Crex Crane Cacophony

This Black Friday instead of waiting in line at big box stores and bumping elbows with frantic Christmas Shoppers I decided to spend the morning birding in the Crex Meadows Wildlife Refuge north of Grantsburg, WI.  Since it is almost December and reports of Snowy Owls were pouring in from all over the state I was really excited about the opportunity to find one of the winter seasons most majestic birds.

However, my plans were altered when I pulled over to scan for early morning Short-eared owls near the Main Dike Rd.   As soon as I opened my car door and stepped into the cool morning air the calls of thousands of Sandhill Cranes filled my ears.  I darted back into my car and drove with the windows wide open turning in whichever direction the calls seemed louder.  Soon I found myself just a bit north of Phantom Lake and smack dab in the middle of thousands of Cranes, hundreds of Geese, and even some Trumpeter Swans.

I quickly set up my camera and spent the next hour and a half waiting for them to all fly directly toward the sunrise at the same time.  Unfortunately they weren't that obliging but they did accommodate a few great scenes.  The last pan at the end of the video was taken just before I left and was only a small slice of the birds that remained.  I have been trying to guess how many were there at first light but really I just have no idea. MANY!!!

Crex Meadows and a Surprise Butterfly

Crex Meadows in Burnett County Wisconsin has always been a favorite birding destination of mine, and it just so happens to be conveniently located right on the route I take to visit my mother.  This past weekend I was able to head down there in the hopes of finding large swaths of mud flats on the waterfowl impoundments - unfortunately our wet summer dashed those hopes.  Crex however never disappoints and I went away with two great memories!

First was this pair of turtles.  

The turtle in front is a Blanding's Turtle - note its bright yellow throat and "boxy" shell.  The turtle in back is a rather small Painted Turtle - I assume the painted turtle is only improving his basking angle by crawling up the back of the other turtle but still the pose is both suggestive and to those of us that are easily amused - somewhat humorous. (I believe the projection on the underside of the painted turtle is a snail)

On my way out of the Crex Area I stumbled across this large group of butterflies...

In this picture you can see White Admirals, Viceroys, and an Azure.  If you are aren't aware of what these beautiful creatures are doing - please see the next picture - some of us meet at water coolers others...

...meet at the dung heap.  Whenever I see these swarms on pooh it makes me wonder how terrible my odor must have been on the occasions when butterflies have landed on my person to lap up some sweat : )

Away from Crex and in Polk County at my mom's place I added a new butterfly to my Continental 48 list.

This Giant Swallowtail and at least two others were feeding on thistle flowers in the ditch in front of my Mom's house.  These butterflies can have wingspans almost reaching 6"!  Very cool and very distinctive (even in flight).

Pacific Loon - Cass County

Yesterday 5/28 I spotted a Pacific Loon while participating in a Cass County Big Day with the folks from the Deep Portage Bird Observatory. All four of us got excelent looks at this bird through our scopes and Ben was able to Digiscope it well through his Swarovski. This was a first county bird for all four of us - and a very rare find in breeding plumage in the spring.

Shaggy Dog Story - a Shedding Coyote

In a ploy to combine my family time with my birding time I convinced my wife and son to join me on a trip to Federal Dam.  I fooled... errr... convinced them to join me by describing the playground I had discovered on recent excursions to this excellent birding spot. The Federal Dam Campground comes replete with all of the dangerous and potentially bone breaking equipment a child could ever hope for.  It even has Tether Ball Pole with a quite unnecessarily hard tether ball still attached.  (If Tether Ball were renamed today I believe it would simply be called Rope Burn and Concussion Conditioning. #thatwhichdoesn'tkillus!)

After much time shivering in the late April breezes and an embarrassingly exhausting game of basketball with my son - we headed home.  On the way home we stopped to gawk at this Coyote as seen on the East side of County Highway 8.

Coyote - Canis latrans

We spent some time discussing whether this creature was simply shedding a thick winter coat or if it had mange.  We all agreed that it was just shedding since new thinner fur is clearly seen in the patchy spots. My wife and I had also discovered three Timberwolf pups with mange the summer we worked for the Minnesota Conservation Corps in the Red Lake Wildlife Management Area.  It was very sad.

Just to be sure I googled "Coyote Mange", and learned a couple of things.  1. Gross (duh it is the internet) and 2.  So that is where the Chupacabra myths come from.  In all seriousness don't view the images of Coyotes with mange - some of the advanced cases are simply too disturbing.

My Favorite Marsh - Just Got Better!

Tonight I decided to check on the condition of the main dike that runs through the Boy Bay Marsh located on Battleground State Forest land.  I also thought it might be a good night to check for new arrivals in the marsh.  I was rewarded on both fronts.  The DNR mowed the entire length of the main dike removing some very difficult brambles to negotiate.  It also appears that they conducted prescribed burns on portions of the sedge meadows.  These sedge meadows have had cooperative Nelson's Sparrows in previous years, and if I ever get out late enough I am sure there are Yellow Rails here as well.

Tonight American Bitterns, Sedge Wrens, and Swamp Sparrows could be heard all up and down the dike.  At one point I stopped on the edge of the dike to look for a Bittern that sounded like it was just feet away.  As I searched I heard the distinct plop of something right at my feet landing in the water.  I had assumed it was just a frog as they were truly deafening, but to my surprise this is what I saw when I looked down.

Sora - not sure who was more surprised!

Eventually the Sora flew off...

I continued my walk down the dike and was rewarded with several Nelson's Sparrows singing their frying egg song (Listen Here) in the sedge.

Boy Bay Marsh (my name for it) can be accessed from County Highway 73 in Cass County.  There is a road shown on Google Maps but this is a two track with some very large holes that only the largest 4x4 is going to make it through.  You should park near the highway and walk to the opening to the marsh.  From there you can walk south along the main dike (stick to the west side).  It is a long walk to the best Nelson's Sparrow spots and you must be very careful while walking along the dike as there are many large holes from Beavers or Muskrats that burrow into the dike. Half way to Boy Bay is where the best sedge meadows are, but if you walk all the way to the bay you are sure to find large numbers of ducks that use Leech Lake as a stopping point in their migration.

I have included a google map here.


View Boy Bay Marsh in a larger map

Let the Migration Begin... In Earnest This Time

Spring may have finally arrived after plenty of spits and stutters.  Recurring April snowfalls and the fact that we haven't hit 70 at my house yet this year are making this a very difficult spring.  So leave it to the birds to get me out of my winter doldrums. This morning a very nice wave of warblers greeted me as I checked on the feeders.  The most exuberant singers were the Palm Warblers -

Palm Warbler in a brush pile at Blackwater this morning.

Yellow-rumped Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, Nashville Warblers, Black-and-White Warblers, and Northern Parulas could also be heard singing this morning.  One Orange-crowned Warbler was quite interested in the fuss I was making around our pontoon and decided to check things out (it was likely interested in the insects I was kicking up).  This warbler came in so close my camera couldn't focus on him for a while - here is a shot that even shows the orange crown a feature not often seen.  You may need to click the image to get the larger version to see the orange in the crown.

Orange-crowned Warbler - checkin' me out!

This Snow is for the Birds

2-3" of snow overnight made for easy spotting of the numerous sparrows hanging around the yard this morning.  Most numerous were the FOX SPARROW'S - the highest single point count I got was 42, but my guess is we had up to 100 in the yard at any one time.  They were everywhere. 

Fox Sparrow as seen this morning on the fresh snow.

American Tree Sparrow with Fox Sparrows in background

Here is a list of the other birds observed from the living room this morning:

AMERICAN TREE SPARROW
DARK-EYED JUNCO
SONG SPARROW
PINE SISKIN
PURPLE FINCH
COMMON REDPOLL
YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER
RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER
NORTHERN FLICKER
HAIRY WOODPECKER
DOWNY WOODPECKER
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD
AMERICAN CROW
WOOD DUCK
MALLARD
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE 

A New Medium

I should really work on improving my skills in photography before adding video, but it is just so cool. HD Video is a feature I haven't really used on my camera, and for some reason in the gusty winds today I decided to give it a whirl.  My biggest accomplishment for the day was grasping exactly how far I have to go and how much I have to learn.  Out of all the 10 to 200 second clips I took today this was the best one...

Biggest lessons from the day -

Tripod - Handheld 400mm lens taking video is simply not possible.
Setup - Video is clearly not for quick snatches - everything that goes into making a memorable photo seems to be even more important for video.
Sound - The cameras built in mic just isn't going to cut it.  These eagles were squawking away and you can barely here them over the wind in the video.

Late Arrivals -

Birding around Cass County recently has begged the question - Where are the spring migrants?  While meteorologicaly you might not expect to see the birds of spring - what with snow, ice and freezing daytime temps, but phenologicaly the early spring migrants are a bit late.  I wasn't sure if this was just a "feeling" I had or if actual data backed it up, so I checked the Minnesota Ornithological Union (MOU) website and found my suspicions were correct.  Below is the data from the Arrival / Departures page on the MOU website - filtered for northern spring arrivals expected by today.  From this list I have seen only two of these species - Horned Lark and Northern Harrier

Horned Lark	2-Feb
Common Merganser	4-Mar
Sharp-shinned Hawk	7-Mar
American Kestrel	7-Mar
Common Grackle	9-Mar
Northern Harrier	10-Mar
Red-winged Blackbird	10-Mar
Ring-billed Gull	12-Mar

Here are photos taken last year of a couple of those early migrants I am so longing to see!

American Kestrel - Cass County 2010

Red-winged Blackbird - noticeably absent from my list this year.

Northern Lights At Last!

Tonight for the first time in years I was able to clearly observe the Northern Lights!  Ever since moving back to northern MN I have been keeping my on - SpaceWeather.com.  This site provides up to the minute tracking of geomagnetic activity and predictions for auroras.  Tonight their Aurora map looked like this.

I didn't want to get too excited as I knew a small winter storm was due to hit at some point tonight but when I got outside I could tell by the warm green light glowing through the forest trees that I might be in luck.

I jumped in my little green car and headed to Man Lake which I knew had some excellent vistas of the northern skyline.  The northern lights were beautiful.  Unfortunately, much of the detail was lost to the high level clouds marking the incoming weather.  Here is what I was able to do with a broken tripod, a cheap 50mm lens and a significant breeze.

The clouds were completely blocking the Auroras after about 30 minutes, but I was delighted with having had the opportunity.  One of my favorite memories of tonight will be of the Cass County Sheriff that stopped and chuckled at me in my pajamas taking pictures of the Northern Lights on County Highway 5!

Great "Great" Night

Finally, after  two years of looking I found a Great Gray Owl right here in Cass County.  I had decided to take a relaxing drive in the hopes of diminishing the effects of a nasty head-ache.  I headed toward a large boggy area near Leech Lake in the hopes of finding a nice spot to watch the sunset over the bog, I had grabbed my camera in the hopes I might see something interesting but had no intentions of actually "birding".  At the first turn I made of the main highway a large gray lump caught my eye.  It was a Great Gray Owl sitting on top of a spindly 15' spruce.  I quickly grabbed my camera and squeezed off three shots.  I glanced down at my camera to verify I had good settings and a sickness grew in my stomach.  There flashing in bright red letters on my camera's LCD screen, "NO CF CARD".

I couldn't believe it - I had forgotten to replace my memory card after downloading the pics of the Hoary Redpolls from my previous post.  I was able to forgive myself for the indiscretion since the owl was some 150 yards away in a shaded spot with a very busy background.  I was able to forgive myself until the owl flew off of its perch STRAIGHT TOWARD ME, and into the perfect warm evening light emanating from directly behind me.  OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!  The owl came to rest on an exposed spruce branch not more than 50 yards away and now had a beautifully charcoal gray evening cloud creating a perfect background.  It was truly the proverbial once in a lifetime shot and me without a memory card.  I couldn't believe it.

Later that night I also saw what I believe to have been a Great Horned Owl of the subarcticus ssp. but I likely wouldn't have been able to get a picture of this bird as it was viewable for less than a minute.

Last night I couldn't sleep.  I kept thinking about that Gray Ghost - the bird I had been seeking all over the snowy landscapes of northern MN.  The bird I hadn't seen in some 15 years.  The first time I had seen one I didn't even consider myself a birder yet.  I tossed and turned until about 6:30AM - finally I gave into temptation. I begged my wife to drive our son to Basketball practice and drove back to the scene of last nights (for me) tragic events.  This time I was armed with not one but three memory cards totalling some 16gigabytes of memory.

After an hour of searching I gave up.  Realizing that this bird had likely moved deep into the bog I continued on to Federal Dam to photograph the Trumpeter Swans that had moved back in to the frigid, yet open waters of the Leech River.

After snapping a couple dozen shots of the Trumpeter Swans I decided it was time to head back home to catch some zzzz's before having to work the night shift.  Along the road back a large dark bird swooped across the road in front of me.  I slowed down to a crawl but couldn't relocate the bird.  It was intriguing enough that I pulled onto the shoulder of the road and walked back to where I thought I had seen the bird fly in.  I couldn't believe my eyes - some three miles north of where I had seen it the night before there was the Great Gray Owl.

I am happy :)

More Hoary and an Odd One

There were no less than four Hoary Redpolls under my feeder today.  If anyone is comfortable placing a subspecies identification on any of these photos I would appreciate it.

Hoary Redpoll amongst Commons

Hoary Redpoll

 Hoary Redpoll

Terrible pic of two Hoaries together

I was so intent on watching for and photographing Hoary Redpolls that I missed this apparently aberrant Common Redpoll.  The portions of the bird that should be a pinkish-red appear to be a yellowish orange.  I have seen this "variation" in House Finches, but had not heard of it in Redpolls.  I am hoping this bird is around tomorrow so I can get definitive shots of it.  Given that this bird is out of focus (oof) and in a posture that is not duplicated by another Redpoll in this frame; I cannot exclude the possibility that this is a photographic artifact.  However, I have reviewed hundreds of photos of out of focus Redpolls taken from this location without finding this coloration / artifact.  A quick online search did not return any results for yellow / orange Redpoll variants.  Let me know what you think.

Click on the photo for a larger version.

Hoary Redpoll

I always knew birding was going to keep me poor, but I had always assumed that it was going to be optics, travel, or camera equipment that kept me there.  Well, this winter it is proving to be Nyjer Thistle that is driving me to the poor house.  I am averaging $20+ per week in thistle cost alone.  Add to that a pari of Pileated Woodpeckers that are making short work of suet cakes and we have a very expensive hobby!

Even with all the expense the habit paid off last week when our flock of redpolls came screaching in and amongst them was a slightly larger very frosty looking individual.  Upon closer inspection - Frosty Scapulars, White Rump, and White Undertail Coverts convinced me...  I was looking at my lifer Hoary Redpoll.  I couldn't have been more excited. 

Making the moment even more special was sharing it with my son.  The bird was so much whiter than the surrounding Common Redpolls he was able to find and refind it as the flock would disperse into the nearby trees at every movement around them.