Author Archives: Josh

Brrrrrding Before School

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I love Mondays.  There, I said it.  The truth is, though, that I do not work most Mondays as my school is on a 4-day week.  It is on these Mondays that Evan can sleep in a little longer since I can drive him to school, and he does not have to wait at his school’s childcare.  Not only that, but Marin and I then usually have a “Daddy Day.”  Basically we just hang out, play some games, read books, watch movies, run errands, and so on.  Today we have a lunch date planned with Mom.

The added bonus of driving Evan to school is that we get a chance to do a little birding, which just means we look for birds on our short 5 mile trip to town.  This morning the sky was a vivid blue and the sun made the snow sparkle and everything dazzle with color.  It was the perfect morning for Ring-Necked Pheasants.  We kept an eye out, especially at “Pheasant Corner” – a nickname we’ve given to an intersection near our house that is a favorite haunt for pheasants.  Sure enough, we found some.

Do you see the pheasants in the picture below?

No? How about now?

Or now? These shots were taken through a dirty car window when I had the camera almost fully zoomed, so excuse the quality.  The temp was -3°.  Can you tell looking at these footballs?

Editor’s Note: The same camera, the Canon SX50, took both the photos of the kids in the car and these zoomed-in photos of pheasants with the same lense.  By the way, Marin’s owl hat was given to her before we became birders.  It fits her personality to a T.

Sundays are for the Birds

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And the birders.  Today was a beautiful winter day in Minnesota with a light snow falling, making everything quiet and white outside.  Our day started with going to the early church service so that we could come home, grab a bite to eat, and then head to Hutchinson to see their Middle School’s production of The Little Mermaid.  We went to see it because Melissa is directing the exact same musical in less than a month for Willmar Middle School, and my cousin’s wife is the director of Hutchinson’s show. Anyhow, when we got home after church and before we headed south, we sat down to eat lunch. I had just got done scolding the kids for leaving the table before they were finished eating, when I spied Mr. Northern Cardinal at the backyard feeder.  Now I had that brand new camera and an awesome bird to photograph, so I, too, left the table before I was finished.  So I won’t be winning any Father-of-the-Year awards, but I got some great shots!

Here he’s enjoying one of the few pieces of cracked corn in the feeder.

Check out the picture above.  Not only can you see him crack the sunflower seed, but you can see him nabbing the sunflower heart with his tongue!

Resting.  Look at all that red!

Prowling.  Until I got this camera, I had no idea how dark a cardinal’s back was.  The gradient of red is amazing.

So after this spontaneous photo-shoot, I finished my lunch and we were off to Hutchinson.  Since I go to work in the dark and get home really late in the evening, our birding opportunities are limited to the weekends.  I threw the camera in the car “just in case.”  After all, we were traveling 45 miles.  You never known what you are going to see.  Just over a mile down the road, we found 10 Ring-Necked Pheasants right in the ditch.  Oh, how I wanted to get a shot of them, but I couldn’t risk being late to the musical.

We thoroughly enjoyed the performance of Hutchinson’s students, and it was nice to visit for a bit with my cousin, Brett, and his family.  But they had a set to tear down, and we had to head home.  With plenty of daylight left for the return trip, I was excited for the possibilities.  In less than 15 minutes, here is the first major bird we saw.  This wild turkey was much closer to the road before I gave my family whiplash turning the vehicle around.  As I monkeyed with the vehicle and camera, he was disappearing deep into cover. However, with that camera I was able to reach out and touch him.  This tom is smart and ready for the spring turkey hunt – he kept his head out of view.  Look at the beard on this guy!

We got on our way, and I was excited to get back to a spot on the road where we had flushed a flock of Snow Buntings on the trip down.  Sure enough they were there.  Snow Buntings visit us in the winter only and prefer open fields and roads.  If you’ve traveled any country road in west-central Minnesota, then I’m sure you’ve seen large flocks of these white, tan, and black birds flush from the shoulder and swirl about in the air until they eventually land again.  These poor Snow Buntings were on a busy road and would get flushed by a car, fly about, land in the same spot, only to have a car come 5 seconds later.  This happened over and over.  I got a few shots, but I did not have much time so they are a bit blurry – you have to hold that camera super still when it is zoomed out so far.  I was excited to see these images because I’ve never seen these birds up close except for in field guides.

 Even my wife was amazed by these little guys and asked if there is a flight leader that directs their fast and furious cloud one way or the other.  I don’t think she minded this birding stop.  It helped that I didn’t pull any Gs and was able to bring the vehicle to a comfortable stop.

As we continued our journey home, we would have one more bird encounter.  I spotted a Bald Eagle flying high from left to right.  Again, I screeched to the shoulder and slammed on my brakes.  As my assistant – my wife – fumbled to get me the camera and get the sunroof open (Yes, it was only 15 degrees) so I could take the shot as it went to the right and after I got the camera on the sports setting and zoomed out, he was almost gone.  I got a couple of parting shots.  They were blurry, but I think you’ll recognize this bird.

What an eventful “birding” trip!  You have to take what you can get in Minnesota in the winter, and considering the limited time we have to bird, this was an excellent outing.  I think my wife might have even thought so….I caught her viewing the photos on the camera before she’d put it in the case for me.

Take a Look Out Our Window

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We finally got our Canon PowerShot SX50 HS camera to improve the quality of bird photos we put on this blog. Today I started shooting pictures of our yard birds. The birds featured in this post come by nearly every day. In fact, a few of our regulars did not show today: the Northern Cardinal, Evan’s Eurasian Collared Dove (click HERE to read the story behind that), and the Blue Jay (He showed up, but not long enough for a picture.) Below is what we captured today. Enjoy.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Black-Capped Chickadee

Dark-Eyed Junco – Slate-Colored

Dark-Eyed Junco – Oregon Race (F)

The Oregon Junco is one of my favorite visitors as we are near the very eastern edge of its winter range.  I don’t get a lot of opportunities to photograph it, so please excuse the blurry shot I took.

House Sparrow

American Goldfinch (Right)

 

Yes! American Goldfinches stay throughout the winter.  I didn’t know that until this winter.  Their plumage is a duller, greener color, but they are still fun to see!

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Common Redpoll

Hoary Redpoll

 This bird looks very similar to the Common Redpoll and mixes in their flocks.  It is paler or frostier in appearance (compare with the picture of the Common Redpoll above), it has a white rump, and its beak is smaller and more conical in shape.  See if you can pick out the one Hoary amongst the Commons in the last picture in this series.

And one of our pests…

Killing Two Birds With One Stone (Well, Not Really)

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This morning I thought I’d let my wife sleep in after a busy week by taking Evan, 5, and Marin, 2, out of the house. What would I do with them? Go birding, of course! When I asked who wanted to go birding, I was answered with two very enthusiastic “Me!!”s.

Since it was another day where the temperature was near zero, we birded by car. Our target bird was a Cedar Waxwing. Just two days earlier I had seen several with a bunch of American Robins in a couple of crab-apple trees in Willmar. Well, we got there and there was nothing. In fact, we struggled to see common species. Evan was getting crabby, but this was due to hunger and not lack of birds. After a quick stop at the McDonald’s drive-thru, everyone’s spirits were lifted and we were back to birding.

We drove on country roads to the north and west of Willmar seeing occasional common species, like House Sparrows and American Crows, but nothing exciting. Then I turned a corner and our luck started to change. I spotted a male Northern Cardinal fly across the road. The kids didn’t see it, but it pushed us to keep driving. We spotted a couple of crows in a ditch near some turkey barns – a sure sign of carrion. “What is it?!” Evan asked. When I told him it was a dead turkey, he shouted, “Cool! Can we turn around and go see it?”. So we did. I was 5 once too.

Later as we drove past a federal Waterfowl Production Area, I spotted a bird perched horizontally on a wire – the Northern Shrike! This time Evan saw it and got to add it to his life list. It was a treat to see this rare visitor again. It gave us a good look before flying from its perch. As we wound our way home we were traveling down a curvy, gravel road when I saw what looked like a half dozen filled Hefty bags on the road ahead – Wild Turkeys!! Marin even got excited to see them. I tried to get close enough to get a picture, but they dashed into the woods and then flushed. I had no idea they could run so fast. After this sighting, it was time to head home. Birding is fun, but after two hours, both kids were at their limits for patience.

I can’t wait until that new, super-zoom Canon gets here next week. We could have had some cool pictures today. I’m sure we will put more dust on the van when it gets here. Even though it’s super cold outside, there are cool birds out there that can be seen from a warm car. Plus, the company of two young birders is tough to beat.