Just Another Afternoon at the Scent Tree: Canada Lynx (video)

Year 13

Sometimes I see my friends in the forest … sometimes I don’t, but my traicams kick in when I am not present! Two afternoons ago two Canada Lynx were using the “scent tree”. As a fyi, the lynx walk by this spot often. My public feeders (Greenwood Creek Bird Feeders) are full and in business. In addition to birds, the feeders attract rabbits and thus Canada Lynx (snowshoe hares are their favorite prey). As a reminder this location is in the middle of The Nature Conservancy’s Sand Lake / 7 Beavers Wilderness Preserve. A few links:

Two Different Canada Lynx at the Scent Tree (video link for blog subscribers)

Great Gray Owl Hunting Lessons!

Year 13

I had the opportunity to revisit the juvenile Great Gray Owl that is now having to hunt for itself … a learning process with lots of misses. As a reminder this owl actually decided I was a great hunting perch and landed on my head earlier last week. I had provided a nice spot to hunt a particular field.

This post from my revisit of the owl has a HUGE amount of images (and one video at the very bottom of the post). In a sense this effort is as much for me as a reminder about the amazing experience. I normally do not post this many photographs, but then I don’t normally have so many great photo ops provided by one Great Gray Owl. Thus, on with the show …

Initial Hunt

Flight Shots

Going the Other Way!

Sunflower

Is There a Vole Around?

Dialed In on Me (Actually landed three feet away … I slowly walked away to allow the owl space to hunt)

Great Owl Juvenile … The Movie! (video link for blog email subscribers)

 

Snow Bunting Bonanza! (video)

Year 13

Yesterday morning before church I struck paydirt … a small flock of snow buntings which did not spook. There were only five birds and I was already stopped at my “micro habitat” when they arrived to forage. I never moved and thus the buntings never spooked.

Remember how in prior posts I wrote about local migration flyways (opposed to the BIG flyways like the Mississippi River Flyway) which in this instance is the NE shore of Lake Superior. Tundra and Boreal birds migrating along the shore find this little pond and think … Food and a Rest! Take a look at my Google Maps screenshot. I was waiting next to the pond when the Snow Buntings flew in and landed, which is to say “know your local migration highways” (often involves water). By later October the RV campground is closed for the season; thus no people or disturbances.

And the stars of the show … Snow Buntings!

And the movie (video link for blog email subscribers)