Sparky and Ryan travel west to Teddy Roosevelt National Park in mid October for some wildlife photography. And the wildlife is abundant! Coyotes, Wild Horses, Bison, Pronghorn, Mule Deer, Sharp-tailed Grouse and more. Part 1.
Clear skies create opportunity for backlit shots and other creative images.
I find some cool things in this episode of Virtually Live from Sax-Zim Bog. Snow Buntings and Pine Siskins have arrived from the north. Then I run across a bizarre sight…A Muskrat is chasing a Wood Duck around a Beaver pond!. Later a Great Gray Owl flies over my van and into the bog so I put on my rubber boots and go in after the owl. Amazingly I find it and plop down in the Sphagnum moss to enjoy the show. Eventually the Great Gray comes within 30 feet or so and plunges into the moss for a vole. Wow!
Birding and bird photography in Sax-Zim Bog in October.
Also remiders of the upcoming Tiny Bird Art fundraiser, BRRRRdathon: World’s Coldest Birdathon, 2024 Bog Wild Calendar, and Wrap up of Bog BioBlitz XI in Sax-Zim.
In Virtually Live 37 S4E2 Sparky shares findings and updates from the Sax-Zim Bog. We join him and Clinton on several Warbler Wednesday & Songbird Saturday field trips. And we find out the results of the First Greater Sax-Zim Bog Big Week!
Wildlife highlights include a huge boar Black Bear, CoyWolf, Cliff Swallows gathering mud, hunting Great Gray, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Flicker nest, dust-bathing Grouse and a variety of warblers.
Sparky makes two visits (April 21 and April 26) to find out. Highlights include a huge flock of ducks, a late Rough-legged Hawk, 8 species of ducks, Sandhill Cranes. We look for a Canada Jay nest, listen to overhead displaying Snipe and walk the Bob Russell Bogwalk. Sparky also shares about the Sax-Zim Bog connection to a new book about Dutchman Arjan Dwarshuis’s World Big Year record in 2016.
Plus, we find out about the new boardwalk and trail planned for Sax-Zim in 2023.
Birding and bird photography in South Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley part 3. Highlights include Aplomado Falcon along Old Port Isabel Road, Red-crowned Parrot pair in Sabal Palm Sanctuary, nine species of wading birds along the boardwalk at South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center. Sparky also visits Laguna Atacosa National Wildlife Refuge and SpaceX along Boca Chica Road. Sparky gets video of a spastically hunting Reddish Egret, White-tailed Hawk, White-tailed Kite, Clay-colored Thrush, Green Jays and Altamira Oriole. January 2023.
And he goes down memory lane to his rarest mammal sighting ever!
In this episode of Virtually Live we celebrate with UMD Biology grad student Hannah Tuotonghi as she finally is able to put a satellite transmitter on an elusive Sax-Zim Hawk Owl! We also check in with David Yeany III (Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program) and Matt Young (Finch Research Network) about their Road to Recovery Evening Grosbeak research project. David shares some very cool maps from the banded birds.
Sparky guides Bog Buddies, Warren Woessner and Iris Freeman on an eventful half day trip…Highlights include dancing Sharp-tailed Grouse, a rare Hoary Redpoll and a sleeping Barred Owl that wakes up and starts to hunt.
Spruce Grouse have returned to Sax-Zim and Sparky searches for them along Sax Road. And later he bushwacks in to a bog to search for a Canada Jay nest.
zWe stop by the Welcome Center where some “junior” naturalists are enjoying the Evening Grosbeaks, and listen in on Head Naturalist Clinton’s Minnesota Master Naturalist class. Sparky also enjoys a hike at the peaceful Fringed Gentian Bog and Auggie’s Bogwalk.
Laguna Seca Ranch in south Texas is a unique bird photography destination. For a $280 fee I had a personal guide and use of three different photo blinds. …One for raptors including Crested Caracara, Harris’s Hawks, Black Vultures and Turkey Vultures.The songbird blinds produced goodies like Green Jays, Long-billed and Curve-billed Thrashers, Pyrrhuloxia, Bobwhite, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, Lesser Goldfinches, Black-crested Titmouse, and Olive Sparrow. A javelina even wanders by!
Snow Blind—Making a Photo Blind / Photo Hide out of snow for bird photography.
Sparky and Ryan put ancient skills to a modern use…A quinzhee is a type of snow shelter used by the Ojibwa in the North Woods and it is a perfect shelter for hiding the photographer.