I drove down to Park Point (Minnesota Point) this morning leaving around 5:30 am. I almost did not head down to the Point for a “shorebird” walk on the beach because around 5:00 am when I looked outside at my house (800 yards above Lake Superior), there appeared to be low clouds, perhaps fog. Our weather has been so nasty I really wanted to bird the big lake, but not in cold fog. Like most mornings before I go birding I decided to check my weather map and live web cams.

My favorite weather app which is available on Android or Apple, is Weawow. I make a donation of a few dollars and look carefully at the hour by hour forecast, and the weather maps (both rain and wind / speed / direction). This weather app is very detailed, and does NOT have advertising or pop-ups. Regardless, the app seemed to indicate a trip to the big lake would work fine.

However, I always check the live Canal Park webcam before heading out. I look at the American flag on the display tug boat, sky conditions, and lake waves. Here is what the scene looked like at 5:08 am … a beautiful calm morning 15 minutes before sunrise. Game on!

My shorebird search was a bust, but the flowering fruit trees just off the main parking lot yielded a rare sight for northern Minnesota … a Red-Headed Woodpecker! This bird was definitely worth the price of admission!!! The bird seemed to be storing food, but the habitat on Park Point would not be my expectation in terms of red-head friendly.

The moral of the story for birding … do your research but then be willing to adjust and have fun!

Red-Head … the Movie! (video link for email subscribers)

This morning I drove down to the Park Point Recreation Area. Given the day finally dawned with less wind and sun, I was hoping for early migrants. Except for some early arriving waterfowl in the bay, there were almost zero birds … nary a songbird. However, even though the temperature was 26F at 8 am, I cruised the area slowly with my car windows open. Suddenly I heard a Merlin, and then there were two! These falcons are early arriving raptors and they know that there is a huge area stretching from the end of the Sky Harbor Airport Runway to the Recreation Area with almost zero trees. Songbirds need to fly/migrate through this stretch (the Gauntlet) and Merlins can easily catch meals. If you don’t keep your windows somewhat open, even in the winter you will miss out on a lot of good birds. If you walk the Park Point Nature Trail out to the Superior Entry in April, you will often hear many Merlin couples as they choose nesting sites.

In addition I saw this late migrant. This immature Bald Eagle was not in a hurry to return north as it is not yet sexually mature and breed. Other than the eagles that will remain in our area and are already on nests, migrating eagles migrated through our region many weeks ago. As a fyi, Bald Eagles do not get their white head at tail till after they are four years old.