Solar Eclipse Over Afton Farm Fields

Yesterday evening I drove down the road running south of us to watch the sun disappear on the horizon. I hadn't thought about it at the time, but digital cameras are great for watching eclipses. Just turn on your viewing screen and you're all set!

It was a beautiful sunset and incredibly cool to see the sun,with a bite taken out of the upper left corner, disappear from view over the farm fields.

Hope you all had a chance to watch the eclipse as well!

Juvenile Green Heron

Today I released two rehabilitated juvenile Green Herons that had been raised in the WRC Avian Nursery. They flew to a tree on an island and eyeballed the people who had gathered to watch the release. Very nice of them. So many people go their entire lives without seeing these small, somewhat elusive herons. Live well young herons!

Juvenile House Wren Study

Who doesn't love baby birds? They're amazingly cute and very, very hungry.

Right off our stoop is a nest of House Wrens. They've been growing louder and louder for the past two weeks and started poking their heads out a few days ago. I've been hoping to get photos and today they obliged.

The parent wrens, who must be absolutely exhausted by now, are attempting to lure the baby wrens out of the house by moving farther and farther away while holding food.

The baby wrens beg and beg until the parent wren capitulates and comes to the perch to feed them.

Hopefully I'll be around when they fledge. Wishing you a wonderful baby bird season!

Snowy Cardinal

I was amazed at the colors in this when I saw it onscreen. You know how you snap a photo, think "oh, this might be good" but really don't know until you open it up? I had no idea it captured the "glowing" aspect of the cardinal - was so excited when I saw this. No filters, no nothing, just sheer luck.

I took this in the evening during a heavy snow a couple weeks ago. The cardinals were sheltering in our large white pine that's just yards from a feeding station. The branch this one is sitting on sticks out farther than the rest, so it gave a nice brightness in the forefront with the background being in shadow. You can almost feel the silent denseness of the fresh snow in it.

Hope all of you have at least one "wow" moment this snowy winter (even those of you battling the snow down south!).

Cooper's Hawk Profile

One of my favorite images of the juvenile Cooper's Hawk who has been hanging out in our yard. I love the soft diffusion of light that the white pine boughs create in the background.


I'm away on my northwoods camping trip. Unplugged, off grid, just enjoying nature  :-)  Thank you for visiting my blog - I'll reply to comments when I return in a few weeks!

Dragonfly and Dahlia

A favorite "summer" image of a female White-faced Meadowhawk in my garden.


I'm up north, unplugged and enjoying nature. Thanks for visiting while I'm gone! I look forward to catching up with you and your blog in early October.

Not Your Usual Yard Birds

I always love migration. You just never know what's going to pop up in the yard. First, I should say that "yard" for us means roughly a half acre of grass, the rest is one acre of in-process prairie restoration and 3.5 acres of mixed hardwoods and pines. It makes for fabulous bird watching.

We had two visitors this week within 15 minutes of each other that had me running for my camera.

When I caught a glimpse of the first bird my initial thought was "Curve-billed Thrasher??? WHAT?" Trust me, there's a good explanation for why I'd pop a bird from the American Southwest into Minnesota. We've raised one in our Avian Nursery at WRC. Yep. It caught a ride on a trailer hitch for nearly 600 miles before the people found it. It's hopping a ride back to Arizona tomorrow so it's been on my mind lately. But that's a whole different story... the point of this is that the curved bill is what caught my attention through the apple tree:

Turns out it's a juvenile Yellow-billed Cuckoo. (not a Curve-billed Thrasher... go figure!)

The second cool bird was this Blue-headed Vireo:

From a front view you can get a better look at its signature "spectacles:"

While Blue-headed Vireos nest up north in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota, the Yellow-billed Cuckoos nest in my area. But I've never seen one in our yard before.

You can tell it's a juvenile by its bright yellow orbital ring. The ring will begin greying next spring. Here's a closer look at its eye:

Note the cuckoo is actually panting. We've had an extremely hot run of weather and are in the middle of drought. Both birds came down to bird baths that we have in our yard. Water is an equally important draw as bird feeders. Without water I probably never would've had these birds come so close to the house.

While the cuckoo has a long migration ahead of it (all the way down to South America) the vireo will actually stay in North and Central America for the winter.

Both birds glean insects from tree branches. A great reason to keep a pesticide-free habitat!


Check out other neat migration birds and photos from all over the world via Wild Bird Wednesday.

Flamenco: Cooper's Style

Every year we have Cooper's Hawks nest in our east pine trees. And every year they mercilessly pick off our birds at the bird feeders.

A juvenile has been hanging out in the yard  for nearly a month and the other day I took the opportunity to spend time photographing it.

What did I learn from this? Apparently Cooper Hawks know how to do the Flamenco. Or at least this one does.

A little stretching first:

Limber up that neck:

Warm up those legs:

Flamenco Right!

and Flamenco Left!

Crouch down

and full leg extension!

 And a final, humble bow:

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Head over to Stewart's page for Wild Bird Wednesday to enjoy other fun and beautiful bird posts. (and feel free to kick up your heels on the way over...)

Warblering Milestones

I've been crazy busy lately at work and with my Mom visiting, and haven't had a whole lot of time to write. So, I thought I'd share some of the more exciting warbler occurrences in my yard along with a reminder that enjoying the outdoors is all about BEING in the outdoors, not just the photos.

Two weeks ago I was sitting on my East stoop (a favorite morning coffee spot), watching all the warblers flitting through our trees when all of a sudden a group way up in the tippy-top of our ash trees caught my eye. It was a group of four Golden-winged Warblers picking bugs out of the ash buds.

After watching them for a bit it dawned on me that maybe I should grab my camera.These are the best photos I could get, but it's not about the photos, it's about that moment of realization that these besieged birds were actually right there, in my yard.

Golden-winged Warblers are in serious decline, one of the fastest declining species of birds in North America with an overall decline of 76% (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). And of the surviving Golden-wingeds? More than 95% of them breed in the Upper Great Lakes area of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Manitoba, with Minnesota having the largest population of breeding Golden-wingeds in the world.

This is what they look like up close and personal:

Yep. Of all the odd timing, just the day before I saw the group in my yard, we ended our weekly Northfield banding session on a high note with this "fancy bird," as Professor Dan called it. It is absolutely stunning to see up close. One of the coolest markings? The eyestripe runs so that the top of the bird's feathers around the eye are white - here's a closer look:

Again, not the greatest photo but the memory of seeing this bird in hand will stay with me forever.

Getting back to the excitement in Afton, later that same day, I opened our front door to go out to the garage and saw a bright glint of blue flash through the air. At first I thought it was one of the dozens of yellow-rumpeds we've had around.

Nope. A Cerulean Warbler. IN MY DRIVEWAY.

Always, always have wanted to see one of these beautiful little birds and never have. Watched it flitting into the air to catch bugs, using our Thule carrier rack as its launching base.

After several minutes of stunned silence absorbing this sight, I ran and grabbed the camera. It's really, really hard to take good photos when you're jumping up and down in excitement (as evidenced here):

 

Again, while none of these photos are really great, they all remind me of an incredible day in my yard, and the opportunity to see a warbler that may not be around much longer up close and personal.

Capture the moment in your heart and mind first, then grab a camera. What's the point of enjoying the outdoors if all you're doing is using a viewfinder, right?

Oh, and remember to jump and soar with joy to celebrate those special moments.

Linking up with other bird lovers through Wild Bird Wednesday. Check them out!

A Curious, and Hungry, Chestnut-sided Warbler

Our spring in Minnesota has been brutal for insectivores. Dozens of Eastern Bluebirds and Tree Swallows have been found dead in nestboxes, having starved (or frozen?) to death during our cold, wet spring. Phoebes, which showed up more than a month ago, have been completely absent since our late snows and freezing temps. It's hard to survive when your primary food source isn't available.

In the last two weeks there have been days on end of "warbler fallouts" where they're basically littering the ground, searching for any morsel to eat. And any hint of sunshine brings the warblers out in full force, hunting for any bugs they can find. While it makes for great birding, it's sad to know that it's because they're struggling to survive.

On Sunday, we had this very curious Chestnut-sided Warbler follow us through the gardens. Can you ask for a more beautiful bird to stalk you? I think not.

He started flitting down to us as we were poking around in the wood chips searching for signs of emerging ferns and lupines. I imagine we were uncovering tasty morsels for him.

From there, he followed us to our "East Garden." As Dean looked over the plants that have emerged in that bed, the warbler flitted down right next to his feet and hopped from the garden up to a rock and back down again. It was amazing to have this gorgeous bird so close for so long.

It's been here for several days now, enjoying suet with the dozens of Yellow-rumpeds. As a special treat I picked up 1,000 mealworms on Monday for everyone. They were gone in a matter of hours much to the delight of the birds (and me who enjoyed watching them eagerly slurp them down like spaghetti noodles).

I included this photo because it shows the beautiful markings on the Chestnut-sided's back. I never realized how much yellow they have on their backs until this weekend:

After all our cold weather (there was frost on Sunday night) we hit a whopping 96 degrees today. Many of the warblers in our yard took advantage of the warm weather and moved on. I didn't see the Chestnut-sided at all today and there are only a couple dozen Yellow-rumpeds still hanging around.

Can't wait to see what the warm weather and high winds blows in overnight! Stay tuned...


Posted in conjunction with other bird aficionados through Wild Bird Wednesday. Be sure to check them all out!

Surprise Visitor: Western Tanager

As I peered out my front window Wednesday morning, all bleary-eyed and not yet awake, I was surprised to see an overly large goldfinch. Since my brain wasn't fully awake yet, this is the conversation that I had with myself:

"That's not a goldfinch, too big... female oriole? Huh, what's wrong with it's head? No, not an oriole... Good grief, did someone's parakeet escape? What the heck? Oh my gosh: It's a Western Tanager."

Long silent pause as I soaked in the joy of seeing one of these birds. IN MY YARD.

Springing things like this on me first thing in the morning before my synapses are all firing isn't the best idea, but let me tell you. It sure woke me up!

I'd left my camera in the car overnight and all I had was the truly crappy camera on my Droid (why, oh why, can't we get good cameras on Droids?). So I snapped a few pictures just for documentation while I quietly swore to myself to never, ever leave the camera in the car again.

Thankfully, the bird hung around and I was able to scamper to the car, get my camera and snap photos of it before I left for work:

And no. We don't have Western Tanagers in Minnesota. Although we do get enough of them through periodically - especially in the spring - that they're an infrequent visitor. The only other sighting of a W. Tanager in my county was in 1984 in Stillwater, Minn. Pretty exciting!

Could it be... it is!

Awoke to a heavy wet spring snow covering everything and figured it'd be a good opportunity to capture images of birds that I don't normally see in snow. Our towhees have returned, along with all sorts of other sparrows, and of course the Yellow-rumped Warblers who seem to have camped out in our yard.

I was photographing the beautiful White-throated Sparrows in the snowy forsythia when I saw this:

Black and white... orange legs, looks like a black head... and is that a hint of yellow on its wings? Could it be...

YES! A male Blackpoll Warbler!

I've never seen one of these before. Couldn't believe my luck. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! While these birds are widely spread throughout Canada, the only time to catch them here in the States is during their fall migration to South America.

It moved from bloom to bloom and I wasn't sure if it was finding tiny bugs that had crawled into the flowers to escape the snow, or if it was drinking nectar.

The bird was kind enough to show me what it was after: It's pulling out the interior of the flowers and eating them:

 

Stewart Monckton from Australia, who writes a couple fabulous blogs, wrote something a few weeks ago that I really identified with as a bird lover: It's finding the unexpected in a frequented spot that really makes observing nature interesting. Finding this beautiful bird right outside our bedroom window is such an unexpected treat. For me this is what enjoying the outdoors is all about.

Wonder what else this odd spring weather will bring to our yard. Suppose that's the one good thing about having such cold, wet weather: Interesting birds!

Spring Air Brings First Warblers!

Yesterday, amidst the 6" of freshly fallen spring snow, a dozen or so Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers flitted around our yard from suet feeder to suet feeder. The males are in their gorgeous breeding plumage: Deep blues and greys with bright yellow splashes on their heads, chest and on their butts (hence the casual term "butterbutt").

The females (below) are more drab, but still a beautifully-marked bird. And, perhaps more importantly: A very welcome reminder that warbler migration is actually underway and we'll be seeing more species over the next few weeks. It's been a long, long winter!

At first glance, the females might appear brown or grey, but they have bluish streaks throughout the feathers (visible in the above photo). They're really a beautiful mix of colors.

In addition to our suet feeders, they're feasting on peanuts. Both Yellow-rumped Warblers and Pine Warblers have a wider diet than many other warblers, allowing them to be some of the earliest returning migrants.

And, for my international viewers joining in on Wild Bird Wednesday, the Amer. Ornithologists' Union (AOU) has not followed the IOC (International Ornithological Congress) in re-splitting the four "yellow-rumped" warblers into individual species. Here in The States, we still have the "Myrtle" in the eastern half and the "Audubon" west of the Rockies.

Snowy Fox Sparrows

Yes, I said "snowy." For most of the Midwest it's been a really LONG winter. I've been watching fellow bloggers post images of butterflies and moths, blooming flowers and migrating warblers. Keep it up, please - you're helping me keep the winter blues away!

Another thing that helps with long winters like this, is the opportunity to observe migratory birds a bit longer as they hunker down to wait out the weather.

In addition to the hordes of juncos currently mobbing our feeders, we've had a large flock (20+ birds) of Fox Sparrows hanging around.

Fox Sparrows are "scratchers." They scratch back on the ground, giving a short hop as they do it, to uncover and loosen seeds. It's been really fun to watch them do this in 4-5" of snow. They scratch. Look down at the snow. Scratch again. Nope, still snow. Keep scratching!

We've been distributing bird seed all around the yard under our spruces and pines, giving the birds some cover while they forage. Two days ago there were hundreds of robins hanging out under the trees, escaping the icy rain.

But getting back to the beautifully-marked Fox Sparrow... I think they look like a cross between a thrush and a sparrow. The russet tail and the large splotchy neck and chest remind me of a Hermit Thrush. And the way the splotchy pattern runs down their sides reminds me of Ovenbirds. Size-wise, they're one of the largest sparrows, half again as big as a House Sparrow but not quite as large as the Harris's Sparrow.

And, while this isn't a very good photo, I'm going to include it simply because it's an opportunity to see its crest. Most people don't realize that Fox Sparrows have a small crest similar to Tree Sparrows:

It's also a chance to see the slate gray coloration on the sparrow's nape and sides of its head. Western Fox Sparrows have more gray with very little russet color.

Most of these beautiful birds will be gone in the next week or so, continuing their migration from the southern U.S. to upper parts of Canada and Alaska. Flocks of the western Fox Sparrow breed throughout the Rocky Mountains as well.

One of the best parts of having these large sparrows around? They have a beautiful song! I've been cracking my kitchen window open just to enjoy their songs. Larkwire has a nice recording.


Well, I'm off to enjoy other more tropical bird posts, all part of Wild Bird Wednesday. Be sure to visit the other bloggers to see what they've been up to!

Love the Eye Shadow, Dahling

Our Mourning Doves love to sit on top of a feeder right outside our kitchen window. It gives me a wonderful opportunity to study their detailed markings up close.

My favorite marking? The bright blue ring around their eyes. It reminds me of the weird giant Barbie head I had when I was younger. She came with this hideous blue eye shadow that my sister and I used to cake on her eyes (and ours).

The Mourning Dove is much better at applying her, or his, eye shadow. It's this beautiful bright blue, almost turquoise, circle that brings out the rosiness of the bird's head and neck feathers. The bird has obviously gone to cosmetology school...


Linking up with Stewart and a group of other awesome bird bloggers for Wild Bird Wednesday. Check them out.

Snow Globe Cardinal

Female cardinals are so subtly striking. Everyone raves about the bright red males, but for my money the gorgeous markings of the females outshine the less intricately colored red males.

This female was hanging out on our stone wall during last Tuesday's snowstorm.

Barred on My Birthday

A smash on my home office window made me cautiously peer out through the blinds. There, down below outside was Dean making a bunch of weird arm movements and pointing east. He'd thrown a snowball up to my window to get my attention.

After a few minutes of charades I realized he wasn't having spasms but was pointing to something in our ash trees.

The Barred Owl has returned and is actively hunting in our yard today. What an awesome birthday gift! The day just keeps getting better and better!

We've had the owl in our yard off and on since last summer when its strange calls (owls do more than hoot!) would send shivers down our spines late at night around the campfire.

A few months ago, it started showing up in our yard in the late evening and early morning, and within the last two weeks it has been roosting in our spruce trees and our big white pine:

Today's the first time I've seen it actually hunting in the middle of the day. We have plenty of prey around for it, with all our bird feeding stations (mice, voles, squirrels, rabbits) so it should be getting enough food. We're guessing it's a young owl who has just staked out its new territory. How lucky are we!

It seems to have learned we don't pose a threat to it, and in fact probably gives us props for chasing off the crows that mob it periodically. The crows will fly in and start a ruckus, the owl will twitch open its eyes, Dean heads out the door and yells at the crows, they leave and the owl goes back to sleep. 

In today's snow the owl is nearly invisible once it's landed in our trees with its brown and white markings. The vision of it swooping low across the snowy yard is just stunning. Will have to try to snap an in-flight photo. Such a treat to watch an amazing bird...