Category Archives: Background

The Fall Birding Doldrums

Background, Year 8, ,
  • Most of our summer birds have departed the Northland
  • Winter birds from up north have not yet arrived
  • Eternal thick fog seems to have coated the area

In short, the birding opportunities have been few and far between over the past week. Perhaps the only excitement was fixing the bear damage at the new public bird feeders at French River.

Winter birding is just around the corner. Two prime locations near Duluth are Sax-Zim Bog just north of town, and Superior (just across the bridge from Duluth). I recently created two short birding guides for a friend’s business. Folks may enjoy downloading the free PDF’s.

The sun did briefly make an appearance yesterday morning, and I caught this Pileated Woodpecker in flight.

Major Update to Minnesota Birding News

Background, Year 8

A major update has been implemented to the Minnesota Birding News Service (not an app anymore, but an online news service). Via this free service which I created two years ago and maintain for the Minnesota birding community, you are automatically informed (with a short synopsis of the new content) when any birding service from these categories posts new content:

  • Mn Bird Areas
  • Mn Bird Blogs
  • Mn Bird Orgs
  • USA Bird Blogs
  • USA Bird Orgs
  • Int’l Birding

Anyone already using the service should delete their content and download / install the OPML with today’s date (October 1, 2021).

For those of you who already have the service installed, there was a major change in Facebook’s format. Failure to replace your feeds will result in them failing to provide updates, if that in fact has not already happened.

Forest Fire Area Birding

Background, Year 8
I drove the Greenwood Forest Fire Area (see map) from the RR Tracks just north of Greenwood Lake, to Mn #1. Even though there are some hot pockets in the backcountry, Lake County 2 is open (not the back roads). I was interested to see the effect of a 26,000 acre fire, and determine if any birds were present (saw zero birds). In the past this area was good for Spruce Grouse and other Boreal birds. My intention is to bird this area over the months and years to come … determining how fast the forest regrows and birds repopulate same. I did submit an eBird report for my excursion using the Lake CR 2–Sand River hot spot. My expectation is by next summer Black-Backed Woodpeckers will move into the area.
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Here is the actual area I birded … from the out of service RR Tracks a bit north of Greenwood Lake to Mn Hwy 1 (16 miles roundtrip). Let me stress I only drove Lake County 2 which is legal & open to all traffic, and at no time was anywhere near fire fighting crews.