The Wannabe Birder

In birdwatching circles, a “lifer” is a bird you see for the first time in your life.
Gary Bodie of Brainerd, Minn., saw a lifer on Wednesday: a brown creeper climbing a burr oak in his yard.
Gary identified it by looking through his binoculars. “Their coloring sure blends in well with the bark of the trees,” he writes.
I saw a brown creeper a couple of summers ago, and I have to agree.
Richard Crossley, in “The Crossley ID Guide,” writes: “Creeps or shimmies quietly up tree trunks, much like a brown-and-white mouse with a long spiky tail.”

My revelation this week was on Tuesday morning, when a female cardinal visited my safflower feeder. It was followed a few minutes later by a male cardinal on my deck. Far from a lifer, but always a treat.

Your bird reports and pictures received gratefully at: jlundy@duluthnews.com.

Terry Hoy of Cloquet shared this picture he took today:

Terry wrote: “It looks like a Yellow Canary or Finch. But this the middle of winter. I have not seen these since last fall. There were about ten of them around the tree and on the ground.
Are they coming back this early. Or am I or the birds confused.”
My opinion is that it’s a goldfinch in its winter colors. And I think some goldfinches do stay the winter. The bird books show the South Shore of Lake Superior is about the northern end of all-year-long territory for goldfinches. But I can’t say that I’ve seen any since fall, either.
And perhaps, on this day when it actually snowed in the Northland, we can think about spring. I was standing outside of Proctor High School this morning and did a double take. A chickadee was singing the “springtime” song.

Your comments, bird pictures, stories and especially your signs of spring are eager anticipated at: jlundy@duluthnews.com.

You might have seen this already, but if not it’s worth a look: A Scientific American “video of the week” of a snowboarding crow in Russia. Watch it here:

Someone at the United States Postal Service must like birds. They’ve already unveiled five stamps featuring raptors. Now they’re offering an envelope featuring purple martins. Here’s a sneak preview:

Your bird news, pictures and videos welcome at: jlundy@duluthnews.com.

The United States Postal Service has released images of the “birds of prey” stamps that will be gracing some of the mail this year.
The stamps will feature golden eagles, northern harriers, ospreys, northern goshawks and peregrine falcons.
Here’s a look:

Are you missing the loons? Check out this the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center’s website here:
When you get there, click on one of the loons, then click on “Play animation.” It will show you where in the Up North that loon started out, and how it arrived Down South. It’s astonishing, to me at least, how much ground they cover in a short time once they start migrating.

Your bird news and pictures always welcome at: jlundy@duluthnews.com.

Kudos to the Village of Grantsburg, which has been named a Bird City Wisconsin.
According to a news release from the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Grantsburg, the “Bird City Wisconsin” program is modeled after the “Tree City USA” program. By achieving success in areas such as habitat creation and protection, community forest management, limiting hazards to birds, public education and recognizing International Migratory Bird Day, a Wisconsin community can win the “Bird City” label.
Specifically, Grantsburg has adopted a comprehensive plan and is in compliance with the Wisconsin Smart Growth Laws. The village has adopted a forest management plan for village-owned land. The high school biology class keeps up a list of birds seen at Memory Lake Park in Grantsburg. Crex Meadows Wildlife Area, Governor Knowles State Forest and Brant Brook Pines State Natural Area are included in the Great Wisconsin Birding and Nature Trail. And brochures are available on how to limit and minimize hazards to birds.
Grantsburg is about 100 miles south of the Twin Ports and 15 miles east of Interstate 35 on state Highway 70.

Your birding news and pictures welcomed at: jlundy@duluthnews.com

Lyle Anderson shared these pictures he took on Monday of waxwings hanging outside his house on Park Point:



Lyle counted about 20 waxwings on the trees, but said he wasn’t sure if they were Bohemians or cedars. I’m thinking they look more like cedars, and I also think I recall someone saying the Bohemians tend to prefer being up in the ridges. But are cedar waxwings even around northern Minnesota at this time of the year? I’m sure someone out there can resolve those questions.

And now an abrupt switch from waxwings to raptors. That’s because the U.S. Postal Service is honoring five raptors with a series of stamps next year. You can find them on the “Beyond the Perf” philatelic website, between “Carmel Mission” and “Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.” Or you can go directly to the five stamps here:

What is your favorite raptor? Your comments, questions, pictures and observations happily received at: jlundy@duluthnews.com.

Even during the shortest days of the years, birds can provide unexpected moments of joy.
On Monday, as I was walking along Central Avenue in West Duluth, I distinctly heard a chickadee singing the “Spring-time” song. Once. Twice. Maybe three times.
Confused chickadee, maybe. I’d prefer to think of it as hopeful.
Then this morning, as I was sitting at my table reading Scriptures, I heard a “thump” “thump” “thump” on the deck. I looked up and saw that a pileated woodpecker was studying my suet log. After viewing it from all angles, Woody perched on the log and sampled the suet. Sadly, he didn’t stick around for pictures. But there’s a lot of winter ahead, and if he liked what he tasted, he’ll be back.

It’s one week until the Audubon Christmas Bird Count for Duluth. I’ve been told it might well include an unusual sighting for this time of year: a red-winged blackbird.
Red-winged blackbirds ought to be long gone by now, but at least one was still hanging around in the Miller Hill Mall area during the past week. It’s not good news, because chances of a red-winged blackbird surviving a winter in the Northland are slim. But it will be interesting to see if the species makes the list.
The count, billed as the longest-running “citizen science” survey in the world, covers all of North America, with counts taking place in individual communities and regions anywhere from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5.
Participating can be as easy as looking out your window and recording what you see to the website. And you can get to the website here:

Your bird photos, stories and questions always welcome at: jlundy@duluthnews.com.

Bernie St. George forwarded to me this fascinating video of an eagle owl coming right at the camera in super-slow motion. It’s hard to watch this short video and not flinch, especially when the talons open up just before the video ends. You can see for yourself here:
I had never heard of an eagle owl, and neither had my bird books. My research (a Google search) indicated why: the Eurasian eagle owl is strictly an Old World creature.

So you probably won’t see an eagle owl during the Great Backyard Bird Count, but you might see a northern hawk owl, which would be just as cool. As the “backyard” part of the name indicates, you don’t really have to go anywhere or do anything out of the ordinary to participate. All you need to do is keep track of the birds you see on one day — in Duluth, bird count day is Dec. 17 — and submit your list to the Great Backyard Bird Count website, here:

Bird stories, pictures and videos greeted with delight here: jlundy@duluthnews.com.

I took advantage of a free day on Monday to spend sometime tooling about the Sax-Zim Bog.
Birders come to the bog from all over the country and even from other countries. It’s the only Minnesota birding destination mentioned in both the book and the movie “The Big Year.” The kind of extreme birders who might get lost on the way to their neighborhood drug store know exactly where the best spots are on Admiral Road in the bog.
Yet neither private nor public entities have done much to call attention to it. The town of Cotton could have a sign proclaiming it “Gateway to the Sax-Zim Bog,” but it doesn’t. There aren’t any “birding route” signs, not even an indication of when you’re actually in the bog. As far as I’ve been able to discover, there are no public foot trails in the bog.
Except for the part about foot trails, this is not a complaint. I like that it’s almost a secret; the kind of place that you only know about if … you know about it.
Even though it’s close — under an hour’s drive from Duluth — I seldom visit the bog, and I drive around pretty much at random when I do go.
On Monday, I took U.S. 53 north from Duluth, then turned left on county Highway 52 (once you’re off 53, they’re all county highways) at Cotton. I took the first right turn — Reynolds Road, I think it is — and ended up back on U.S. 53, then took that back to 52 and started over. This time, I turned right on Highway 7, which seems like kind of the main drag of the bog — the road is paved and even has shoulders. I took a left on the road that purportedly leads to the Zim Town Hall, and another left on Highway 5, and then again on Highway 52, most of which is a dirt road. On Monday, it was covered with a thin layer of snow and ice in the shady spots. During that section of the drive, I stopped briefly at Owl Avenue just because it’s called Owl Avenue.
When I got back to Highway 53, I stopped for a slice of pie and a cuppa tea at the Wilbert Cafe in Cotton. I wondered how many real birders had stopped at that cafe, which has been existence since 1922 and has gone through several fires and changes of ownership.
As for birds, I didn’t see much. The thrill was a raptor along Highway 7. It posed for me twice, close to the road, and I managed to get a blurry photo:

It was not blurry in real life, but when you have the camera at maximum zoom and hold it with an unsteady hand, blur is what you get.
I think it is a first-year red-tailed hawk, but I’m willing to be corrected.

I just discovered a birder-oriented map of the bog that I wish I had found before my drive. You can view it here:

One more note regarding a red-tailed hawk, and it’s a sad one. The New York Times reported that the matriarch of a red-tailed hawk family known through a New York City bird cam has a serious leg injury and is in danger of losing her right leg.
The hawk, known as Violet, is shown in video with her leg dangling uselessly, her foot gray from lack of blood flow. It’s not clear what cased the injury, the Times reported. The hawk cam is down for this season.

Your bird pictures and stories welcome at: jlundy@duluthnews.com.