I was actually out hiking and looking for migrating owls this morning in the pines at Brighton Beach on Lake Superior, but I became distracted. I also looked for Poppa Great Horned Owl which was hooting in the pre-dawn darkness as I left this morning.
Photo of the steam engine #332 taken very near Brighton Beach! I believe it will also be chugging along the North Shore tomorrow morning … leaving The Depot in downtown Duluth at 10:30 am.
Snow Buntings! This Arctic bird signals the end of the southern songbird migration for another year. While we will still have northern raptors which will migrate into and through NE Minnesota, for songbirds Snow Buntings represent the end.
I LOVE snow buntings. Do you have birds that for no particular reason are favorites? Welcome to the club! Some day I would be thrilled to see a snow bunting in its breeding plumage (almost pure white) up on the Arctic Ocean, but I suspect that day will never arrive. Here is this cute bird’s range map courtesy of Cornell’s All About Birds.
I am lucky to have discovered the leading edge of the Snow Bunting migration. Within a week the buntings will be flying through our area in large flocks, which are impossible to approach. One bird out of a 100+ flock will decide you are a threat, and boom … the entire flock flushes. Thankfully I found just two birds together and was very careful!
Snow Buntings are also one of the most difficult birds to photograph. Their winter plumage with shades of white, brown and black against dull golden brown grasses makes getting a good focus lock extremely difficult. Snow Buntings will also lead the charge back north in early February, long before winter’s end. Thankfully the buntings are a bit easier to photograph against a background of snow … assuming one can find them!
The last two days have been sunny, and warm. While most people understand that this time of year means get outside and enjoy Indian Summer with its beautiful foliage, here in northern Minnesota there is a second season of color. After the leaves fall, needles of Tamarack Pines turn brilliantly golden. Unlike most pines and evergreens, Tamarack needles will fall to the ground within a few weeks leaving the tree bare till next Spring.
During the first week or two of the “golden time”, the early morning or late afternoon sun increases the gold to an intensity which needs to be seen to be believe. Better yet, up here in the Northland the sun now does rise super high in the sky. Thus, light tends to not get washed out like midday in the summer. In fact, I consider November 1st to the end of January … 3 months … to be the eternal Golden Hour!
To get an idea of the Golden Time, watch these two videos. The first was taken during a walk in the Greenwood Creek Boreal Forest. The drive was a sample of Stoney River Forest Road … both late in the day yesterday afternoon.
The Hike
The Drive
Now this is a blog about birds. Thus, here are a few samples (a lot of samples from my hikes and drives over the past two days). Yesterday I was in the Greenwood Boreal Forest. This morning I birded Sax-Zim Bog. The two areas are about 70 miles distance from each other, but my home is located at a central point to the two wilderness areas.
Bald Eagle Time!
Canada Jay (Gray Jay … Whiskey Jack … etc.)
Grouse Time (was always at sunrise but during ground fog)
Ruffed Grouse Courting his Lady Friend (in October??!)
And the mating dance video (video link for email subscribers)
And the other grouse … the Spruce Grouse. Believe it or not yesterday morning I saw 14 spruce grouse. There are images of males, females … and even up in a Tamarack Pine.
And to end this post and put icing on the cake, I found a somewhat rare … definitely hard to find Black-Backed Woodpecker near the Greenwood Bog during my hike yesterday afternoon. I first heard the woodpecker drilling, and I thought the rhythm of its tapping just did not sound like a Hairy, Downey or Pileated. Thus, I left the trail and bushwhacked. Better yet when I found this woodpecker, it was a male … which means the “golden spot of its head” How very appropriate for this post. I already knew I would do a golden theme blog post, and this bird really fit the billing!
It is worth noting these are all “local birds”. Our crazy warm weather w/o and North or Northwest winds has keep most of the migrating arctic birds still to our north.