Two mornings ago while checking fruit trees I found a flock of pine grosbeaks enjoying fruit from one of the few pygmy crabapple trees that still has not been picked clean. The entire flock were female birds. I think all the male pine grosbeaks are already north of the border staking out prime breeding locations. Unlike us humans who do NOT like to eat the apple seeds, the grosbeaks consider that the tastiest part of the apple.
Female Pine Grosbeaks
Duluth is primed for another winter storm and 5 – 8 inches of snow that is supposed to start tomorrow evening. I mention this fact because the storm will make for the third storm, including one blizzard since I first found this year’s Great Horned Owl’s nest nine days ago. The poor owl mom has not had nice weather for sitting upon a nest. Thus, both owl parents were happy yesterday when the mercury rose to 39F degrees under bright blue skies. I was happy because the owls actually provided me some “photo opps” during decent weather / nice light.
First Poppa Great Horned Owl
And Now Momma …
Bird one, Storm two, Bird three, Storm four … such is life up here in the Northland. I now keep a very close eye on the hour by hour weather forecast. Repeated winter storms are slamming our region. In addition, the lack of ice this winter of Lake Superior means any storm may get reinforced with “lake effect”.
I was surprised this morning when it dawned sunny and cold (i.e. surprised by the sunshine, not the cold). This gave me an opportunity to search for Poppa Great Horned Owl’s roosting tree. I knew he would not perch far from the nest as he is the “great protector”. If any other local wildlife find the nest and decide to make problems, Poppa Owl goes into attack mode. Anyhow, I found the “roost tree” this morning, but even when I thought I had found Poppa, I had to walk around for ten minutes scanning with my binoculars. It is downright amazing how well he can hide and bury himself. Here is his mate “giving me the eye” after our recent storms.
I also made a quick trip up to Sax-Zim Bog during a break in the weather. I found both Evening Grosbeaks which have not yet moved deep into the Boreal Forest in preparation for mating season, and this Great Gray Owl. The owl sat out in the open for almost an hour, and hardly moved a micrometer. I suspect she is a female which means she is conserving energy to both create eggs … and then soon move onto a nest for he extended incubation period (her mate will feed her).
