So like your favorite show, I’ve left you with a cliffhanger in that last post that alluded to a tantalizing lifer and I made you wait for the next season (literally) to get some resolution. Turns out that a busy career, life with kids and their activities, and a move(!) have hindered the blogging efforts even if the birding has still raged on in spite of the chaos. There have been trips to Arizona, Wisconsin, lifer trips here in Minnesota, and much more. It’s been a wild ride, but things are finally a little more conducive to getting caught up, so you can expect a mass release of posts and start binge-reading ABWCH.
We left off with a birding excursion to a Black Spruce bog back in the homeland of northern Minnesota with birding friends Julie Grahn and John Richardson in late March. Winter still had a somewhat icy grip on the northwoods, but there was a fire of birding excitement burning inside as John, Julie, and I pursued Julie’s latest great find–an American Three-toed Woodpecker. While this species may be easier to find out west in the mountains, this woodpecker is incredibly rare for Minnesota. In fact, in all the years that I have been birding there has not been a chaseable one until this past spring when Julie found FOUR of them in three different locations! Julie’s fame grew as throngs of birders trekked up north to see a pair of these elusive Woodpeckers at one particular spot. I was somewhat late to the party, actually, and had to wait for an opportune time to sneak away. So when the kids had their spring break, I took them on a trip to see Grandma who graciously watched them while I went hunting for this lifer.
Back to that same day that we saw the Spruce Grouse, John, Julie, and I walked back and forth along a two-mile stretch of road through a Black Spuce bog in the hopes of hearing/seeing this ghost of a Woodpecker. After a couple hours we finally heard drumming, and we all raced ahead to track it down. It seems like heresy to say this, but I was dejected to be looking at a Black-backed Woodpecker.
We carried on with our walk that had us traversing the same stretch of road several times. Then we heard drumming quite a ways from the Black-backed and knew it was a different bird. We repeated the drill of tracking down the source. Only this time it was different. John was the first one to get eyes on it and announced it was the American Three-toed Woodpecker and the male at that!
It was a huge lifer for me–there are only a handful of regular birds in Minnesota I can still add to my life list, and the icing on the cake was that this was a hometown bird. It really doesn’t get better than that, and I spent a lot of time soaking up the experience and taking lots of photos.
At one point this Woodpecker flew down and worked the bark along a downed tree. This bird was oblivious to my presence and let me approach within 5 feet as it frantically flaked bark to look for insects.
It was a beautiful day to be birding back home and enjoying a long-awaited lifer. John had gotten his fill long ago and left. Julie was quite patient as I spent an inordinate amount of time photographing this incredibly accommodating bird.
I did, finally, pry myself away and Julie and I wrapped up our birding for the day. However, I found myself back on this road the next morning because the allure of these Woodpeckers and the Spruce Grouse was just too strong. That second morning I decided to drive the stretch of road first with the windows down. Unlike the day before, the action started almost immediately. I heard the unmistakable rattle call of TWO Black-backed Woodpeckers that seemed to be chasing each other around in some sort of courtship dance. I got lucky enough to catch them on the same tree together.
Then all craziness broke loose (as if it hadn’t already). There were now four Woodpeckers chasing each other around. As I tried to make sense of it all, another unexpected sighting happened–Sparky Stensaas came bursting out of the woods with a large camera and tripod in hot pursuit of this action. All of this action was just nuts. I started photographing two Woodpeckers on a dead snag and realized I had the male Black-backed and male Three-toed together on the same tree!
They appeared to be in some sort of dispute over territory which was a fascinating development for us onlookers. Meanwhile, the females of these respective species kept each other company on their own tree, though I did not photograph them. I was too busy watching the males who were vying for superiority.
And in the end, one Woodpecker clearly won out.
Eventually, the Woodpeckers (and Sparky) dispersed into the woods and the excitement was over. Later on, Julie Grahn and Dee Kuder showed up, and along with Sparky we all enjoyed the Spruce Grouse show that was highlighted in the last post. A huge thank you goes out to Julie Grahn for finding and reporting these birds and assisting me in finding them. It was an incredible experience–I couldn’t have asked for a better way to get this lifer.
Finally, to close this post and whet your appetite for the next post (and Chinese food), this is a fortune I got while stopping to eat on this northern MN trip, a fortune that came true…
I couldn’t believe my luck. This happened once two years ago in this same spot but with just one bird. The female (lifer gender) above and the male below stood motionless on the road as I crept the vehicle closer and closer to them.
As I watched, I spotted a second male just on the edge of the woods who wanted nothing to do with me.
I wanted to creep by the birds and get around them by driving on the shoulder so that I could view these dark, male statues from the front, their better side. As I did so, another car came down the highway and now I was worried these dumb things would get killed. I wasn’t going to let that happen, so I planned to shoo them off the road. But I didn’t have to because my close presence at this point and the approaching car thankfully activated them. I was able to snap another pic of the male on the road before he flew off. The birds barely flew into the edge of the woods and never re-flushed, yet try as I might, I could not pick them out of the Spruce trees. Their camouflage and ability to sit motionless are amazing.
and Birch catkins…
Everyone eats well at Grandma’s house and goes home stuffed.
A little while later, Julie asked me to stop the car to check out a bird I had dismissed as a Raven. This instance is proof of why two birders are better than one because Julie had spotted a juvenile Northern Goshawk! Like the Crossbill, this was another photographic first for me. I have had several probable NOGOs in the area but had never had one sit still before to know for sure.
To end my birding for this trip, I later went into the town of Cook and found the Bohemian Waxwing flock Julie had told me about.
This holiday’s birds were off the charts. It ended up being some of the best birding I’ve ever had at home up north and certainly gives the birder in me much to be thankful for. Unfortunately gratitude has a time limit before greed kicks in…how many more days until we go home for Christmas?
Something even more amazing happened while we tried to lure out this guy–a second Black-back showed up! There was a male and a female! Unfortunately I never did see that classic field mark of the yellow crown on the male, but Tommy and Gordon each got to see it. I will continue to search for these birds until I finally see that and finally get good photos of this species.
and over…
and over.
Not only was it thrill to watch these guys get this incredible lifer, but I also enjoyed seeing a Great Gray in a new (to me) part of the Bog. It doesn’t matter where these guys are, though. They are just plain cool.
The guys even got to see the males of this new lifer doing their courtship dances! That was topped off by the Grouse coming roadside to feast at a local resident’s feeders before retiring for the day. It really couldn’t have been a better experience for viewing this bird.
This is a bird I previously had terrible photos of, so this felt good to see a male up close.
And of course, there were Common Redpolls which is a lifer for the guys. There are always Redpolls. This one had some potential for…oh, who cares anymore?
The Boreal Chickadees had started to become a regular at the Admiral Road feeders not more than a week before the guys arrived. Tommy and Gordon were truly spoiled with this lifer. It appeared within a minute of us stopping at the feeders. How many birders, myself included, have waited for an hour or more only to be skunked? Additionally, it came out often, like every minute instead of every half hour. Like the Great Gray, this bird is not a given. Also like the Great Gray, much face time is required with this bird. I would estimate that we spent equal time with it as we did with the Owl. For me this bird ranks just below a Great Gray Owl but definitely above a Snowy Owl. As such, I am on a never-ending quest to get a photo of a BOCH that I am happy with.
One morning I decided to canvas the heck out of Cook, cruising up and down all the streets looking for those Crossbills. Honestly, it is just as much fun driving around Cook as it is the Sax-Zim Bog, especially when there are great birds, like an overabundance of Evening Grosbeaks.
Some were so incredibly tame. I think I could have pet this one.
Birding a small town like this is a lot of fun because the birds are easy to spot as there are not many of them, and they stick out like sore thumbs in leafless trees. And nearly every bird you pull up the binoculars on in this area is a fun bird. In addition to the Grosbeaks, I saw Redpolls, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Gray Jays, and even a quick sighting of my White-winged Crossbill lifer. Additionally I found a very late Common Grackle, which is the only way a Grackle ever becomes exciting.
Since I was in the pole position for this Great Gray in the traffic jam that had developed on Admiral Road, I planned to stay put until there was enough light to properly photograph the Owl. This one had other plans as it hopped from perch to perch and went out of sight almost as soon as it had appeared. Many other birders/photographers stayed in the area for a reappearance (which many got over and over), but this was a scouting trip and I had more places and birds to check on.
I tried hard to turn up another Great Gray or two but just couldn’t do it. I was happy to find a small group of Sharp-tailed Grouse near Meadowlands. I know this sounds strange, but from a scouting perspective, this was the most exciting find of the morning. The Great Gray is obviously the better bird, but one only needs to look for the parked cars to spot one of those in the Sax-Zim Bog.
In just three weeks time, Tommy, Gordon, and myself will be hitting the Sax-Zim Bog and NE MN harder than I’ve ever hit these areas before. I am looking forward to this trip just as much as any of my out-of-state trips.
Northern Minnesota is home. Every season offers up something special in terms of wildlife and scenery. I was able to get out and do some birding in the forests, bogs, and open country on the same recent trip that included the Blackburnian Warbler. Cool stuff abounds everywhere here. It was good to be home.
Judging from my picture, it appears that this was a family group with a couple fledglings! This Chickadee is so cool. Most MN birders only see them in the dead of winter when they come out to the remote feeding station on Admiral Road in the Sax-Zim Bog. I was very pleased to see BOCH in the summer and much closer to home than SZ.
Another fun bird to see even if it couldn’t be seen well was the Lincoln’s Sparrow.
The varied habitats in northern MN offer up some unique opportunities for viewing wildlife. While looking for an American Bittern lifer in a marsh near my parents’ house, I found this gal looking for a place to lay her eggs.
It was not the biggest Snapper I’ve seen. This one’s shell was the size of a dinner plate. I’ve seen them twice as big before.
I didn’t spend a lot of time in the mature, upland woods other than just passing through. That was enough to nab my FOY Blue-headed Vireo that I missed during migration.
This bird has never been good to me. It was once a nemesis and continues to be a photographic nemesis. By the time I figured out its rhythm of jumping to a new perch each time after it sang, the bird disappeared from sight.
Also found in an open area was a bird that I have seen so many times this year and never before in the Northland, the Brown Thrasher.
One bird that favors the open grassy fields that intersperse the Northwoods are the showy, and unique-sounding Bobolinks. They must be having a good year because I saw so many.
One bird that I was absolutely surprised to find in the open fields were Brewer’s Blackbirds! I had no idea they were in the area. Honestly, I often just dismiss most blackbirds I see as Red-winged Blackbirds or Common Grackles. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the Brewer’s. Like the Bobolink, it was nice to finally be able to get some decent photos of this bird too.
I had some really fun birding on this trip up north. I was not lifer hunting as there really are so few lifers I can still get. And none of them are easy. Or so I thought. In the next post I’ll tell you about a three-generation lifer that was delivered right to the doorstep.
Overkill? Maybe, but my burning desire to photograph one of my top birds has finally been extinguished….until I find another one.
With cravings for goodies and grosbeaks satisfied, it was hard to complain about getting whooped by Grandma in Farkle. We left with full bellies and content hearts, satisfied yet already yearning for the next visit. It was a great day in the northwoods with its birds and people!