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)!

Sparring Bull Moose of Greenwood Creek (video)

Year 13

Oh wow … somedays I strike paydirt! When I collected my trailcam SD cards yesterday I did not know what all my time learning how to “read the forest” would yield. I have two sets of trailcams 1/2 mile apart near Greenwood Creek in the Nature Conservancy Sand Lake / 7 Beavers Wilderness Area. I had determined that location #1 was a “Grand Central Station” for moose near the creek, and that location #2 contained a “spruce scent tree” (i.e. a small tree which multiple species of mammals leave their calling card … scent via urine)

  • In the first video you get to watch a Canada Lynx inspecting the Spruce Scent Tree
  • In the second two bull moose videos you get to watch two younger bull moose learning how to fight, and walking the bog. These two “teenagers” tend to hang out together. I suspect by the next rutting season they will try to challenge “Big Mamma” (there is one HUGE bull moose in this area who gets his ways with the ladies)

Thus … without further adieu … it’s movie time from the Boreal Forest and Bogs of Northeastern Minnesota. As a movie preview … three Canada Lynx stills.