It is a great day for birding when one hits two very different locations, and is still home by 9:30 am having had a fantastic time. I left the house at 5:30 am and drove over to Cloverland , Wisconsin. The grasslands allow for viewing opportunities not seen in the Boreal Forest where I live in northeastern Minnesota. In under 40 minutes I am birding. This morning I enjoyed a rare treat, an Upland Sandpiper. This bird migrates all the way from central South American. It will start the winter migration back south within a few weeks (before August 1st). As I said … I was thrilled to see this bird. My video includes a short clip of it singing.

Upland Sandpiper

Upland Sandpiper Video (link for email subscribers)

After birding NW Wisconsin I returned home and took a hike over to my “owling grounds”. By following some chirping robins I found two of the triplets. I have found that these Great Horned Owl juveniles will often do a “quick hunt” around 9 am before retiring to sleep for the day. This assumes no pesky crows are around to make life difficult. My owls take a snooze starting around 5:30 am … wake up about 8:30 am, and then sleeeeep.

Hoot on the Hunt!

Finally here is a “flight shot failure”. My Great Horned Owl friend had telegraphed that it was about to fly. I changed my settings in an attempt to capture the owl in flight. No go! My camera was not up to taking a photograph in deep shade. I have often talked about my camera, a Canon SX70. I like the camera but it has problems in low light situations like this morning (i.e. if I need fast exposures). I think it is important to show failures on occasion. I still love the SX70. It is lightweight and easy to take on my hikes and bike rides where a DSLR with a long lens would be impractical. Hiking “off trail” and over deadfall is a challenge. I was often high stepping.

Still Image Owl Photo Settings: ISO 100, Exposure 1/100th second, Aperture 5.6

Flight Shot Failure Settings: ISO 1,000, Exposure 1/800th second, Aperture 5.6
Note: I reduced the quality level of the image over 3x in an attempt to get a fast shutter speed.

Bad Image (camera was not able to properly focus … I had four other images in this sequence starting with preparation for take-off.

I found two Killdeer nests this morning! It will be fun to see the fuzz balls in about one month. The decision to look for grassland birds grew out of yesterday’s cold weather. I even chickened out of my daily bike ride. A chill factor in the low 20’s along Lake Superior, even though it was quite sunny, was just too much to handle.

In the past I have noted when birded pay attention to the BIG factors which drive bird habitat. In my local geographic case it is Lake Superior. Thus, this morning I drove 40 miles and birded the NW Wisconsin grasslands near Cloverland. Near my house 75% of the wind directions come across Lake Superior or out of the North. Even a what should be a “warm” south wind comes across the big lake. Thus, I live in the Boreal Forest. This area warms up much later in the Spring than NW Wisconsin which has grasslands and mixed deciduous forest. As noted … I found my Killdeer this morning (and lots of Meadowlark, and even the very rare Upland Sandpiper). The farmers are to be complemented near Cloverland. Most them do not mow their hay till July. Thus, the grassland birds are able to raise their families without fear of tractor mowers.

Of course I continue to have fun with my owls. I visiting them at sunrise this morning (and sunset last night). Here are a few more images from those visits.

Squirrel! (see video in yesterday’s post)

I think they’re called feet! I have them too!

Siblings (Great Horned Owl Triplets)

Finally, as some of my readers know Molly and I love to bicycle tour. Late last summer we toured up in the Norwegian Arctic. Molly wrote an article (see page 32) for Adventure Cycling for which I provided the photographs. We have toured over 11,000 miles in the North American and Europe … the huge majority on self-supported tours. We still hope to tour late this Summer if the pandemic crisis abates … perhaps closer to home. (our bike tours … my trip diaries on the Crazy Guy on a Bike Portal). As a fyi … this is the tour during which I crashed and fractured my ribs on Day #2 due to my vision problems. I still bicycled for another 16 days after the accident. I will admit there was some pain involved but the Norwegian Arctic is stunning. Never give up in life!

Obviously I did NOT take this photo! Location is The Lofoten Islands.