Two years ago I started this blog on my wife’s birthday. My initial post for this blog was about a Snowy Owl which was hanging out near our Duluth home. In the intervening two years, while somethings change and my dear wife is two years older, we still are enjoying Snowy Owls near our home!
Had fun, if you can call watching a Snowy Owl sleep for 30 minutes with occasional bursts of wakefulness, watching Drowsy in Duluth this afternoon. Happy Birthday, Molly (read her blog).
The days are now hot, and the bugs are out. Birding opportunities often slow down as folks wait for the early Fall migrants to start appearing in northern Minnesota. One fights heat, humidity and monster flies out on the Northland trails. Yesterday afternoon was just such a day … arriving at the Western Waterfront Trail in Duluth on a muggy hot summer afternoon I hiked for five miles w/o ever meeting another person … in the middle of a city with a population of 86,000. Folks, get out there! When the cold of January reappears everyone will miss the lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer!
Brown Thrasher Immediately After a Dust Bath
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Catching Flies … An Admirable Job (Least Flycatcher)
Today will go down as one of the most fantastic days of birding / photography in my life. Although yesterday’s NE wind off Lake Superior was a thing of the past, replaced by a SW wind, the warblers were even more numerous than yesterday. I had “warblers at my feet”! (and in my face, and everywhere else).
Taking into account the weather, one just needed to think like a bird! Thus, I headed down to the Western Waterfront Trail in Duluth. The wind was very strong, and blowing across St. Louis Bay. I suspected warblers would be blown to my side of the river, and then would work their way along the banks till they found a calm spot with food. After walking about a mile, I found a thicket that had an early season bug hatch in progress. Both me and the birds thought this was an excellent spot! Later in the day I found a second spot protected from the wind where a bug hatch was in progress amongst last year’s old water reeds.
Here is a video of “warblers at my feet”, followed by photographs all taken today along the Western Waterfront Trail.
Black and White Warbler
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Canada Warbler
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American Redstart (male and female)
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Magnolia Warbler
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Yellow-Rumped Warbler
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Chestnut-Sided Warbler
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Yellow Warbler
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Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher
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Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (female)
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Least Flycatcher
