Two Pileated Woodpeckers and Sax-Zim

 Well, this has been an interesting week. With frigid temperatures and winter storms sweeping across much of the country, I decided to delay my holiday travels by a few days, but an additional delay came in the form of some minor car issues. These were swiftly taken care of by my favorite auto shop in town. All the delays did, however, give me a chance to sneak in some ProjectFeederWatching.

Snowfall tends to bring lots of life to the feeders, and on the twenty-fifth, I was gifted with the appearance of not one, but two pileated woodpeckers.

Eventually, I made it to the cities for art-viewing, game-playing, gift-swapping and family chilling. It was a quick but good time. My time in the cities would come to end early this morning as I set off for Sax-Zim Bog in search of lifers.

I arrived at Sax-Zim as a glow began to grow within the clouded skies overhead. From the visitor center parking area, I struck out on the short Gray Jay Way trail, and not a few hundred feet later I turned back to a treetop filled with lifers.

Bohemian waxwings scattered around a few evening grosbeaks. An awesome start. I walked to the trail's looping conclusion where feeders were hung from several trees, and before I even got there I came across another lifer.

It was interesting to observe the Canada jays at the feeders in comparison to the raucous, crested blue jays I'm used to seeing snagging peanuts from my own feeders. The Canada jays were curious and cute with small, shy vocalizations, and they fed with me sat a few feet away. The black-capped chickadees and a couple of spunky red squirrels were also present, and a little cloud of redpolls filled a nearby tree for a short pitstop.

But black-capped aren't the only chickadee inhabiting the bog, and a little patience rewarded me with the appearance of a boreal chickadee. A bunch of pine warblers also appeared to feed--a species I haven't seen since I visited Kodiak Island in 2019.

My timing was good. As I started back on the Gray Jay Way, I passed near a dozen birders going to the feeders. I paused at the back of the welcome center to grab some pictures of the evening grosbeaks, American goldfinches, woodpeckers, etc.

My original plan was to drive around the bog a while, but with the sun well up, the roads getting busier, and my eyes already tired, I decided to start working my way southwest. On the way home, I made some quick stops at the Shingobee Recreation Area (where I would have been skunked if not for a noisy blue jay early on my lap of the trails) and Red Bridge Park in Park Rapids. Now, I'm tired. Melee is on. And Jones Soda requires drinking. 2022 has been a fun, comparatively quiet year of birding, but big plans loom for 2023. Here's to a good year and to the birds.

(Don't) Let it Snow

After a bit of indecision, winter has arrived in full.

The week opened with a warm, rainy slush (quite the pain to shovel), and as the temperatures dipped below freezing, the snow continued on while the wind picked up. Once the sidewalk was shoveled and the roof was raked, I trudged through continuing snow for some winter birdwatching.

This merlin bookmarked my walk through the park.

It was nice to see some tree sparrows foraging along the snowy riverbanks, and I will never not be happy to watch brown creepers shimmying around in their tree-bark camouflage. Otherwise, there were lots of starlings and house sparrows.

After walking past the merlin a second time, I unburied the bird feeders at home and waited to snap a few photos of the finches and chickadees before firing up some cappuccino. Here's to hoping tomorrow's snow won't amount to much.

Fall Catchup and Project FeederWatch, S2!

Other than the trip to Detroit, it has been a quiet fall season of birding. My one other trip was to the cities to do some dog-sitting. On the way over, I made some short stops in Morris and Starbuck, MN. There were no crazy sightings, but the weather was nice, and I was more than happy with what I was able to see.

My main target for the cities was Dakota County, so on the first morning of my stay I headed down to Mud Lake Park and Thomson County Park. I was hoping to get out and hit some other places within walking distance of the house, but COVID had other plans for me.

Whew, okay. Up to date.

For the 2022-2023 season, Project FeederWatch rolled the starting date back to November 1st which comes in handy for me, and I spent a few hours Friday and Saturday watching the feeders.

The ever-reliable chickadees and house finches were out. Three species of woodpeckers (downy, hairy and northern flicker) came to cling to the suet feeder for a snack. A few goldfinches stopped by. Some early juncos hopped about the leafy yard. The peanuts were quickly swooped upon by the blue jays--in one trip, a single jay put three entire peanuts (shell and all) down its beak before flying away. A little red-breasted nuthatch was also present, zipping to and from the feeders, utterly unperturbed by my presence.

It was a great start to the season, and now I must hurriedly post the few pictures so that I can return to watching Smash Summit 14.

Detroit 2022, I - Birds!

Following my return from the Great North, I gave myself a month off of travel, confining myself to city limits for short, infrequent birdwatching walks. But this past week, a friend and I hopped on an early flight destined for Detroit, Michigan where we would spend the next four nights. Birding was not the primary focus of the trip, but I did get out a few times to see some birds and add some more color to my eBird states map.

We arrived in Detroit at 8am on Thursday and called our hotel to request an early check-in. The hotel was booked full, but they squeezed us in which was absolutely awesome seeing as we were operating on very little sleep when our plane touched down. After a few hours rest, we headed out to explore and wandered alongside Detroit River from Hart Plaza to the William G. Milliken State Park and Harbor. The sparrows were numerous: white-throated, white-crowned, chipping, juncos, etc. The ring-billed gulls were also out in number.

The next morning, I woke up early and caught a ride to the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus where I wandered through the Environmental Interpretive Center's wooded backyard. It was a neat space with plenty of little trails winding through the trees.

The temperature had dropped into the low thirties, and at first my chilly walk was worryingly quiet. I happened across plenty of squirrels and a doe or two but was seeing few birds for the first twenty or thirty minutes. However, as the sun rose behind the clouds, so did my luck.

This black-throated blue warbler was a first for me, and I got a great look at him as he hopped about the fallen foliage, peaking underneath leaves in search of a morning bite without minding me much as a I lay in the nearby grass.

Perhaps the coolest moment happened just before I encountered him. I had just paused on a trail when I heard something in the nearby brush and turned to my right where a buck stood staring straight at me from no more than ten feet away. The buck didn't budge. I slowly lifted my camera, and right as I put the viewfinder to my eye, the battery died, and before I could change it, the buck had moved on through the brush and out of sight.

The black-throated blue warbler would be the only lifer species of the trip, but I did catch sight of some other fun fall migrants as I walked around the EIC including ruby- and golden-crowned kinglets, yellow-rumped, Nashville, orange-crowned and palm warblers, ovenbirds and more. After spotting a brown creeper marching up the side of a nearby tree, I happily headed into the EIC building for a drink of water and also browsed the neat collection of wood-crafted birds.

I would sneak in another short stroll along the Detroit River the following morning, but my weekend was otherwise packed full. More on that in a future post.