All posts by richardhoeg@gmail.com

Yard Bird Great Gray Owl!

January 5, 2025Year 12MN North: Amityrichardhoeg@gmail.com

My wife, Molly (the non birder), noticed our visitor first. I have been telling friends I would consider this Winter an owl irruption in Northeastern Minnesota when and if we had a yard bird Great Gray Owl. This evening that historic event occurred! The photographs and video were taken after sunset.

I am actually falling way behind on potential posts. This afternoon in a little over one hour I saw five owls … including two species including a Boreal Owl. Regardless … Rich’s Yard Bird Great Gray Owl (video link for blog email subscribers)

And some still images of our visitor. In the final image, the owl did not move far but was no longer to obtain a contrast against the evening sky …

Long Eared Owls and Christmas Bird Counts

January 4, 2025Year 12MN South: Minneapolisrichardhoeg@gmail.com

We celebrated a late Christmas with my daughter and her family two evenings ago, but we had to be back to Duluth by last night such that I could participate in this year’s Isabella Christmas Bird Count. This is the 125th year of the count, which makes it the longest running citizen science research project in the world. As I type this blog post at 6:30 a.m. I am noting the temperature inland is -12F (not including chill factor). Needless to say I am wearing many layers of clothes and will have goggles should I find myself hiking in open spaces. If you want to learn more about the Christmas Bird Count, Science Friday has an excellent piece on their show yesterday (link to Science Friday podcast)

Just like I had a Christmas treat of Barn Owls while visiting one of my sons this Christmas while out in Seattle. While down in the Twin Cities a friend told me where to hike and see some Long Eared Owls. It was a brisk 1.5 mile walk, but very worthwhile.

Minneapolis Long-Eared Owls

Owl #1

Owl #2

Time to leave for Isabella …

Northern Hawk Owl in a Boreal Forest Bog

January 2, 2025Year 12MN North: Wawina Bogrichardhoeg@gmail.com

See part one of this series for the video! I promised there would be a second post about my over two hours watching a Northern Hawk Owl hunt yesterday, New Year’s Day. Remember, if it is not obvious, the Northern Hawk Owl is my blog’s featured bird. The banner for this website for over ten years has always been this tiny owl.

This collection of hawk owl photographs may be more than you folks, my loyal readers want, but I want to post the images! Learn more about the Northern Hawk Owl courtesy of the Cornell School of Ornithology, but back to my story. In total yesterday I took well over 350 photographs of this bird, and a bunch of videos.

Northern Hawk Owl in the Minnesota Boreal Forest (not Sax-Zim Bog)

To lead off here are three images … taken almost at the same time, but different zoom treatments. Notice how the feel of the photograph changes. I tend to better like images that include habitat, rather than extreme close-ups.