Tag Archives: MN North: McQuade Harbor

North Shore Reprise!

Year 7,

As you’ve heard me say (write?!) many times, find the food in the winter … find the birds. Exactly 24 hours later I refound my Ruffed Grouse and Red-Tailed Hawk in the same exact trees. The grouse will continue to use the this berry tree till the fruit is gone, and the hawk must have found good hunting. Even with raptors, winter will find them hunting from the same spots as long as prey holds out. The key is birds do not want to use any extra energy during cold winter days.

One interesting observation, unlike songbirds which tend to grab berries and pluck the entire piece of fruit off a tree, grouse pick the fruit off a tree where the stem attaches to the branch. Thus, grouse grab the stem, pluck, and then must flip the fruit into their mouth.

A bonus was finding a cooperative Rough Legged Hawk … in a secret location (LOL!)

There is a neat project that tracks Rough Legged Hawks via GPS devices. This relatively new banding technology really helps us understand birds and their breeding / migration patterns. Our hope is to band some Northern Hawk Owls us at Sax-Zim Bog with this technology this winter.

One bird’s paths over three years … It is amazing how far this hawk ranged through the Arctic.

Birding Rejoined!

Year 7,

Yesterday afternoon I was granted medical clearance to drive and venture forth on my own! While my recovery still includes a long road ahead, it is obvious I am on the correct route. I wasted little time in heading out and having a delightful time. Days are short this time of year, and from a photographer’s vantage point it is the “golden hour” in terms of light all day long. The sun rarely gets to high in the sky.

My wife gave me ground rules for where she said I was allowed to go (doctor withstanding), and I quickly focused upon winter food sources. It was great to take some short hikes and be rewarded with some nice birding results. Enjoy! (I did!).

Found this Red-Tailed Hawk conducting its afternoon hunt. In the second two images I had backed off on the zoom, expecting the hawk to take-off (a correct guess which comes from watching birds habits a long time)

Ruffed Grouse in a Berry Tree (were you perhaps expecting a Partridge in a Pear Tree? Not possible here in northern Minnesota)(in a the second images, a berry is stuck on a grouse’s beak … note the slight difference between the final two images … the photos are identical except for the beak being slightly open which changes the image’s focus point.

Common Redpolls eating Tansy Seed Popsicles (while most of the redpolls I have found are females or immature males, the final two images show a male … thus the “redpoll name”)

McQuade Migration Madness!

Year 7

There have been very strong winds out of the Northwest the past two days which sets up the Lake Superior Migration Highway (see post Northern Minnesota Tundra). Thus McQuade Harbor (a large public boat launch area, not a real harbor) has been full of birds. I have seen flocks of Juncos, Sparrows (many kinds), Lapland Longspurs, Horned Larks, Yellow-Rumped Warblers, Northern Flickers and other individual birds. In addition, Merlins have been very much in evidence. These Boreal forest falcons follow the migration and consider these migration flocks “take-out” dining for Merlins!

One of my favorite birds at this time of year are Horned Larks, and it is the only time of the year I get to see them. This bird loves open spaces, not my northern Minnesota forest. Horned Larks nest to my north, east, south and west. Inspect this range map from the Cornell School of Ornithology.

And my Horned Lark Photographs

This American Golden Plover is late … it belongs much further south at this point in the year.

Finally … a Lapland Longspur and Northern Flicker

It is worth noting the songbird migration except for my Arctic and northern tundra friends is now essentially over. My big question over the next month as the Snow Buntings and Slate Colored Juncos start to appear, will we have Redpolls and Pine Grosbreaks this winter? Will the northern owls pay us a visit in large numbers, particularly Snowies. Stay tuned over the next two months as I answer those questions. The migrants I am seeing now do not winter in northern Minnesota. However, the Arctic and Tundra birds (and a few northern Boreal birds) consider my region warm and inviting in the winter … worthy of a December through February “southern” vacation!

On the personal front, I am slowly recovering. Pavement diving off a bicycle is not a good idea. Last night I finally managed to sleep most of the night. Even with pain medication, fractured ribs make sleep difficult, My thanks to everyone who has reached out and expressed concern.