Tag Archives: MN North: Sax-Zim Bog

Northern Lights, Coyotes and Face Plants

Year 10
  1. It has been a hard 24 hours. First and foremost, it you are a “Facebook Friend” of mine, ignore any and all requests until I indicate otherwise in this blog. Although I have two factor authentication, it would appear my account has been compromised.
  2. I did a face plant and hurt myself while trail running yesterday afternoon. Long story short, I had a major heart event which landed me in the Emergency Room. I am okay but scared.
  3. Given I was having trouble sleeping last night, at 3 am I discovered that the skies had finally cleared after constant rain since last Thursday and the Northern Lights numbers were good. I drove to Boulder Lake at 3:30 am and watched the Aurora Borealis. In some of the pics you can see the Big Dipper, and others have some of the Milky Way.
  4. When I was finished watching the Northern Lights at 5:00 am I headed to Sax-Zim Bog … long before sunrise which was essentially 7:00 am this morning. I had some good birding which I will blog about tomorrow, but the star of the night were the Northern Lights and a Coyote which walked to within a few feet of my car loooong before sunrise, obviously blinded by my car’s headlights. I have never watched a Coyote from only a few feet away.

Northern Lights at Boulder Lake (last night)

Wile E. Coyote

I am amazed I even managed to get this photograph to work. It was 45 minutes before sunrise and I had to use every trick in the book to take a picture in the dark, and pray the coyote would pause for a few moments.

 

Saturday Morning Meanderings … Birds to the Medal of Honor

Background, Year 10

Like most days, I woke up shortly before 5 am this morning, but the 30 mph winds and downpour made the idea of going out with my camera into the forest seem crazy. Thus, given Molly is out of town, I found myself with a free early morning all by myself. Sitting down on the living room couch I decided to learn more about a true American hero, Desmond Doss. Mr. Doss is the only conscientious objector in the history of our nations’ history to win the Medal of Honor.

Photo: Courtesy of the US Army Medical Museum

During the Battle for Okinawa in World War II, Desmond Doss, who was a combat medic, under severe enemy fire “saved the lives of 50–100 wounded infantrymen atop the area known by the 96th Division as the Maeda Escarpment or Hacksaw Ridge”. Doss saved most of those lives after his division had withdrawn from the area, He stayed behind and repeatedly went forth from the ridge’s edge onto the field of battle which the Japanese controlled. Doss found wounded soldiers (even some Japanese … the enemy), treated them, pulled or carried them back to the edge of the ridge to finally lower the wounded over the cliff by rope to safety. There is a rather gruesome movie directed by Mel Gibson about Mr. Doss named Hacksaw Ridge. However, I watched this morning a YouTube show featuring the hero himself.  Here is that TV Show from 1958 about Desmond Doss a 7th Day Adventist … hero and conscientious objector, This is Your Life (YouTube link for email subscribers). It is so worthwhile to watch this show and learn about a combat medic who would not even touch a gun. However, this is NOT an anti gun post, but rather a post about the courage of convictions.

Okay this blog is supposed to be about birds, but every so often I need to go off topic. Remember my post about Mongolian Throat Singing?! However, back to the birds.

I’ve spent a lot of time up in Sax-Zim Bog over the past few days. The combination of grouse and migrating hawks have made for excellent birding opportunities. In fact, Merlins follow the migration south. On several occasions in this week I have watched Northern Flickers being repeatedly attacked by Merlins.

From this week’s birding meanderings …

Broad-Winged Hawk

Ruffed Grouse

Northern Flicker

I hope you enjoyed my going off topic this morning. This has been a memorable week with good birding, watching a bull moose at sunrise and a great northern lights display. That’s it for right now from the Northwoods.

I Can’t Believe I Ate the Vole Thing! (Broad-Winged Hawk)

Year 10

Yesterday while on Admiral Road in Sax-Zim Bog I saw a Broad-Winged Hawk dive into the roadside trail grass. Moments later it emerged with a vole and flew up onto a near branch. I had always thought (obviously incorrectly) that Broad-Winged Hawks needed to tear their prey apart and eat its food in chucks. Not!

Right now, if you spend any amount of time in the woods, it is highly likely you will find raptors hunting. On my way back to Duluth I discovered a flock of Northern Flickers being repeatedly attacked unsuccessfully by a pair of immature Peregrine Falcons. This particular battle went on for almost 10 minutes … fun to watch.

Here is the sequence of photographs I took of a Broad-Winged Hawk eating a vole. It then flew directly onto the other side of Admiral Road, still very near me, but into the sun. I left it hunting for more food.

I can’t believe I ate the Vole Thing! (Broad-Winged Hawk)