6:45 am, 30 minutes prior to dawn, found this birding couch potato hard at work. My trailcam will alert me if any mammals visit the feeders in this pre-dawn hour. My HaikuBox (listens and alerts on specific bird song) will alert me if my owls visit and start hooting.
My job … stretch out on the couch in front of the fireplace reading a good novel. The window is 10 feet away should my devices indicate this couch potato needs to move!
However, don’t worry. This sluggard has to rally eventually. I have a volunteer work day scheduled up at Sax-Zim Bog. We will open in early December and need to get ready for you more energetic guests!
Data collected over the years up at Hawk Ridge (about 600 feet up and 1/2 mile over from my house) indicates that October is “Big Bird Month” (my name for October). Check out Hawk Ridge’s migration data and you can see if you agree, or disagree with me. However, I am one birder who does not spend much time up at Hawk Ridge. While up at The Ridge may see thousands of hawks but from a distance, I prefer “close up and personal” down below. Thus, this time of year means I take lots of birding drives from my house up to Two Harbors and inland. Lake County 2 heading north from Two Harbors is a favorite of mine, followed by various roads uphill from the lake between my house and Two Harbors (Clover Valley … North … Korkki Nordic … Shore Community School area).
Here are a few pics from the past few days, including this morning …
The memory … National Geographic Songbirds of North America
The bird … the American Dipper
When I was a boy, the first bird book which my parents bought me was “National Geographic Songbirds of North America”. This book moved with me to prep school (Exeter), college (Dartmouth), my job in the Twin Cities (Honeywell), and finally back to Duluth! Some books are worth keeping. I think the combination of this book and our two bird feeders near the “8th Street Woods” at my house while growing up drove my interest in birds. How did all of you become interested in birds?
My specific memory … I spent many hours perusing the birds in the book. Some photographs mesmerized me more than others, including the American Dipper. I was fascinated by the idea of a small bird which walked under water in mountain streams searching for bugs. Please realize I had never seen a mountain in my life at that point (about age 10). In addition the book came with a small record inside the front cover which had the songs of various birds, including the American Dipper. The sweet song of this bird with gurgling water in the background was a winner for me! My video of yesterday’s dipper has all those elements (video link for email subscribers). You may wish to read my full post about this super book, National Geographic Songbirds of North America.
A few more American Dipper images, and a Dark Eyed Oregon Junco (also from yesterday but no childhood memories)
