Category Archives: Year 8
Birds on Ice
Contrary to popular belief I very much enjoy watching birds other than owls! Yesterday was just such a morning as I captured “Birds on Ice!”. This new ice performance drama is brought to you every winter wherever food may be found. Unlike summer when birds disperse for nesting purposes, in the winter birds flock together and rarely fly far from a good food source. Todays food sources are:
- Common Redpolls (visiting a thicket of loaded berry trees in the Canosia Wildlife Area): These little guys are all across the Northland, and as natural foods are consumed everyone should start to see them visiting feeders later this winter.
- Mallards (all quacked up over a great joke): These wild ducks know that the domestic geese at the Forest Hill Cemetery get served corn. What’s good for the goose, is good for the ducks.
- Mourning Doves (near my own bird feeders): I never used to think of these doves as a winter bird, but each year I have 10+ that winter in my own yard. They eat a Hoeg’s Cafe every morning, and hide from the bitter winds in the thicks pines and cedar trees.
Finally, while driving home from my late afternoon / early evening Snowy Owl experience, I realize the same calm winds and mild temperatures would make for a great night on the Duluth waterfront! The Federal Clyde, sailing under the colors of the Marshall Islands, loads its latest cargo about 9 pm last night.
A Tale of Two Snowy Owls!
And now in sequence as I experienced the two owls … which were never more than 75 yards away from me, and often much closer. Notice that Snowy #2 is “whiter in color”. I am pretty certain that the first owl is an immature female, whereas I think the second Snowy is an immature male. By the time male Snowy Owls are four years old they become almost pure white with no banding. The female’s banding helps with camouflage as it incubates eggs in the nest on the ground up on the Arctic tundra.