Amy the Great Horned Owl Has Nested!

Year 11

Well, my Great Horned Owls have finally nested in the nearby forest for the sixth year straight! These images were taken over the past 24 hours …

Les stands guard yesterday afternoon in a nearby white pine tree

Les hoots his love 50 minutes before sunrise this morning

Les … the Movie! (The deep crack heard in the movie is ice breaking on Amity Creek. It startled both the owl and me! Otherwise you are hearing water gurgling in Amity Creek. Video link for email subscribers)

Amy on the nest this morning!

Arctic Bound, Wrong Turn at Duluth: Greater White-Fronted Goose

Year 11

In ten years I have never seen a Greater White-Fronted Goose in the Duluth area … only much further west during their Spring migration. Whether it was strong westerly winds, or a bad sense of direction, Greater-White Fronted Geese have shown up along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Our cold lake should make them feel at home … almost the Arctic Ocean which is where they breed each summer!

I became informed about these birds because I have a free eBird account and subscribe to county wide rare bird alerts for St. Louis, Lake and Douglas Counties. These three counties cover the head of the lakes, a bit of the way up the shore, and north through the Boreal Forest to the Canadian Border.

Subscribing to any county in the United States is easy. Create a free eBird account and  then perform a Google search on the desired county names. I normally include the words “eBird” “Alert” and the abbreviation for the desired state such as “Mn” for Minnesota. Across the USA there are many counties with identical names. I have no desire to subscribe to alerts for other “Lake Counties” across America. There are many.

Here are two annotated screenshots for Lake County

And of course, the Greater-White Fronted Geese which I saw this morning on the Two Harbors Golf Course. Amazingly the ponds are ice free on this March 9th, and have been for days. Waterfowl are quick to find ice free ponds.

Northern Hawk Owl Sticks the Landing!

Year 11

Even the East German judge had to give my friend, the Northern Hawk Owl, a perfect 10.0! Two afternoons ago I drove over to Sax-Zim Bog and had a great time with the Northern Hawk Owl. The crowds have now left the Bog, and I had this experience all to myself! Thankfully, this owl is one of our last real northern birds to head back up into Canada. Often Northern Hawk Owls will hang out till around till early April. In addition, this is about the only raptor that I am not able to determine when it will takeoff. Finally, this bird is fast. Blink and it is gone.

Thus, while definitely there is a lot of skill involved in taking these images, I will not lie and must admit there is plenty of luck involved. One of my favorite podcasts is “How I Built This” from NPR with the host Guy Raz. At the end of each episode, he asks the entrepreneur whom he is interviewing: “What percentage of your success do you attribute to skill vs luck?” For the moment, I refuse to answer that question. LOL!

Northern Hawk Owl Nails the Landing!

Just hanging out … soon to be in flight

The Flight and Landing (note the shadows!)

Hanging out once more on a nearby perch