The Weekend of Gold Ends

Year 13

I just got inside after standing next to the Amity Creek Ravine and listening to my Great Horned Owls hoot their love. I stood next to the creek for over 20 minutes and while I have walked back home, the owls are still hooting! Thus … Home Owls … Cabin Owls … life is good when my friends decide both my home and cabin are excellent habitat for raising owlets. Want to listen to my owls? Use BirdWeather (free … no account required)

  • Amity Creek & Gardens – 800 yards upstream from Lake Superior … Boreal Forest at the edge of an urban area … one mile below Hawk Ridge (Private Land)
  • Northstar Lake – Boreal Forest on a deep spring-filled lake 30 miles north of Grand Rapids. The lake is the most southern lake of the Hudson Bay Watershed (Private Land)
  • BirdWeather Instructions

I get notifications send to me from both locations. While my Amity Creek Great Horned Owls were hooting, my Northstar Lake Barred Owls were also singing!

Back to Gold! The weather was most excellent this weekend. Sunny Skies, low winds and unseasonably warm. Enjoy!

The Moose Family of Greenwood Creek (video link for email subscribers)

Sunrise at Greenwood Creek (video link for email subscribers)(phone pic and video)

Cabin Time … Just the Barred Owls & Me!

Year 13,

This is my 4th trip in October to visit my small Northwoods cabin. On the 3rd trip up here last weekend I turned the water system off and pulled the intake out of the lake. Thus, on this visit I have no running water and the outhouse are “my facilities”. Thankfully this outhouse is special and was blessed a few years back by princesses and has the protection of Ninjas!

I will admit these four of my eight grandchildren are now a bit older, but I feel their efforts/blessings are still in force (outhouse in background)! After all, a cabin which now has a resident pair of Barred Owls must be special.  Ned and Nancy (the owls) always visit multiple times each night, and last night was no different. The Barred Owls set up shop in my Basswood Trees less than ten yards from my bedroom window. Given how vocal Barred Owls can be, it is hard to miss their visits!

Thankfully my cabin owls provided me a few photo opportunities during the late afternoon.

 

 

On my drive over to the cabin I also spied a Red-Tailed Hawk hunting the Wawina Bog along US Hwy 2. I have seen Red-Tails many times in the last seven days. Their migration is definitely in progress. November 1st is normally when I start seeing more big hawks and owls; thus I am enjoying this sneak preview!

Fall Colors Birding

Year 13, , ,

There is still time to get out and enjoy the Boreal Forest & Bog’s second foliage season. As I have stated many times, while everyone loves the Maples with their vibrant reds and yellows, not long after these leaves fall the “Golden Tamarack Time” starts. These pine trees which love the boreal bog habitat lose their needles every year, and to the uninformed makes the late fall / winter landscape in these areas look like lots and lots of dead trees. The Tamarack Pine turn bright gold before falling. An early morning drive or hike in northern Minnesota’s bog country is a study in gold. This weekend may be your last opportunity to enjoy the gold.

I practice what I preach. Enjoy these images (and video) from Tamarack Time. I’ll lead off with a short clip from a drive along Toomey-Williams Forest deep in the Boreal forest wilderness somewhat near Big Falls, Minnesota. (video link for blog email subscribers).

Next are some images I took of a Red-Tailed Hawk that supervised my hike swapping out my trailcam SD cards near Greenwood Creek.

On my birding travels I did exit the forest for a farm area south of Sax-Zim Bog where I am often able to spy some Ring-Necked Pheasants … still more gold (and some lingering green)!