Great Horned Owl

After taking some pictures of hooded mergansers at Black Dog Lake on the last day of January I headed down Cedar Ave to Lakeville to try and get some more shots of the great horned owls nest there. When I arrived the female was still in the nest. She was hunkered down pretty well so I could not really get any pictures of her except for her tufts. Since she was not visible for photos I decide to take a look around to see if I could locate the male. It did not take me long to find him.
He was perched in a tree on the opposite side of the woods from where I was standing. I did manage to find an opening through most of the branches that allowed me to get a couple of pics but I was not happy with all the clutter in the pictures so I skirted around the south side of the woods, making a wide arch so that I would not spook him, in order to see if I would have a better view on the other side.
I did finally find a spot where I had a good view of the owl with very little clutter in front of it. It was getting late in the day and he was beginning to scan the area searching for possible prey so I decided it was time for me to leave. I decided to take the back way home instead of the freeway. It takes a bit longer but there is also more opportunity to find something interesting to shoot on back roads. I did find a couple of things on my way back that night. First I found an open field that was full of wild turkeys searching the ground for left over seed.Further down the road I found a pair of female ring-necked pheasant. (Thanks Mike) This was the best look that I got as I pulled off the road and jumped out of the truck to take this shot in the waning light.
Unfortunately the bird flushed so I could not get any better shots.

A trip to Carlos Avery

Friday the clouds continued, I wonder if I should start building an ark. I checked the skies when I got out of work and it seemed a bit clearer to the north so I decided to head up to Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area. As I got near the park I spotted a red-tailed hawk scanning the side of the road for prey.
It is common to find red-tails hanging out by the roadside in this part of the country. They take advantage of the rodent population which is drawn to this area because of trash discarded from vehicles.
This ability to adapt to life around human beings is why red-tails seem to thrive better then some other birds. A perfect example of this is the famous red-tailed hawk Pale Male. Pale Male survives in one of the most populated cities in the world, Manhattan. On the other hand a recent Audubon report found that birds have been decreasing in population. An example of this is the meadowlark which depends on large prairie for habitat. As the prairie is destroyed to make room for development the meadow loses the habitat that it needs to survive.

Another bird that has been doing well coexisting with man recently is the bald eagle. Once endangered in most of the lower 48 states, due mostly to DDT pesticide poisoning, the eagle has made a huge come back mostly because of strict conservation measures. Bald eagle recovery has been so successful that earlier this year the bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list. This nest at Carlos Avery is empty at this time of the year but early next spring the homeowners will probably return.

Some birds coexist with man in a different way. Game birds, like this ring-necked pheasant, get a lot of support from different organizations like Pheasants Forever and Ducks Unlimited for most of the year only to be hunted in the fall. It seems a bit ironic to me.

Though I am not a hunter, and will never be one, I do think that responsible hunting has it's place. Because of the mans intervention the natural circle of life, in many places, has been damaged. The natural predators of many birds and animals have been significantly reduced or in some cases eliminated. This has resulted in the over population of certain species, sometimes to level which the ecosystem can not handle. The result is typically death due to disease or starvation. Although I do not like hunting I think that it is a more humane way to thin populations, when necessary, then through starvation.

Hunters also do help provide funding, through things like the Duck Stamp Program, for crucial habitat. The purpose of the habitat is typically to assist the existence of game species however the same habitat also is used by many non-game species.
Other birds coexist with man by keeping a low key. Brown creepers, like the one above blend in well to their environment.

Rainy day surprise

It's been cloudy and rainy here for 4 days now. Saturday after we got home from the grand opening of the National Eagle Center I stayed home since the weather was so poor. Sunday was even worse then Saturday with some heavy down pours.

Monday the rain stopped but the cloudy grey skies continued. I had forgotten to mail in my registration for the Audubon Upper Midwest Regional Conference and Monday was the registration deadline so I went to the Minnesota Audubon in Woodbury, MN, after work, to drop off my paperwork. Woodbury is a developing suburb on the south east side of St Paul and is close to home. On my way back I was surprised to see a pheasant on the side of the road in the middle of the suburbs.

Since the weather report had said that we would have partly cloudy skies I had my camera with me so that I could go shooting after work. So I got out and got a couple of pictures. He would have been so much brighter if it had not been such a drab day.

Today the rain returned but I was not too depressed because I have to work my part time job Tuesday night so I could not go out and shoot anyway. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice I hope that they are right this time.

Medicine Lake continued

At the Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge we also were able to photograph a few birds in the fields surrounding the lakes. Along with red-winged blackbirds they had a pretty good population of yellow-headed blackbirds.
Red-wings are common in eastern Minnesota but yellow-heads are not so we always like to get shots of the Yellow-heads when we get the chance. We did have one living at Woodlake Nature Center in the Twin Cities earlier this year but I have not been back in a while to check and see if it is still around. Sounds like something to do tonight.
We also spotted a couple of chestnut-collared longspur. They were difficult to shoot because they stayed low in the grass.
Eastern Kingbirds are also common in eastern Minnesota. I usually see quite a few when I visit the Carpenter Nature Center in Hasting's Minnesota.
The range of the western kingbird does not extend to the eastern portion of Minnesota.
We saw many ring-necked pheasants in the park and in the fields on the side of the road on the way there and on the way back.

We even saw a jack rabbit spying on us from near the border of the preserve.
After we left Medicine Lake we spotted this harrier flying over the field on the side of the road. We spotted many harrier on our trip but usually we were on the freeway and could not stop. Since we were on a highway at the time we decided to stop and get a couple of shots.
After I got a couple shots my wife noticed a second raptor had flown into the area. I believed that the second bird was a female harrier but it was pointed out by Dennis and Barbara Martin that it looked more like a swainson's hawk.

The dark remiges certainly looked like a swainson's but I was still not sure until I found this picture in my archives.

This shot had the clearest view of the second birds face.
And it was not very harrier like. Dennis and Barbara were right. Thank you very much for the correction.

It appears as though the swainson's was intruding on the harriers territory. This is something that prolly happens often out in open areas like the one we were in. The harrier did not seem to take the invasion lightly.
I kept shooting as they continued to circle each other until they faded away into the distance. Then we headed on home to give our attention starved cat some love.