Fun at the Feeders

When the days get busy around the house (and with three teenagers when isn't it busy?) I appreciate the fact that I can still look out my windows and enjoy some of the visitors to my yard. Even though I can't remember a time when bird feed was more expensive, I still consider it a bargin when compared to what I get out of seeing some of the local residents.

 

This Common Redpoll was one of two individuals that showed up at my feeders on New Year's Day and I haven't seen any since. I was lucky enough to see lots of these birds when I was up in northern Minnesota last month but around here this is a great bird for the yard list. The birding gods must have been smiling down on me in order to start my year list with this bird.

The Red-bellied Woodpecker is a year round visitor to my yard. I can count 7 species of woodpecker that have come to my yard/feeders but by far this bird along with Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers are the bulk of my visits. I did hear and then see a Pileated Woodpecker today as he was making his rounds of the neighborhood. They look absolutely prehistoric in flight. I'm hearing lots more spring songs as the day lengthen.

Here we have the classic White-breasted Nuthatch pose, head down. It won't be long before this female is hunkered down in a cavity, sitting on a clutch of eggs. By then the migrants will be making their biennial trip across the landscape. I expect the radars down south to start showing migration pretty soon. Our first red-winged Blackbirds are due back in a couple of weeks. With the way this winter has been I wouldn't be surprised to see birds arriving ahead of their usual dates. On the other hand, I'm not putting the snow shovels away just yet.

More Sax-Zim Photos

      Looking through the photos I took up at the bog in January I found 3 more to post for people to see. The first shows both species of chickadees that are found at the bog. Just click on the photo for a better view.

    One of the real treats to visiting northern Minnesota is the chance to see both Evening and Pine Grosbeaks close up. When I was a college student in northern Wisconsin, Evening Grosbeaks were the most common birds at feeders in the winter. It wasn't until the populations of these birds began to decline that I understood just how lucky I had been to see them in the numbers I did.

    Finally, as birders know, some of the best sightings happen as you're traveling along and just happen to look in the right place at the right time. This Rough-legged Hawk was sitting off the side of the road as we were heading to another location and was found just by the fact that there were lots of eyes looking in lots of directions.

    Hope you enjoy the look at some northern birds!

Late Winter Bird Banding

 

     It's only the middle of February but it feels more like the middle of March and the birding feels more like late winter rather than mid-winter. We have had such a strange season with very little snow and relatively mild temperatures that it is hard to know how this will affect the spring migration season. We here in Minnesota are suffering a really significant drought which bodes well for spring flooding but we could use some precipitation soon for soil moisture to be adequate for the growing season.

  

     Regardless of the weather we still are holding our regular banding sessions and on Saturday we banded for 4 hours at the Lowry Nature Center in Carver Park Reserve near Victoria, Minnesota. The totals were good for the morning with 26 individuals captured.

    Only 3 species were caught even though we were using both traps and nets. The American Tree Sparrow above was not one of the species we handled. This picture was from January when we handled a good number of these guys. The species we worked with Saturday were Black-capped Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, and White-breasted Nuthatch.

    As an added photo of interest the White-winged Crossbill above was photographed during a trip up north to the Sax-Zim Bog area of Minnesota. This is the mecca of winter birding in Minnesota and this year I was lucky enough to go up there twice. The goal was to see as many boreal species as possible and this year was good but not great. We did not have a big owl invasion this year except for the impressive number of Snowy Owls that have showed up. Many of them moved through the state and ended up in places like Iowa and Nebraska. I did get to see a Great Gray Owl on the first excursion. The most interesting birds were the many flocks of White-winged Crossbills that seemed to be everywhere. Strangely, we didn't see any on the second trip.
    With the days getting longer and the temperatures remaining warm, I am starting to get the itch to get out in the field and do some heavy duty birding and banding. Until migration really kicks into gear I guess I'll have to spend my time mending nets and thinking of new places to explore.