Tag Archives: MN North: Hartley Nature Center

Fledged in Northern Minnesota (yr 2, mth 7)

July 26, 2015Year 2MN North: Hartley Nature Center, MN North: NorthStar Lake Regionrichardhoeg@gmail.com

I hear many folks talk about how July is a horrible month for birding opportunities. Not true. While the unexpected jackpot finds during the spring and fall migrations are not possible, and the leaves block the view of birds you hear but can not see … July is a great month for birding. Think young! In other words, find the nests and the fledglings and you will be treated to neat views. Young birds have often not learned to be scared of us humans, and their parents are often so busy feeding their offspring who are almost their own size, that the adult birds sometimes lose a bit of their wariness.

The images below were taken over the course of the past week of fledglings. In short, get out there and enjoy the July heat!

View this project’s Flickr photo stream. (click upon images to view at full size)

Eastern Phoebe Family

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Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker Kid

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Rescued Crow on an Early Morning Kayak

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Belted Kingfisher

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Common Yellowthroat

Birds, Wildflowers & the Cornell Merlin ID

July 18, 2015Background, Year 2Birding Know How, MN North: Hartley Nature Centerrichardhoeg@gmail.com

My favorite wildflower patch is really starting to produce. The milkweed will soon be in full bloom, and color is already bursting out everywhere. In short, in northern Minnesota take a trip to the Hartley Nature Center. Stand in the wildflower garden and hide amongst the taller flowers (read over six feet tall!). If you are motionless, the birds will not be recognized as a dreaded human! Here are a few birds I saw and photographed during a 20 minute window of nice sun around 7:30 am.

One bird I gave me some identification difficulty. Enter the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology. Even though I am a Dartmouth Alum, and during my college days I would do everything possible to defeat Cornell in athletics, their bird web services including their new Merlin ID App are fantastic. The word app is actually a bit misleading. Although they have Android and Apple apps, it is the windows PC based Merlin ID app which really takes the cake. I used the Merlin ID App to identify this Nashville Warbler. See the screenshots found at the end of this post document how Merlin functions.

Nashville Warbler

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Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

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Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

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Merlin Bird ID Functionality

In Search of Color on a Gloomy Day (Back Roads to Sax-Zim Bog)

July 16, 2015Year 2MN North: Forest Hill Cemetery, MN North: Hartley Nature Center, MN North: Sax-Zim Bogrichardhoeg@gmail.com

Over the past few days I have been exploring back roads in northern Minnesota somewhat near to Duluth. My goal is to be ready for the fall migration and winter birding. During these travels the sun disappeared shortly after dawn two days ago, and it has not made a reappearance. The red fox photo in this post was taken five minutes before the clouds rolled in.

Today, I decided I need to find color to fight against the gloomy skies. Success! Some of my normal haunts yielded up photo ops of birds which stood still enough to let me deal with the long exposure times required. Now … if the sun would just reappear, I can’t wait to revisit the green-winged teal and my favorite wild flower location. Patience!

Finally, one of my explorations yielded a great new route to drive over to Sax-Zim Bog from Duluth. Just before the 36 mile marker on Mn #4 (Rice Lake Road) is the dirt road, Comstock Lake Road. The road is 21 miles long and ends right at Cotton, Minnesota on US #53 directly opposite Arkola Road … a favorite entry into Sax-Zim Bog. Comstock is excellent. From the 7.5 mile point, there is a power line which stretches all the way to Cotton (13.5 miles more of driving). The power line should be great for owling, and the countryside included bogs, heavy forest, and an occasional farm or meadow. This route required an extra 30 minutes to reach Cotton, but I was in beautiful surroundings in “bird friendly environment” my entire drive to Sax-Zim Bog (as opposed to a four lane highway, US #53). I’ve included a map and a photo of a typical scene of Comstock Road.

My own route to get to Comstock was Lester River Road (then a few local roads), Jean Duluth Road, Normanna Road, Rice Lake Road (Mn #4) and finally Comstock Road. This takes one right past the location on Jean Duluth Road I discovered Kelly J last December. Kelly J is a northern hawk owl that hung around till early March.