While on one of the birding trips for the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds, we visited Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge. There had been a woodcock nesting right off a trail near the Nature Center. As we walked towards it, the female appeared to have moved to right on the trail. The refuge staff suspected that [ Read More ]
I was archiving some photos and found this photo from this year’s Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds of a great horned owl nest with 2 chicks. I figured the least I could do is post this photo after yesterday’s link to a flycatcher eating what appears to be Cthulu.
This year’s Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds was more challenging than in the past. Due to the long winter, migration was about two weeks behind, so instead of warblers dripping from trees and the shorebirds crowding the mudflats we really had to work to get participants their target birds. This year, the organizer added a [ Read More ]
We birded Glendalough State Park during the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival. There were common yellowthroats singing on territory all over. I even managed to get video of them through my spotting scope and digital camera. They are usually described as having a song that says, “witchety, witchety, witchety” but sometimes they can be a little [ Read More ]
This was a yellow-bellied sapsucker doing some territorial drumming on an old rusty drum during the Red Lake trip of the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival. For those not familiar with sapsuckers, they have a distinctive drumming sound. Note how it starts and then kind of peters out. When you hear that sort of drumming, you [ Read More ]
Just back from the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds–more to report on that when I am a bit more rested. I’ve been trying to upload some video I took on YouTube, but for some reason it keeps failing–is it perhaps because I’m using “sapsucker” in the title? I’m not sure, but Non Birding Bill is [ Read More ]
We saw a totally funky oriole today on the Glendalough field trip. There should only be Baltimore orioles here, but this one kind of looked like a hooded oriole (although not quite). So, this bird is either a hybrid between the two, a second year male oriole who hasn’t quite molted into his adult plumage, [ Read More ]
Last year, the Felton Prairie was a magical field trip: the sun made the prairie glow, you could hear a symphony bird songs: marbled godwits, chestnut-collared longspurs, bobolink, western meadowlarks, etc. It was chilly but not bad. This year, it was cloudy, cold, and windy. I was totally unprepared and forgot my gloves. The birding [ Read More ]
When I drove up for the Detroit Lakes Bird Festival, it was very hot and warm. Friday while birding at Agassiz, it was cooler, but by afternoon it was very hot. That night some incredible storms moved in. Jeff Bouton and Ben Lizdas and I headed to Hamden Slough for a scan of birds and [ Read More ]
Sandhill cranes flying off the road as our jam packed 57 passenger bus was creeping along Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge. That place is definitely worth the hype. Well, I learned an interesting tid bit at the festival–the field trip to Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge sold out before the field trip to go birding with David [ Read More ]
