Yes, Kermit lives!

Now I will admit, I don’t normally photograph frogs, and my web site is definitely not 365 Days of Frogs, but sometimes one just has to take unexpected paths. For 10 minutes this morning I knelt next to a small pond and took photographs of Kermit. I had left the house at 4:15 am with my camera, and at 8 am I decided to stop by a pond … enjoy the bird song and have a late breakfast snack (late if you have been up since 4 am). Some motion on a log caught my eye. I reached for my binoculars and realized a large Bullfrog had climbed out of the water to enjoy the morning sun. Oh well … I thought. Breakfast can wait a bit longer! Incidentally, it was 33F at 5:30 am on Admiral Road this morning.

Getting up at 4 am to head to the Bog was tough. I was out after sunset last night photographing the Strawberry Full Moon as it rose over Lake Superior. The end result was I did not have much sleep last night. (as a fyi … this night sky image was taken with my Sony A6300, not my Canon SX70)

I also found a few birds at the Bog … this Gray Jay (Canada Jay) and Killdeer Chick (the mosquitoes were horrible).

Ignoring you local owls! Yup, this morning at 5:15 am right from my own driveway I could hear one of my Great Horned Owl juveniles begging for food. It was tempting to go check out my triplets, but I was dedicated if I was  going to reach Sax-Zim Bog early (I live 35 miles from the Bog), I needed to ignore my local friends!

I was rewarded when I found this Great Gray Owl at 6:30 am. I watched the owl hunt for ten minutes. I assume it has owlets near by which are getting large, and have HUGE appetites. I suspect it takes a whole lot of voles to feed these hungry mouths. Late May and June tend to be a great time to go look for owls if you are willing to get up before sunrise. The owls will hunt past daybreak because of their chick’s.

It was  great morning in the Bog. From a very close vantage point, I saw a Timber Wolf, a male Northern Harrier and an American Bittern. I saw lots of other wildlife, but these were “the treats”.

Great Gray Owl Hunting

Barn Swallow Mud Collecting!

This is the one time of year a person might see Barn Swallows on the ground. While out watching warblers yesterday, I saw some Barn Swallows on the wing. Given it has been very dry in northeastern Minnesota, I told a friend who was birding with me to watch this puddle. I knew both given there are very few puddles around (dry conditions) and the time of near (mating), the swallows would land and get mud as building materials for their nests. We were not disappointed!

Birding is Dangerous!

Yup … that’s me after yesterday’s trip to the owling grounds. In addition, there is a long gash underneath the left sock from a day earlier. While, I am obviously okay this particular fall was quite painful. If you are like me and tend to go birding, bicycling and Nordic skiing in remote places, quite often off trail … a bit of caution is useful.

In my case, Molly always is able to track me via Google Location Sharing. I posted on this subject one year ago. I have privately shared my location with real time updates with Molly via Google. I even tested whether Molly could truly determine my correct location. I hiked into remote areas in northern Minnesota which I could identify via landmarks in Google Satellite View. We then determined by my making a quick phone call to Molly and she taking a screenshot whether my location was reported correctly. Our family also owns a Garmin InReach GPS real time tracking via satellite with messaging capability for even more remote areas. Learn more via my previous posts:

• Remote Birding Safety (Google Location Sharing)
• BWCA Boundary Waters Winter Camping Trek

Google Location Sharing is free assuming one has a mobile phone. The Garmin Inreach required purchasing their device and paying a small monthly fee. Here are both a Garmin and Google screenshot showing Hoeg family use. I strongly recommend both of these services. Most people will not need the Garmin satellite service … just us folks who live and recreate in the middle of nowhere!