Comments on: Birdwatching is NOT “Fluff”

By: Bruce W. Morlan

Bruce W. Morlan — Wed, 18 May 2011 17:22:20 +0000

I know that some birding friends from Rochester came to the Northfield area to see the snowy owl that was reported just east of town. I think I nearly ran it down when it was chased across the road at dusk last winter (my bird identification skills are not at the levels of you real experts). And it is really nice to see the turkey and eagle populations bouncing back from the low levels we used to have, but even those simple little black-capped chickadees make the mornings brighter.

By: Paul Zorn

Paul Zorn — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:30:55 +0000

After endless cold and damp weather this spring, and bad birding last spring, 2011 seems to be a good year in these parts.

Looking for a good time? Check out the warblers and their friends at the Cannon Valley Wilderness Park, east of Hwy 3 a few miles south of town. Notably in evidence last Sunday, for instance, were yellowthroats, redstarts, scarlet tanagers, indigo buntings, and all sorts of warblers: yellow, black and white, yellow-rumped, Blackburnian, chestnut-sided, blackpoll, Cape May, Northern parula, and others less readily identified.

By: Penny Hillemann

Penny Hillemann — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 11:37:05 +0000

Griff — um, Dave sheepishly acknowledged that after reviewing the songs of the eastern and western meadowlark, he realizes he had them reversed in his memory. (He’s embarrassed.) So it was an eastern that we recently heard and saw on the soccer field.

By: Penny Hillemann

Penny Hillemann — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:51:58 +0000

There has been a loon on the pond to the south of Superior Drive the last two days. Photos on my blog.

By: Penny Hillemann

Penny Hillemann — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:16:49 +0000

Dave heard it, got all excited and started looking for it based on what he heard. We found it perched on the soccer goal. He’s reasonably experienced, but not an ornithologist by any means.

By: john george

john george — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:35:19 +0000

There is a pair of kildeers that nest in the rocks around the store I where I work in Lakeville. I saw them Saturday Morning when I arrived.

By: Griff Wigley

Griff Wigley — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 04:04:20 +0000

Did you hear its song, Penny? The Eastern meadowlark wikipedia entry says:

The song of this bird is of pure, melancholy whistles, and thus simpler than the jumbled and flutey song of the Western Meadowlark; their ranges overlap across central North America. In the field, the song is often the easiest way to tell the two species apart, though plumage differences do exist, like tail pattern and malar coloration.

By: Penny Hillemann

Penny Hillemann — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 02:39:23 +0000

I’m not sure what the particular history around here is, Griff, but in general, modern agricultural practices and the loss of open meadow/grassland are likely involved. Border-to-border cultivated farm fields tend to make for an avian desert. We tend to hear more about the loss of wetlands, but the loss of grassland is at least as serious an issue. While we don’t see a lot of meadowlarks, we tend to see them fairly regularly when we go to the right sort of habitat. I should offer the caveat that I can’t say for sure whether we are seeing Easterns or Westerns. Dave, who is much more experienced than I, identified this recent one as a Western, but I think that is his default for this area. It’s possible what we saw was an Eastern, but the range maps indicate that we should be much more likely to see Westerns here. However, I see in the Cowling Arboretum checklist that Easterns are listed as common and Westerns as rare, so that seems unexpected.

By: Griff Wigley

Griff Wigley — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 15:59:34 +0000

Penny, I've not seen or heard a western meadowlark in years. 'Tis my favorite song bird. They used to be pretty common in the rural areas around Northfield back in the last 70s. Any idea as to why they're now so rare around here? Listen to two MP3's of their song on this page.

By: Curt Benson

Curt Benson — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:59:02 +0000

Hey Bright, speaking of birds and music, thanks for the opportunity for me to go on a tangent and link to a video of guitarist Jeff Beck jamming with a blackbird. Beck is appearing at the State Theatre April 17th. Anyone else going?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrB9GxFHqZ0

And to be even more digressive, “bird” is British slang for an attractive female of the human persuasion, right? Here’s a link to Jeff Beck with Joss Stone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpNvCa99W5s

By: Bright Spencer

Bright Spencer — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:48:04 +0000

The great early jazz horn playing masters often started out learning their craft by watching birds in the farm yard chirp and cluck about. Song birds have been the inspiration for many a melody.
Young children watch eagles and buzzards and hawks soar,fall and dash through the air,teaching the kids about air currents and gravity and powe, fostering of love of human flight.
So many of our inventions,how to design materials to help us keep warm in freezing temperatures, keep dry in the rain, and how to see further are directly related to bird watching. Don’t forget the owl whooo has taught us well about stealth silence.
Fluff? Oh yeah, the kind that keeps one alive and thriving!

By: Penny Hillemann

Penny Hillemann — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:06:45 +0000

We have been seeing robins in the southeast quadrant of town for about two weeks now. They are quite plentiful in the neighborhoods near the soccer fields. We saw a western meadowlark down there this evening, perched on one of the soccer goals for quite a while. Lots of scaup and coots on the Superior Drive pond this evening, but not the variety of ducks and geese we were seeing a week or so ago, at least not today.

By: Jane McWilliams

Jane McWilliams — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:40:37 +0000

There are interesting birds are on the west side, Tracy. I have robins in my birdbath and all over the little crabapples in the tree in my front yard. Just now when I walked my dog, you could hear them singing their hears out in the trees in the neighborhood.

Come on over and take a look!

By: Tracy Davis

Tracy Davis — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:32:16 +0000

I think all the interesting birds on the east side must be hiding out in the Arb, because I haven’t seen many. Usually I spot robins first in Central Park, but I’ve been actively looking and haven’t seen any. May when it warms up this weekend…

By: Bright Spencer

Bright Spencer — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:57:33 +0000

gorgeous shot, Jane!

By: Sandra Bartels

Sandra Bartels — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 01:09:08 +0000

be sure to stop by the slough on the south side of Co Rd. #1 near Millersburg to see the migrating swans…..scores of them!

By: Paul Zorn

Paul Zorn — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:57:26 +0000

In olden (pre-global-warming?) days robins disappeared during winter. Now some hardy individuals hang around here the whole winter. I saw a few near Old Main on the St Olaf campus earlier today.

Crows are also here all winter, but mark approaching spring by getting more combative (or amorous? how can non-crows tell?) and hanging around in big, noisy flocks in the evening. And our neighborhood male pileated woodpecker has started drumming out come-hithers on a nearby power pole. No luck so far, poor guy.

By: Mary Schier

Mary Schier — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:48:35 +0000

I’ve seen several of them — though they mostly have their feathers fluffed up and look cold! I’ve also seen red-winged blackbirds and a muskrat in the ponds on the southside of town.

By: Tracy Davis

Tracy Davis — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:08:42 +0000

Forget the “ice formations”, I’m ready for spring. Has anyone seen a robin yet?

By: Ray Cox

Ray Cox — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:25:20 +0000

Laura, you may very well have seen pelicans. Pelicans started to move into the state as they head north about a month ago. At an open house on Circle Lake at that time I watched about 30-40 brown pelicans go back and forth between the lake and the wetlands. They have such a distinctive ‘crook’ in their neck as they fly and in formation with other pelicans they look a bit prehistoric.
It is my understanding that they pass through here while heading further north. We don’t seem to see them hanging around all summer in this area.

By: Stephanie Henriksen

Stephanie Henriksen — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:50:53 +0000

The month of May is full of tragedy for baby birds, especially on a farm which is home to 12 barn cats. I keep them caged much of the day, but there are still casualties.

A nest of five baby birds fell out of a rig on the grain bin a couple days ago. The mother does not seem to be around. There were two surviving last night, but just barely. So I took them in to warm up.

They are lively and VERY hungry this morning. I googled “baby birds abandoned” and got lots of info on care and diet--bits of canned dog food and boiled egg white, etc. Prognosis is not good, of course. Have to feed them at least every hour sunrise to sunset!

By: john george

john george — Sat, 24 May 2008 03:22:44 +0000

These pelicans are just passing through. I haven’t seen them stay around very long, but they have been going through here for years. There is a small island on Leech Lake, just west of Big Island, where the birds nest and raise their young. I have fished around it many years ago. If you take a drive up to Fargo or Brainard or Bemidji, you will see flocks of them on all the lakes you pass. They seem to settle farther north than the Twin Cities.

By: Penny Hillemann

Penny Hillemann — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:03:05 +0000

I have seen large flocks (several dozen birds) of pelicans on Lake Byllsby (near Cannon Falls) in the past, but haven’t been over there yet this season. That area you mentioned, Laura, is another place I’ve seen them. It does seem incongruous, doesn’t it? The place I was most surprised to see pelicans was at Yellowstone — so far from any major bodies of water, though of course Yellowstone Lake is pretty big as lakes go. It goes to show that our (my) preconceptions are not always right, because apparently that was prime territory for the white pelican. The Cornell Ornithology Lab says:

Breeding on lakes throughout the northern Great Plains and mountain West, the American White Pelican is one of the largest birds in North America. It winters along the coasts, but breeds only inland.

By: Bright Spencer

Bright Spencer — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:48:24 +0000

I have seen several pelicans over the last couple of years. I didn’t think much of it, cuz down near our place in Oklahoma, where the Cimarron and Arkansas River meet, the pelicans have a layover when they make the journey from the Dakotas to west Texas. In another thread, someone said that their path took a segue due to storms or something and now layover around here.

By: Curt Benson

Curt Benson — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:43:46 +0000

Laura, you were not hallucinating. There are also pelicans on Circle Lake which is about five miles southwest of your siting. Some years they stop over for a few days on their migrations. Lately some have hung out there all summer. I think it has something to do with the stocking of walleye fingerlings on the lake. Also, there are large numbers of pelicans that summer in northern Minnesota, possibly attracted by names like “Pelican Lake” by the city of Pelican Rapids. (The last being a faux remark, of course.)