I might be the MN Birdwatcher, but I think nothing’s more fun than traveling to a different place with different birds. Here you’ll find posts all about new places and new birds-mostly first-hand accounts by yours truly.
I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been up to lately. For one, I took a weekend trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The mountains were beautiful, and even though there was rain and thunder every day we were there (I’m not kidding. Every. Single. Day.), we got lots of hiking and some birding in!
RMNP’s Bear Lake
The first day, we birded Wild Basin Trail on the southern side of the park, gaining lifers Mountain Chickadee, Green-tailed Towhee, and Red-naped Sapsucker. The second day, we hiked up Deer Mountain, which didn’t produce any lifers (though we did, oddly enough, find three Wild Turkeys), and on the third day, we hit Matthews-Reeser Bird Sanctuary, which is in Estes Park and not far from our motel, and found a ton of Turkey Vultures, a few late warblers, and lifer Violet-green Swallow. Add that to the Western Kingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Spotted Towhee, and Pygmy Nuthatch that I got shortly after we arrived, and you get a very exciting trip (even though I didn’t find any gorgeous Mountain Bluebirds, which I had been desperately hoping for)! Elk were all over- crossing roads right, left, and sideways- and you could see the mountains from just about everywhere in Estes Park.
An elk seen from our car
My second piece of news is that I made a video in partnership with the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, all about American Kestrels! I was so excited to do this, because I’ve always had a soft spot for kestrels, and to say the least, I was stoked to meet Sienna, their kestrel ambassador. I’ve filmed a second one as well, which should come out in a few weeks. The video is a recorded Zoom call with me and Henry Cole, an author and illustrator- I’ve linked it at the bottom of this post.
I also attended several bird walks this June, through my local Audubon chapter and the Kestrels birding club. It’s a great way to meet new people and learn new things!
There- that’s everything I’ve done so far this summer. I need to get out more, don’t I?
This Saturday, like I mentioned in my last post, I went up to Sax-Zim Bog for the day. I went last year, and it was awesome! During that trip, I found some great new birds- Canada Jay, Black-billed Magpie, and Ruffed Grouse- but not a single owl, unusual in the bog, which is known for its great owls; so I was hoping to find one that day! My goal was to see three new species, a tall order seeing as I’d already seen some of the common ones last time, and I did that- no more, no less! I’d rather see more than three, but the ones I found were awesome.
We arrived at about one PM, which sounds late, but we left as early as we could- the place is really far from where I live! Almost as soon as we entered the bog, we found a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road. At Sax-Zim, that’s a sure sign of an owl sighting, so we pulled over too and went to see what it was. What we found was a Great Gray Owl- new species number one, and we’d barely been here five minutes! Of course we got plenty of pictures, and stayed to watch the gorgeous owl as long as we could. I could’ve stood there all day, looking through binoculars at the big owl, which was pretty close to the road and gave me great views. He didn’t even seem to notice us, just swiveling his head to look at something off in the woods now and then. Maybe he heard something we didn’t! Eventually, we had to leave, so we got reluctantly back in the car.
Great Gray Owl!
Our next stop, of course, was the Welcome Center. Normally, you can go inside to talk with one of their great volunteers or watch the feeders outside from the comfort of the heated center, but due to Covid, it was closed, so instead we wanted to check out the feeders and hike one of their trails. Once we pulled in, I saw a flock of birds at the top of a tree in the parking lot, so I grabbed my binoculars and took a closer look. They turned out to be a species I’d wanted to see for years- Evening Grosbeaks! Bam, second lifer, ten minutes after the first one! You see why I love this place?
Female and Male Evening Grosbeaks with Female Pine Grosbeaks.
There didn’t seem to be anything but chickadees on the feeders in front of the center, so we went to the back to check out the tray feeder and deer carcasses (yeah, super gross, but do you know a better way to draw in Canada Jays?). As we headed that way, I looked up at the trees and saw a really tall one at the edge of the woods with a single bird at the top. I looked at it through my binoculars, and couldn’t make out what kind of bird it was, but I had a feeling, from the shape of the beak and the reddish color it seemed to have, what it might be. I started to say my suspicion aloud, but before I could, we came to the feeder, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a whole flock of that same species- Pine Grosbeak! Lifer three, just like that! I love Pine Grosbeaks, with the males’ strawberry-pink color and the females’ yellowish and gray one- they’re so pretty, and all around awesome, of course. I took lots of photos of them and the flock of Evening Grosbeaks, which decided to try out the feeder as well; then we took one of the short trails near the Welcome Center, which didn’t yield any new species but was still really nice. We had to be careful not to bump into any trees and send down a flurry of snow from their branches!
After that, I wanted to try the Admiral Road feeders, which the map calls ‘the best place in the state to see and photograph Boreal Chickadees’. We didn’t find any of those, but we did see some Canada Jays, a Hairy Woodpecker, lots of Black-capped Chickadees, and another flock of Pine Grosbeaks, which I got some good shots of. The chickadees had a habit of deciding they’d eaten enough and whizzing right past someone’s ear to the trees on the other side. It was funny, but definitely startled me if they caught me off guard!
Male Pine Grosbeak in a tree by the Admiral Road feeders.
Next we tried Warren Woessner Bog Boardwalk, which is 900 feet long and lined with feeders. There, we didn’t find a lot, since it was getting dark, but we did see some chickadees, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, a Downy Woodpecker, a Brown Creeper, and a Common Raven flying overhead. After that, we headed home, since before long it would be too dark even for owls!
Red-breasted Nuthatch at a feeder along the Warren Woessner Bog Boardwalk.
Much shorter than I’d like, but I really enjoyed the day! My favorite new bird would have to be Great Gray Owl- so beautiful, especially since it’s my first owl I’ve seen at Sax-Zim. I hope to make these trips a yearly thing, but we’ll see!
New species: Great Gray Owl, Evening Grosbeak, Pine Grosbeak
Other species: Black-capped Chickadee, Canada Jay, Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, American Crow, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Common Raven
Last Sunday, I went to Hawk Ridge, Duluth. Its position on the tip of Lake Superior makes it ideal for watching the fall raptor migration. I got some new species for the life list, met some awesome volunteers, and had a great time.
Bald Eagle adult and immature.
The peak raptor migration time is between 10 AM and 2 PM, but we arrived late, at around 1:45, and ended up staying until the volunteers left at 5:00. The first birds I saw were several Turkey Vultures, and soon after that came two immature Bald Eagles.
One of two immature Bald Eagles in the sky.
After that, the skies were calm for another hour or so, with steady flights of Turkey Vultures, one of the most common sights, and a Bald Eagle now and then.
We saw dozens of Turkey Vultures while there.
Eventually, the first new species arrived – a fast-moving Merlin. He was in a hurry, a small, dark bird flapping continuously, unlike most larger raptors, who soar. I didn’t manage to score a photo of this species, though I saw a few more by the end of the day. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any American Kestrels, which are one of my favorite raptors, while we were there, but I have seen one before, so it wasn’t too much of a disappointment.
My next new species was a Northern Harrier, seen by several people. It was flying with several more Turkey Vultures, but I didn’t get a great look and, sadly, no photos. We had arrived too late in the day for Sharp-shinned Hawks, so we didn’t see any, but we did see a Red-tailed Hawk.
Red-tailed Hawk.
My last lifer was a larger Peregrine Falcon, which I looked up just in time to see through binoculars. I got pretty good views of this one, though I wasn’t holding the camera and didn’t get photos of this one, either. They were my favorite lifer of the day!
Eventually, things slowed down quite a bit, though I did see a Common Raven – the largest songbird of North America – on the horizon. We also saw some American Crows. I thought this was a good time to try out one of the trails. I didn’t see many birds on the trail – a White-breasted Nuthatch, some Black-capped Chickadees, and a few more American Crows, plus a male Ruby-crowned Kinglet. I saw a flash of his red crown, but not much. By the time I got back, everyone had left, and so did I. I was hoping to check out Park Point while I was in Duluth, but it was getting dark, so I passed.
That was all for my first trip to Hawk Ridge! I didn’t see any Ospreys, since it was too late in the season for them, Gyrfalcons, because they didn’t come until late autumn, or Golden Eagles, because they aren’t common, but I did see a few of my other favorite raptors for my life list!
This past Saturday was the Big Day of birding, as I mentioned in my previous post, and this provided the perfect excuse to get out of the house and go birding! I decided to kill two birds with one stone (figuratively speaking, of course), by participating in the Big Day and going to a place I’d been hoping to visit this spring – Frontenac State Park. It’s known as the Warbler Capital of Minnesota, and is the ideal place to hit during migration season, featuring prairie, forest, and shoreline habitat as well as a wildlife observation blind. A few family members and I drove several hours to spend the day there!
First, we hit the Prairie Loop Trail, which is 2.8 miles long (I’m not the best hiker, so we didn’t want to go for the 6-mile loop!). There weren’t many birds there, though I did see a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, some Brown-headed Cowbirds, a Turkey Vulture, a Gray Catbird, and lots of Tree Swallows.
The female Rose-breasted Grosbeak is beautiful, though she doesn’t have the bright red marking of the male.
About halfway along the trail, we came to the wildlife observation blind, which is on the shore of the Pheasant Valley Lakelet. There, we spotted a pair of Canada Geese with eight goslings, a napping Wood Duck, a Sandhill Crane, and two new species of sandpiper for my life list – Solitary Sandpiper and Greater Yellowlegs.
Canada Goose goslings going for a field trip!Solitary Sandpiper – a new species for me.
I even saw a tree not far away with an adult and juvenile Bald Eagle perched in it, which was awesome:
This Bald Eagle’s juvenile plumage looks nothing like the adult’s!
Then we moved on, with a ‘fun little adventure’ to recover my notebook (with a list of all the birds I’d seen on the trip so far) when I realized I’d dropped it somewhere on the trail; and a blister in my shoe. It was worth it, though, when I saw my third new species of the day – a Field Sparrow, one of the few sparrow species I can readily identify. I’m terrible with sparrows!
I spied this Field Sparrow sporting his lovely pink bill.
Then we went on the 1.4 mile Sand Point Trail, which had no new species on it, and though we’d planned on doing one more trail before heading home, we were all so tired from the events of the day that we cut it a little short. I didn’t see any new warblers, like I’d expected, but it was well worth it anyway!
