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!