Will the owls ever let me see them again?! October was a horrible month for owling. While I used my extensive knowledge about “the wise ones”, I found nary an owl in October. Two mornings ago I arrived on McDavitt Road in Sax-Zim Bog almost an hour before sunrise. Conditions were perfect … dark … an almost full moon to spy a hunting owl … light winds … and cold, 11F (cold conditions require an owl to hunt and eat more often). I knew these conditions would be prevalent the prior evening, which is why I found myself up in the Bog long before sunrise. Better yet, the juvenile Great Grays I had seen in August and September should now not get fed much by their parents. The young, still learning hunters given their failure rate at hunting, should be out searching for voles a larger percentage of the day.

When God gives you lemons, make lemonade! After 90 minutes of seeing nary an owl, I threw in the towel and left the forest and took a circular route home which would optimize my search for non forest birds. I quickly found quite a few red-tailed hawks, but the real discovery of the morning was a flock of ring-necked pheasant.

While cruising the area I spied the pheasants down in a roadside ditch … a shady ditch. Given the temperature had only reached 18F I knew the birds would eventually climb up to the road to forage. I waited for 20 minutes, and my patience was rewarded. Seeing pheasant in northeastern Minnesota is actually quite a treat. Our habitat is not vary pheasant friendly. The ring-necks eventually walked quite close to my “car blind”.

There actually is a key take-away from my story. Adjust your birding focus if success is not presenting itself. I moved habitats and birding focus. Apparently my local owls, given all my October owling searches, were laughing at me last night. While Molly and I were watching grandkids trick-or-treat down in the Twin Cities,  my locals were hooting up a storm in my own yard at 6:30 pm. My Haikubox kept sending me notifications, and the recordings were loud and  clear. Uff dah!

The Ring-Necked Pheasant of the South Bog

Do you stop for Purple Cows in life? This term grew out of a bike tour and the “purple cow” I saw while on a nine day self-supported bike tour around 1/2 of Lake Superior (The Trans Superior Tour). I stopped to inspect the Purple Cow and was introduced to the “Woodcarver of Washburn” (read more about Purple Cows and our travels … Molly and I were interviewed for the local paper about our bike touring).

Earlier this Summer I found a new Purple Cow while out birding … a Seussical Cow! Yes, the esteemed doctor would be thrilled to see this roadside children’s bus shack. Here in the Northland where temperatures get dangerously cold in the winter, out in rural areas many families build small buildings where their children may await the school bus. Here is today’s Purple Cow. I waited to take a picture when I had the first light of the morning plus wildflowers.

Not just when birding, but also when travelling across America Molly and I almost always take longer routes that get us off the interstate highway system. Purple Cows are rarely if ever seen from super highways. Here is the original Purple Cow!

This day’s birding was (a few days ago) was unusual in itself. After all, how often does one see a Black Pheasant? In my case, never before this outing. The bird led me to do some research. While the pheasant might be an escapee as pheasant are rare in northern Minnesota … black pheasants which indicates a bird is melanistic are even more rare. Regardless, here is the Black Pheasant which definitely was trying to hide from me.