In today’s other post about finding Crested Caracaras, I mentioned it was the third time I had gone in search of this particular kind of tropical falcon. Although my second attempt was a failure in terms of finding any Caracaras, I found a small flock of birds whose face only a mother could love, Wood Storks (Cornell link). Although the storks were not delivering any New Year’s babies, I found that quite a few other wading birds hung out with the Wood Storks. In the photographs below see if you can find their buddies … which include Great Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Tri-Colored Herons, and White Ibises. Apparently it was a family affair, or at least cousins were invited!
Category Archives: Year 8
Harlequin Duck in honor of Bodie … my new Grandson!
I am down in Fox Point, Wisconsin from Duluth to meet my new grandchild (#7). I decided to take some time this morning and drive over to the Broughton Drive jetties in Sheboygan. I had heard there were two Harlequin Ducks in this area, including a mature male. Once, seven years ago in Duluth I saw a female … not near as pretty. After several passes walking back and forth along the jetties without seeing the Harlequins amongst hundreds and hundreds of mallards, guess who came swimming right up to the shoreline and allowed me to watch them feed from about 15 yards?!
These ducks don’t belong in my sandbox! Take a look at their range. There are Harlequins which breed in British Columbia and Alaska, and basically winter in the same area. Some of their cousins call Greenland home summer and winter, and finally there is a population in extreme northern Quebec (read Arctic tundra) which winters in the Atlantic waters off the Canadian Martimes down through Maryland.
Harlequin Duck (video link for email subscribers)
Snowstorm Snowy Owl
During this morning’s break between yesterday’s blizzard and today’s winter storm I found this Snowy Owl resting on the snowy tundra near Duluth! I hope to get a cross-country ski in before the next burst of snow and wind starts in a few hours. The official grooming report is the trails are “ungroomed” because our local roads are too snow covered and dangerous to get the Pisten Bully over to the Lester / Amity Trails.