Category Archives: Year 7

Osprey Feeding Time

Year 7

Yesterday morning at 7 am I checked up on one of my local Osprey families. I knew that fledgling will soon occur, and I wanted to see them once more before that becomes much more difficult. I think Mom Osprey wants her youngster to fly. At one point she flew to a dead snag 20 yards distant from the nest and spend the next 20 minutes screaming at her children!

Canosia Wildlife Preserve Osprey Photographs

The other fun event occurred during my bicycle ride yesterday afternoon. While cycling past McQuade Harbor I spied a wedding couple with a classic ore boat in the background. I jumped off my bike and took this photograph. Via a local Facebook group I managed to track down the wedding couple and will be delivering to them at no charge a high res, non watermarked version of the image. While their photographer certainly took great photos, it was only from my perspective across the small harbor that this pic was possible. I wanted the new couple to have the image as a wedding present.

It’s nice to see happy events in these unsettling times. As a fyi, I always carry a camera and monopod when cycling.

Green Heron Day!

Year 7,

Yesterday was a great day … another successful eye treatment which continues to prevent my going blind, and a fantastic dawn visit to Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge. If you live in the NW Twin Cities this refuge MUST be on your bucket list. It is approximately 25 miles north of Elk River, and there a great trails and the Prairie’s Edge Wildlife Drive.

I utilized the wildlife drive yesterday morning, and although most of the grassland birds have already migrated south, the number of water birds was amazing. In addition, the water levels are down in the wetlands which really congregated the fishing birds. I don’t think I have ever seen so many Great Herons. I lost track of the numbers.

I really liked all the dead snags and their shapes.

Green Herons

While Pelicans

Bald Eagle (there was a pair of Bald Eagles trying to catch Cormorants)

I also found this image on my camera from a trip to the Joyce Estate one week ago. This Common Merganser Family was quite wet due to the morning fog. They never saw me till they swam within 5 yards.

Spending a sunrise on the wildlife drive was heavenly. I felt so blessed to have my eyesight and to be able to watch nature. Even better, not another person used the dirt road for the two hours I was birding. It was all mine! Upon getting back to my daughter’s house, my wife and I took our four grandchildren who live in Plymouth bicycle riding. The day ended with frozen pizza and a glass of Chardonnay back in Duluth. Life is good!

1/2 Year of Hoot the Great Horned Owl!

Year 7

I just took this photo about 30 minutes ago!

Last night my Great Horned Owl family hunted in my yard around 2:15 am. There is a large dead tree near my bedroom which they were using as a perch. I decided this morning it was time this morning to find the daytime roost. Success!

One of the owl’s common daytime roost’s is about 2/3 of a mile hike from my yard. Back on February 8th I first started watching my Great Horned Owl family when the Mom first sat on the nest and laid her first egg (thus … over six months ago). I had been listening to the parents romancing each other with “after dark hoots” since late November of last year.

Beware tunnel vision when birding. I watched Hoot for over five minutes before I realized another owl was watching me! Thankfully, I had been motionless and had not spooked my friends.

Assuming I can find my owl family on any given day, I have noticed the following:
  • While approaching an owl, if you are off trail and in deep forest, look at the ground. My owls put up with my presence “unless” I am a clod and step on a branch. Loud noises of a stick breaking are hated.
  • Take your time. This morning, once I saw two of my owls, I spent close to 10 minutes just to move 30 yards.
  • Take some images and slowly exit the scene. My owls now seem to trust that I am not a threat. I leave them and almost never flush the owls by accident.
  • Get to know your local crows, blue jays, robins, nuthatches, chickadees, etc. All of these birds have different alarm calls, and will lead you right to the owls. I am often within 50 yards of my owl family in deep thickets of pines … without the help of other birds on many days I would never find them.

Crow!