Tag Archives: MN North: Amity

SuperbOwl Sunday

Year 11

It has become traditional for those of us who don’t “live for the Super Bowl”, but love birding to focus upon a certain effort on a particular Sunday in February. In my case it may be withdrawal symptoms from sitting through four Minnesota Vikings Super Bowl defeats during my high school and college days. My friends at college loved to tell me how my much loved Vikings were choke artists. I had problems not agreeing with the sentiment.

Regardless, I decided to focus of SuperbOwl Sunday today. Shortly after sunrise we had a rare commodity here at the Head of the Lakes, sun! I easily found, Les, my love struck Poppa Great Horned Owl. This morning Les was not willing to wake up. Unless you are a photographer that is a good thing … the owl was obviously not stressed by my being in the vicinity.

This afternoon, I returned to the Lester / Amity Forest Trails. For a long time the owl ignored me. In fact, while it looks like Les is looking at me in the second image, he only perked up when  two cyclists rode on the trail ten feet below my spot, and near his white pine. The cyclists never saw me or the owl.  Happy #SuperbOwlSunday.

Les, the Great Horned Owl, Poses for Super Monopod

Background, Year 11

Super Monopod has returned! It is new and improved, as I have solved the pendulum problem (i.e. the camera may swing at the top of a fully extended super monopod).

  • Question: You may ask, what is “Super Monopod?”
  • Answer: A ranger approved manner to get your camera higher.

Read my original Super Monopod post and review … it shows initial results (photos). I even showed my setup to a park ranger who very much approved … assuming one does not get to close and push / flush birds. As a fyi … Les never moved all day! While one could use a drone to get a camera higher in the air, it is obvious that drones disturb birds and should NEVER be used.

The key to solving my pendulum problem was purchasing an inexpensive ball club head which allows me to tilt my camera on the top of my Super Monopod. Thus, at an extended reach of the poles, I no longer need to tilt the extremely tall monopod. I also use the ball club head with my Amazon Basics monopod (very light). I control my Sony A6300 at the top of the Super Monopod via remote control using a Sony App my phone.

Les, the Great Horned Owl (pics taken yesterday under horrible photographic conditions)

Two pictures of Super Monopod V1 (w/o the new ball club head)

Owls Lend a Helping Hand! (Talon)

Year 11

Okay … I just had to move a comment from one of my readers, Ray, and my response to an actual post!  🙂

  • Ray commented: A little take on Aesop’s “A Country Mouse and a Town Mouse”? 365’s forays into the bogs of northern Minnesota to track down “country” owls provide quite a contrast to Flaco the escapee “town” owl from NYC Central Park Zoo who is enjoying his freedom for the last year on the island of Manhattan. Apparently he “spends his nights hooting atop water towers, and preying upon the city’s abundant rats” … which brings to mind an interesting solution to NYC’s rat problem. (link to an article about Flaco from the USA Today provided)
  • I responded: Down in Southern Florida in the middle of the state on all the sugar plantations, the farmers put up many, many boxes to help Barn Owls nest. The end result is the Barn Owls have very much taken up residence on all the surrounding farms and have dramatically reduced the rodent problem … and loss of cane sugar!!! Perhaps NYC needs to get smart like Florida?!
  • And here is a web page link to the Florida program … the Florida Crystal Owls (worth reading). Their program is 15 years old.

Of course, for a post of this nature I need to feature my own local owls. Here is a photo of Les (Poppa Owl) I took about two hours ago keeping watch over his domain. Amy is very near by. Notice how the Great Horned Owl is sort of asleep … one eye open … one eye closed.