Tag Archives: WI North: MacQuarrie Wetlands

Spring?? or Winter??

Year 7,

Wait a day, and winter will slam back into the Northland. Yesterday was a delightful day with temperatures reaching the low 50’s at our house for the first time this Spring. I even went cycling wearing shorts … albeit I climbed away from Lake Superior and escaped inland. 25+ mph winds were blowing and I knew it would be frigid down at the shore, only 800 yards from our home.

The nice weather meant I spent 7 hours hiking the forest trails, both near my house, Minnesota Point at dawn, and the MacQuarrie Wetlands during mid morning. Maintaing social distance was easy. Per my norm, 99% of the time I saw noone. At the wetlands, the ice was in the process of going out. It is amazing how birds discover this fact (ice out) immediately. I saw hundreds of ducks, lots of songbirds, and three pair of Trumpeter Swans which were battling for dominance. These wetlands have about 12 ponds, and are prime habitat. It was fun to see these huge birds attack each other, all the while trumpeting their claim.

The winning pair of Trumpeter Swans

Of course no day would be complete with trips to visit my owl family. Near sunset I was rewarded with some family portraits. Better yet, I believe there are in fact two owlets in the nest. It is amazing how such huge birds … the Mom and its two chicks can hide within their home and avoid being seen by anyone … man or beast.

Family Portrait … Great Horned Owls

This morning Winter has reclaimed northern Minnesota. Fierce snow squalls have been dumping snow on the ground. I did hike over to the owl’s nest during one squall. The birds did not look happy. I understand.

Yellow-Shafted Sock It To Me Time!

Year 6, ,

During migration not only do I see lots of birds, but the results mean I debate in my own mind all the possible great blog post titles! For instance today’s post could have been:

  • Fighting Flickers
    or
  • Migration Madness

However, being a child of the 60’s I could not resist of throwback to Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In … It’s Sock It To Me Time! (YouTube short compilation) The reason this title works is due to the battling Northern Flickers living in my yard. Since last Thursday, one male has claimed our yard as his territory. Yesterday a female flicker showed up on the scene, but so did another male. The battle has been ongoing … the female sits quietly or feeds while the men posture or scream (sing) at each other and the lady.

Amity Creek Fighting Flickers

The Men (Sock-It To Me Time)

The Lady

The Fight

In addition over the past few days I have visited all of my favorite wetlands. It is worth learning how weather affects you own local area. In northwestern Wisconsin the wetlands have been ice free for over a week. In northeastern Minnesota most ponds are still ice bound. All the lakes in my northeastern Minnesota boreal forest have a thick coat of ice. The primary reason between the two different habitats in terms of when they “turn on” for birding is Lake Superior. In northwestern Wisconsin most winds do not blow across frigid Lake Superior. See yesterday’s post showing ice flows if you do not understand why. These open ponds also mean waterfowl stage in large numbers in this water. My two favorite wetlands are the Johnson Mitigation and MacQuarrie Wetlands. See my birding location page to learn more, including maps / directions. I understand most of my readers do not live in northern Minnesota, use this “real time” migration map from eBird to learn if the migration is “hot” in your local region.

In another sign of spring, I am home this morning for our “prairie grass” burn. Our yard is part forest, part grass. The grassland portion needs to be burned every few years to keep it healthy. My role is actually just to observe the burn, as professionals carry out this task.

Rough Legged Hawks (2 unique birds were hunting … heading north to the Arctic)

Trumpeting Swans (issuing a challenge to a pair on a nearby pond)

Hooded Merganser Love (two’s company … three is a crowd)

Staging Ducks in Flight

Red-Winged Blackbird

Tree Swallow Attack!!!

Year 5
To the uninitiated and those of us who do NOT think like tree swallows, this may look like a wood duck house, but NO! This is obviously a tree swallow house.
 
Tree Swallow #1 (lower bird) does not know this fact, but it is about to get attacked by Tree Swallow #2 (upper bird). The fight was over this bird house, AND a nearby female. These are the first tree swallows I have seen this spring near Duluth.
 
Attack! … image taken of the same two birds a moment or two later.
It is interesting to note that there were three other wood duck houses (unoccupied) near by, but the swallows only showed interest in this house, and contested it fiercely. Two more pics from this morning. Apparently whomever controls the door, controls the bird house.