Mom Raccoon will show us her kits / cubs in the very near future. She uses this white pine cavity every year which is only 20 yards from our living room window seat. Often around 9:00 am in the morning you can tell she needs to stretch and move around. My trailcams always capture her nightly foraging under the feeders.
Checking whether the coast is clear …
Holding position …
Changing her spot in the cavity … climbing down.
All good … waiting till sundown in the new spot to visit my birdfeeders!
One way I use my own blog / website is I look back over past time periods to remind myself what might be happening in the Northland birding world at a given time of year. Thus, yesterday evening I used the “Archives / Timeline” feature of this website and reviewed “Junes” from past years. With that knowledge in tow I was reminded that it was time to check out the Lester River Ravine for Common Merganser ducklings, and this morning I was NOT disappointed!
Given the waves out on the big lake, and the fact the Common Merganser chicks were only a few days old, Momma Merganser was very unlikely to take her brood out of Gitchi Goomi. Thus, I spent over an hour with the merganser family this morning in the small confines of the river. The ducks spent their time between the mouth of the river and the first small rapids. I only left when it was nap time (for the birds, not me).
Lester River Common Merganser Family (10 ducklings)
Make certain you see the video at the end of the post!
Mergansers … the Movie! (watch one youngster climb up onto Mom’s back, and then get pushed off by Mom’s wing. No freeloaders!)
I actually got home from the SD National Grasslands late last week, but it takes me longer to process videos than my still images. In total I visited both the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands near Badlands National Park and the Fort Pierre Grasslands near Pierre. While both grasslands are beautiful, my impression is the Fort Pierre Grasslands gets more rainfall and therefore has more wildlife. However both regions are beautiful in their own respective unique ways. Finally, please accept my apology for including one pic that I also used in a prior post. The landscape image with the Badlands, Burrowing Owl and Jackrabbit just screams “the free range”!
The first few seconds of sunset at Buffalo Gap. The sun has just set behind Badlands National Park.
30 minutes earlier I recorded this sunset drive (video link for email subscribers)
Just after the drive I took this photo! You can see the lengthening shadows.
Of course given my earlier reference to “Home on the Range” a video with a deer or antelope was required! (video link for email subscribers)
In closing … my birdsong videos … a Western Meadowlark and Dickcissel
