Category Archives: Background

Snowy Owl Book Cover Poll

My new children’s book, Snowy Searches for Color, goes to the printer next week and will definitely be available by the holidays. One of my final decisions is to choose and cover, and I would like your help! (see my other children’s books)

Please indicate your favorite cover … here are the two options. Remember this is a children’s picture book, and would be in that section of a bookstore.

You will find a checkbox underneath the images.

The polls for the Snowy Owl book cover are now closed! Thank you for your input.

Snowy Owl Stare

Snowy Owl in a Field


Northern Minnesota Blogs, Birds and Bears (video!)

Earlier this weekend my blog readers, in other words all of you folks, surpassed the 250,000 pages viewed mark! This achievement is significant given given where my blog started out a bit over five years ago. It has been a fun journey. I have enjoyed meeting everyone … some of you virtually while others in actual person! Keep those comments coming.

Here are some stats … (see end of post for a video taken Friday of my “yard bear”!)

Where everyone lives …

Top 100 Countries … Ranked Order

Rank Country Views Rank Country Views
1 United States 210,455 51 Chile 90
2 Canada 8,699 52 Vietnam 82
3 United Kingdom 5,832 53 Brunei 79
4 India 1,919 54 Colombia 78
5 Germany 1,901 55 Serbia 69
6 France 1,424 56 Croatia 69
7 Australia 1,372 57 Egypt 62
8 Brazil 1,241 58 Slovakia 60
9 Spain 1,115 59 Saudi Arabia 59
10 Netherlands 913 60 Slovenia 59
11 China 846 61 Kuwait 53
12 South Africa 785 62 Estonia 52
13 Norway 719 63 Peru 50
14 Costa Rica 697 64 Bangladesh 47
15 Sweden 695 65 Puerto Rico 46
16 Japan 623 66 Ecuador 45
17 Italy 611 67 Lithuania 40
18 Russia 552 68 Uruguay 37
19 Poland 549 69 Latvia 36
20 Finland 500 70 Qatar 32
21 Singapore 467 71 Panama 30
22 Indonesia 409 72 Oman 29
23 New Zealand 363 73 Malta 27
24 Philippines 332 74 Venezuela 25
25 Denmark 300 75 Belarus 24
26 Belgium 294 76 Kazakhstan 23
27 Ireland 286 77 Nigeria 22
28 European Union 271 78 Bosnia & Herzegovina 22
29 Thailand 255 79 Dominican Republic 22
30 Turkey 246 80 Guatemala 21
31 South Korea 244 81 Albania 19
32 Mexico 243 82 Algeria 18
33 Czech Republic 235 83 Iraq 18
34 Israel 234 84 Jamaica 17
35 Malaysia 232 85 Kenya 17
36 Switzerland 219 86 Luxembourg 17
37 Taiwan 214 87 Nepal 16
38 Greece 212 88 Lebanon 15
39 Argentina 210 89 Morocco 14
40 Portugal 188 90 Macedonia 14
41 Romania 152 91 Jordan 13
42 Pakistan 134 92 Paraguay 12
43 Hungary 133 93 Trinidad & Tobago 12
44 Iceland 127 94 Nicaragua 12
45 Mongolia 120 95 El Salvador 12
46 United Arab Emirates 102 96 Isle of Man 11
47 Ukraine 97 97 Armenia 11
48 Sri Lanka 95 98 Suriname 11
49 Bulgaria 94 99 Cambodia 11
50 Austria 91 100 Guernsey 11

This year’s statistical overview through June 23, 2019

All Time “Top 50” Pages and Links (January 2014 to June 2019)

Your favorite pages and blog posts tend to focus upon the Northern Lights, equipment reviews, and northern Minnesota birding information. Your favorite bird posts tend to focus upon raptors, specifically owls.

Page Title Views
Home page / Archives 76,170
Minnesota Northern Lights Viewing and Photography 48,030
Northeastern Minnesota Birding Locations 6,248
Review: Canon SX60 5,849
Minnesota Birding Sites 5,747
Extending the Telephoto Reach of your Sony A6000 / A6300 / A6500 4,921
About Me: Richard Hoeg 4,740
Canon SX70 Review: Snowy Owls & Spruce Grouse 4,325
Minnesota Bird News App 3,828
Old Vermilion Trail Forest Winter Birding Map 3,037
Taking Photos With Super Zoom Cameras & Image Post Processing (Canon SX60) 2,340
Blog Photo Index 2,119
Canon SX70 vs SX60 Review: Pileated Woodpecker Images 1,677
Planning your Winter Minnesota Northern Lights Trip 1,667
Day 024: Roadkill Cafe (Bald Eagle) 1,506
Optimizing Your Probability of Seeing Northern Lights 1,484
Kayaking Under the Aurora Borealis! 1,296
Minnesota Bird News App | Installation Instructions 1,254
Lake Superior Storm Waves (video) 1,176
Photographing the Dark Side Using the Sony NEX-5T! (Yr. 2: Day 27) 1,148
Northern Lights Dance Over Stewart Lake (Two Harbors, Minnesota) 1,048
A Northern Night to Remember! Aurora Borealis Dance! 1,045
Birds Behaving Badly! Pileated Woodpecker Fight 1,043
24 Hours of Lake Superior Magic! 985
Northern Lights Memorial Day Weekend 2017 (video) 959
Minnesota Bird Search 920
Northern Magic: Aurora Borealis & Apostle Islands Ice Caves 904
Best Minnesota Bird Photos: Year 1 747
Day 130: Wild Turkey and Chicks Photo 715
In Search of Color on a Gloomy Day (Back Roads to Sax-Zim Bog) 703
The Birds of Las Catalinas – Guanacaste – Costa Rica 691
Birding With Children 602
The Birds of Guanacaste – Costa Rica (pdf book) 572
Homecoming Aurora Borealis! 537
Day 056: Hairy or Downy Woodpecker? 523
Sax-Zim Bog at Sunrise: Courting Turkeys! 500
A Blink in Time: Crisp Point Lighthouse 490
Day 365: One Year of Bird Photos Complete! 469
Other Regional Apps 445
Gray Fox and Prey! 430
New Olympic Sport: Iceberg Fat Tire Jumping 423
Bird Index: Raptors 411
Canon SX70 Landscape Test 407
Crow Attacking Snowy Owl at Dawn (video) 405
Day 338: Northern Hawk Owl 403
Photographing the Northern Lights … Varying Your Settings 401
Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Map (interactive) 399
Day 315: A Superior Snowy Owl! 395
Road Trip Birding 387

And the promised bear video … Yogi (or should I say Boo Boo) was only a few feet away from our house. I think this bear is a yearling kicked out by Mom and now needing to learn to fend for itself in the wild. We see this bear often (photos).

I am also now on Instagram

Blog Notes

In my most recent post, I included links to the float plane videos. This will now be a new feature of each post that includes a movie. I learned by subscribing to my own blog that folks who receive blog post email updates were NOT seeing any embedded movies. Given many of you have missed my short movies, here is the page from my blog which lists most my videos.

In addition, my email subscribers did not see my forest fire video. Here is the movie I took on that scary evening just a few nights ago … right across from my house.

A small sampling of videos I have taken over the past few months which were embedded in blog posts, but did not show up in email updates:

Finally, an update on my Great Horned Owl family. While the young have fledged, with the help of path finding crows and blue jays, I am able to find individual owls during most hikes. This morning was typical. I followed the confrontation between the owl and crows by ear for several miles through the forest, but when everyone flew across a deep ravine, I had to give up. Here are photographs taken shortly after sunrise a few mornings ago. It’s tough being a Great Horned Owl in the morning.

The last image shows why if one is willing to hike (often several miles off trail), I am able to find my owls. It is not unusual to have 20+ crows dive bombing the poor owl, and even landing just a few feet from an owl. However, before I show too much sympathy for my Great Horned Owls, understand that they are raiding a huge number of crow’s nest every night for a snack. The evidence was very much obvious around the old nesting site. There is no love lost between these two species of birds.

Watching Crows Diving and Dipping (and then me)

Crow Attack