urban Google Maps satellite mode search. Note how I first looked for “green space” and “water sources” via the regular map more, and then switched over to “satellite mode” and zoomed in to confirm (click / press upon any image to view at full size)



The end result was I discovered Yellow Lake, which upon a later Google Search even has an eBird Hot Spot designation for Seattle’s King County. Although the Pacific Northwest and Seattle came through this morning with drab, dreary drizzly weather, I had a great time. Good photography is possible under horrible light conditions. One must just pay HUGE attention to the background used in photographs.

Ring-Necked Ducks in the Drizzle

Wood Ducks (male and female … thinking of love allowed me to get amazingly close)

Song Sparrow (even takes a bath in the rain)

Common Redpoll Invasion

On Wednesday I drove and birded Hedbom Forest Road near Floodwood. This birding spot is one of my NE Minnesota Birding Locations and part of the free PDF of birding locations you may download / use on your mobile device.

Hedbom is wunderbar! I’m not certain how much longer this forest road will continue to be drivable this winter as snow will get deeper, but for the moment if you are in the vicinity of Floodwood, Minnesota check it out. One need only drive the first 3.5 miles from the gate to see the best habitat. While I did not find any owls (I was hoping I might find a hawk owl) I did find hundreds and hundreds of Common Redpolls. These birds are invading NE Minnesota this winter. Right now they are not visiting feeders, but later in the winter that equation will change. For the moment they are finding lots of natural food in the forest.

While many of these images may look like you are seeing the same bird, in actuality about 300 redpolls were gritting up right in front on my car, and I knew they would fly to a particular dead tree to clean their beaks.

Common Redpoll … Incoming!

And More Redpolls and Lichen