Tag Archives: MN North: Forest Hill Cemetery

Know Your Local Ponds! Great Birding

Year 8, ,

Yesterday morning I “did the ponds.” These small bodies of water are great birding opportunities. Better yet, if the ponds have small islands to make wildlife feel safe, even better. Quite often cemeteries will have ponds. The best ponds do NOT have manicured lawns next to them. Tall grasses and wetlands are the best. In Duluth I often visit Forest Hill and Sunrise Cemeteries. In addition, Sam’s Club has a nice pond opposite its car service area. One final advantage of urban ponds, the wildlife is often accustomed to people which makes getting close much, much easier.

Pond Pics … A Otter, Kingfisher (female) and Green Heron

After a day at the ponds, I was out hiking before sunrise at 5:30 this morning. My local Red-Eyed Vireos started screeching in alarm and thus I was rewarded with finding two owlets.

Unbearably Good Birding: Black-Breasted Yogi

Year 1, ,

Birdcast says the bird migration is now great in northern Minnesota (see my post about how to use Birdcast), and it is! While eating lunch today, I thought … boy, that is a noisy squirrel! I checked the feeders and voila! It was the rare Black-Breasted Yogi. After a great lunch at “Chez Hoeg’s Bar and Grill” which has had fine dining for bears since 2011, I managed to get this photo of Yogi relaxing near my house after its meal.

In addition to Yogi, birding has been very good today. Some of the birds I’ve seen and photographed since sunrise when I started the day down at the Park Point Recreation Area.

Common Tern (just migrated in from points way down south Mexico or South America way)

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Pied-Billed Grebe

Blue-Winged Teal

Do Owls Get Lonely?

Year 8,

I have no idea what is the answer to this question, but two of the three Great Horned Owlets have fledged. With their new found gift of flight the youngsters have moved about 1/2 mile in the forest, which leaves “junior”. This owlet is all by itself in the nest tree. Momma Owl is definitely delivering food (see early yesterday morning), but otherwise after having Mom plus its siblings around all the time, it is by itself. Thus, Do owls get lonely? Does it even understand the concept? This owlet hatched 7+ days after its siblings. It is not ready for flight.

The Lonesome Dove … umm … Owl

Some Blue Winged Teals I had fun photographing a few days back … in between rain showers.