Tag Archives: MN North: Duluth

Minnesota Boreal Forest Birding (Facebook Group)

Background, Year 9,

Earlier this morning I created a new Facebook Group, Minnesota Boreal Forest Birding. The image accompanying this post defines the area. Although the group is private, a Facebook account is required to join / participate. The group’s description and basic rules are listed beneath the map.

This group covers birding in the Boreal Forest Region of northern Minnesota, including The Big Bog, Sax-Zim Bog, the BWCA, and the North Shore of Lake Superior including Hawk Ridge.  Here is Facebook direct link:

Minnesota Boreal Forest Birding Rules:
  1. Our region is defined by the map accompanying this post
  2. Images MUST be posted within the group (not linked). Only one image is allowed for your primary post, but additional images may be posted in subsequent comments. Images should be your own, or clearly identify the owner.
  3. Posts of birding photographs should be recent, and note the basic date and location. For sensitive species using a general location is acceptable. Please add text describing your birding experience.
  4. No advertising or links to commercial websites without prior administrative approval. If your web site is “non commercial” and “not trying to sell something”, and has a clear relationship to birding in our area, links ARE allowed and most welcome.
  5. Discussion of ALL birding topics relevant to our region ARE allowed, but ONLY using polite civil language (no personal attacks or bullying).
  6. Our region is not 100% Boreal Forest. Feel free to post about birds seen in other habitat found throughout our area.

Boreal Owl … Zzzzzzz

Year 9

What can I say. As always it was cold yesterday. The morning started out at my house at -13F. However, conditions like these insure that owls like to find some sun in the daytime. Assuming a perch is protected from the wind, roosting in the sun is a most desired activity.

Boreal Owl! You can tell that I kept my distance, and only used my zoom lens. The Boreal was happily asleep in the sun. It’s front was warmed by the golden rays of the sun, and it was also protected from the wind. This image is important to show. Even though a Boreal Owl is one of the rarest owl finds in North America, and obviously I would have preferred to photograph the bird with open eyes and showing some personality, no image is worth pushing a bird. This owl needed sleep, and I respected that fact.

At sundown, as shadows stretched across the ground, this Snowy Owl moved high for the same reasons. It wanted to feel the waning rays of the sun. It would not hunt till after sundown.

Today I could not find either owl. I tried! It was overcast and there was no reason to sit out in the open. Perhaps tomorrow when the sun shines again I will get lucky.

Spark Birds and Winter Gloves

Year 9

This post is a potpourri of stuff. While driving north back to Minnesota, Molly and I often listened to podcasts. Our favorites tended to be How I Built This and This American Life. Yesterday afternoon I learned about “Spark Birds” via This American Life. I was not familiar with the term, but basically a Spark Bird is the bird that helped you personally get hooked on bird. A Spark Bird need not be exotic. What bird was your Spark Bird?

For me the bird was a Blue Jay. While hiking in the woods as a young child I heard a noise which I could not even identify as even being a bird. The sound was not a typical “jay song”; perhaps it was the “musical queedle-queddle” described by my IBird Pro app… Regardless, the sound made this young boy hike deep into a thicket where I discovered the source of the song, a Blue Jay. I was now hooked on birding.

My Spark Bird: The Blue Jay

In the Spark Bird episode of This American Life, the famous birder Noah Strycker, talks about his Spark Bird … a 13 minute interview about his love of Black Vultures! The National Wildlife Federation also has a neat article from late last Summer about folks and their Spark Birds.

Now the other part of this post … finding warm winter gloves. A number of you suggested battery powered heated gloves which I tried a few years ago. When the heating system failed on a cold day, I vowed to only use natural materials. I may be overly cautious. I’m sure these types of gloves have improved.

I also received an email from Robert H. who recommended I read a recent post by Bryan Hansel about Winter gloves. Somehow I had missed Bryan’s recent post n gloves, but interestingly enough I already have a pair of gloves on order which are reviewed by Bryan. If you don’t know Bryan Hansel, he is a fantastic photographer who lives up in the Grand Marais area. Should you ever want to increase your photography skills, Bryan teaches both “in person” and “online” photography seminars. Check out his web site.

Finally, like myself, Bryan lives in northeastern Minnesota. He understands severely cold weather. Most of the reviews for products on Amazon and other websites are well intentioned, but from people who don’t truly experience super cold weather. In NE Minnesota it is likely that at some point in the winter the mercury will plunge to -30F or worse (not including chill factor).

Once again, What was your Spark Bird and Why? Leave a comment.