Welcome to Arctic Riviera Birding Habitat Walks! This will be a new addition to my blog. At Christmas I acquired a very small drone which will allow me to create birding habitat videos. I will only take videos of habitat, not birds! Drones are known for scaring birds which which would never be my goal. Instead I plan to introduce readers to the habitat at the various locations where I bird in Northeastern Minnesota! Eventually the walks will be added to my Northeastern Minnesota Birding Locations and be available linked via the free PDF download.
I am still learning my DJI NEO; thus I ask your understanding with these first “walks” as I am learning a new technology. My first walk introduces you to Amity Creek and the forest which surrounds my house including a frozen waterfall named THE Deeps. My second walk took place up at Greenwood Lake, and only 1/4 mile from my Greenwood Creek Bird Feeders. While on my second walk I head out onto an ice road, a rather unique kind of road only found in the far north. One may actually drive a car out onto an ice road!
Video Links for email subscribers to my blog:
Arctic Riviera Birding Habitat Walks 001: The Deeps
Arctic Riviera Birding Habitat Walks 002: Greenwood Lake
Of course since this post once again talks about Arctic Riviera Birding, here are some Great Gray Owl photographs I took this morning in Two Harbors … temperature of -12F at dawn. Three unique owls were photographed. Apparently owl #2 did not get the instructions and was just sleeping in the sun!
Owl #1 and Lighthouse #1
Owl #2
Owl #3 and Lighthouse #2 (sea smoke!)
At times the lighthouse featured directly above totally disappeared from view because of the sea smoke!
I had already planned on using this title, Arctic Riviera, the focus of my next post. After all, the temperature fell to -34F (not windchill) this morning as I headed out long before sunrise. My goal was to find Pine Grosbeaks, which are a MUCH more difficult find this year than Great Gray Owls (go figure). Yes, Pine Grosbeaks are staying up north in Canada due to a banner Boreal forest food crop, while Great Gray Owls have pressed south in almost record numbers (joining our native Great Grays).
At my first Pine Grosbeak stop on a remote dirt road, I put the passenger front window down to listen for these finches. I easily recognize their call, but nada. Upon attempting to raise the window, nothing happened. Remember, the current air temperature was -34F. Repeated attempts to raise the window failed, including the window reprogramming trick I learned years ago for Subarus. In the end the window went up a few inches but then refused to budge further. I suspect my car did not like the severe cold.
Time out … often in this blog I have talked about the need for emergency kits. In addition to extra car keys, I carry extra warm clothes including choppers (warm mittens), a towing cable, a bow saw, jumper cables, and now a self jumping kit. The warm clothes came in handy as I needed to drive the almost 50 miles home at highway speed with the windows open. Even with the heater on it was a chilling experience.
Thus, I talk about birding the Arctic Riviera. Lake Superior’s North Shore / Forest is the riviera for many Boreal and Tundra Birds. Leading me to express how much fun I had yesterday with two difference owls:
I visited the Two Harbors Great Gray Owls and had fun photographing them moments after day break with both the lighthouse and sea smoke in the images! This is a true trifecta of three items into one photograph, and Sea Smoke only forms when the difference between Lake Superior’s surface water (just above 32F and the air temperature … well below zero … is extreme)
Yesterday afternoon I found a new Snowy Owl … its location known only to me! During this owl irruption, it has been difficult to have a “private viewing” with an owl. Eventually I will share the location with a few good birding friends, but for the moment it was just Snowy and me!
Both of these owls are visitors who are enjoying the Arctic Riviera and came from “Up North”.
Rich’s Snowy Owl (I have no idea what the Snowy Owl saw in the final image, but the hunt was on!)
I have been trying out a friend’s thermal monocular for a few days. These devices have made amazing advances in the past few years both in terms of capabilities and price drops. While I am NOT recommending the purchase of this device, the Topdon TS5004, that is not because I was not impressed with the thermal vision scope. I was impressed. Let me explain …
From a practical standpoint because of the high prices that had to be paid to obtain decent thermal imaging, thermal scopes used to only be available for the military. For us “non soldiers” the cost did not justify the price. However, prices have fallen dramatically. As of today, the Topdon TS5004 can be bought for around $400 (Amazon link … for your benefit … not sponsored).
My tests involve multiple trips into the forest to try out the device on Les and Amy, my resident Great Horned Owls. Given Amy has now nested, I always knew where she was located; and both afternoons that I spent hiking right before sunset, I knew where Les was perched. Thus, I cheated. I already knew where two owls were located, which allowed me to easily test the thermal scope. Amy lit up like a Christmas tree. Compared to her surroundings the scope showed that something was definitely throwing off all kinds of heat … infrared light. However, I could NOT tell that what I was seeing was an owl:
I was close to the nest … within 30 yards, but obviously not up in her nest tree
Amy was the ONLY item within my field of vision with a heat signature. This would not be unusual in the Minnesota forest in the middle of the winter. It is a tough environment. Not a lot of life can survive our extreme winters. It is actually -18F right now as I type out this post at 6:00 am … long before sunrise at 7:20 am. Thus, the scope definitely made it obvious something was alive within my field of view.
I have talked about “field of view”. The Topdon has a narrow field of view. In its best quality mode there is zero magnification, but still a narrow field of view. It does have digital zoom of 2x, 4x, and 8x, but you would never be able to uses those magnifications if you were in a search mode (i.e. you did not already have some object pre-located upon which you wanted to zoom the monocular)
I also looked for Les, the male Great Horned Owl, which I knew was perched on the other side of a very tall white pine. Although I knew the bird was at the top of the tree, the thermal scope could not tell something was perched on the other side of a large tree trunk … not surprising or unexpected.
In my estimation a thermal scope will not assist your birding efforts. It obviously can not be used while driving. Even upon stopping, the field of view is small. A better use of your time and resources will be to better learn bird habitat, and invest in a really good pair of binoculars. I like Nikon Monarch binoculars. Good binoculars have a decent field of view, and allow you to quickly scan thick cover for birds.
I have, however, seen some cool thermal scope setups. A local bird guide has two scopes mounted outside his car pointing towards each side of the road, and the scopes are in turn each connected to tablets within his car. Thus, this guide can drive roads slowly and obtain the benefits of thermal scopes. Please understand these scopes do not work through glass; they must be outside. Understand that thermal scopes definitely work during the Minnesota winter. The heat difference makes living animals jump out even in daytime. During summer months, or in warmer climates these devices may not work as well during daylight hours.
Here are a few more links, videos and an image which will allow you to learn more about the Topdon TS004. Once again, for the price I am supremely impressed with the technology obtained for the price, but I personally would not yet find one useful. My Topdon photo shows you my hand because I wanted everyone to understand the size of the thermal scope. My image shows the device is not complex … only four buttons: Power, Mode (different kinds of light displays), Magnification and Picture. {this device does NOT take good night photos … it is a scope, not a camera}
If you would like to learn more about Les and Amy, my local Great Horned Owls, including downloading a free PDF version of the children’s picture book I authored and photographed about their owlets, browse to this page on my website. Amy is pictured immediately below. The image was taken at exactly the same distance as from where I evaluated the thermal monocular, but with a 350 mm zoom lens on my Sony A6300 (530 mm full sized sensor equivalent)
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