In winter, several boreal forest species move south (and east and west) in search of a more consistent food supply. Pine Grosbeaks (the rosy red birds are the males) and Bohemian Waxwings are two such species. Pine Grosbeaks do nest in the Rocky Mountains but Bohemians Continue Reading

I spent the afternoon up in the Sax-Zim Bog hoping to find some teams participating in our (‘our’ = Friends of Sax-Zim Bog organization) 2011 BRRRRDathon. While I did not find any teams, I did find two of my favorite North Woods birds—the Black-backed Woodpecker and the Northern Goshawk.

Normally, Goshawk sightings are a blur of grayish blue as they zip by, or over, or behind you and disappear into the woods. Shy and secretive, most encounters make you feel like you’ve terrified the poor bird. They flush as soon as you stop the car. It is because of this that I’ve never been able to photograph a Gos away from Hawk Ridge in migration…Until today. An immature bird was hanging out a farm that has ducks and probably chickens and certainly pigeons…all acceptable Gos food. He/she flushed several times but always perched again, sometimes surprisingly low to the ground. I only got a couple distant shots.
They make their living by ambushing Ruffed Grouse, Snowshoe Hares, Red Squirrels (and pigeons, chickens) in deciduous and mixed forests in the northern states.

Later I followed a foot trail to a logged area that has hosted both tridactyl woodpecker species—American Three-toed and Black-backed Woodpecker. Both are extremely ‘tame’ birds…often allowing approach to within a dozen feet.
There were several Hairys but no Black-backeds. I did hear the sound of flaking bark a hundred yards further in, beyond where the packed foot trail ended. I’d forgotten my snowshoes but decided to forge on anyway…It turned into a heart-pumping slog through several hundred yards of knee to thigh-deep snow, tripod slung over my shoulder. But I was rewarded with a very close encounter of a male (yellow cap) Black-backed Woodpecker busily flaking bark from a dying Tamarack. He was trying to locate the larval grubs of Larch Beetles that have infected many Tamaracks (“larch”) in Minnesota.

I shot from 15 or 20 feet, filling the frame. He barely acknowledged this lumbering five-toed creature that was pointing a black thing at him. He looks pot-bellied but this is an illusion created by the fluffing of his feathers to keep his extremities warm. Note his three toes…Most woodpeckers have four toes, two pointing forward and two pointing back. I shot lots of video, some in slow-motion 60fps. This was the best still image.

Male Black-backed Woodpecker; Canon 7D w/Canon 400mm f5.6, f5.6 at 1/250, ISO 400, pop-up flash, tripod

I published Duluth naturalist’s David Benson’s Owls of the North a few years ago…Great little book, if you haven’t seen it. Fascinating info on all our northern owls…including the Northern Hawk Owl. Here is an excerpt about Hawk Owl hunting:

Hawk Owls hunt from a convenient perch, searching for prey by sight and then swooping quickly down for the kill. They will chase prey short distances, and sometimes they hunt from perch to perch, dropping down for prey and then swinging up to a nearby perch if they fail to catch their target. Hawk Owls have also been seen hovering over potential prey—unusual behavior for an owl [see photos this post—Sparky]

Alone among owls, Hawk Owls have a falcon-like notch in their bill to sever the spinal cords of their prey. Owl species often use their bills in a similar way, and presumably the notch helps the Hawk Owl to do this with more efficiency.

Congruent with their daytime activity, Hawk Owls rely on sight more than hearing for hunting. Their ears are symmetrical, so they apparently do not need the kind of precision hearing used by most other owls. When scanning for prey, Hawk Owls lean forward almost to the horizontal and pump their tails (a most “un-owly” posture). When they strike, their drop off the perch can look almost like and accidental fall until they begin to glide to the kill.

—from Owls of the North by David Benson (Stone Ridge Press, 2008, ISBN-978-0-9760313-4-5)

December 27th, 2010 Fillmore County near Spring Valley, Minnesota.

An inch of hoar frost covering every trunk, branch and twig turns this old barn, silo and windmill into a wondrous winter landscape.

Happiness is a sunny day in the Sax-Zim Bog with a happy Northern Hawk Owl. I say he’s happy because he caught several voles in the brief time I spent with him (her?) and cached every one. There must be an abundance of voles around under the 20 plus inches of snow on the ground to have such hunting success.

Caching is fairly common amongst boreal avian predators in times of plenty. Great Gray Owls do it, Northern Shrikes do it, Gray Jays do it, and so do Hawk Owls. I watched as he fluttered near an old aspen snag evidently trying to put one vole in a crevice. Once he dropped the vole and had to fly down to the snow and pick it up and try again. And another time he knocked a big piece of bark off as he apparently tried to cache it between the bark and the stump. In the deep freeze of winter the voles will stay good for a long time. And when hunting is slow, the hawk owl can go to the “fridge” and get a volesicle!

On a couple occasions he flew over 100 yards to nab a vole. Jumping off his favorite perch at the tip of a 60 foot Quaking Aspen, he rocketed straight for the unsuspecting rodent, making his final approach only a few feet off the ground, wings set as in the photo. The flight trajectory was not a straight line but rather an inverted arc.

Northern Hawk Owls are diurnal raptors, hunting in daylight hours. This makes them very viewer/birder friendly. Add to this the fact that they are generally unfazed by human presence and you have a very charismatic species. They are about the size of a football with a tail (the long tail gives them their “hawk” name); a wingspan of 22-28 inches. I dare say that if this owl was as large as a Great Gray, it would be even more legendary.

This owl is a circumpolar species, breeding across the boreal forest and boreal/hardwood transition forest of Canada, Alaska, Scandinavian and Siberia. But their breeding range only dips into the U.S in northern Minnesota. During low cycles of voles in Canada, they can irrupt into northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and other northern states. On my Sax-Zim MN Christmas Bird Count in December 2004 we had 42 (!) Hawk Owls in a 15-mile diameter circle.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 400mm f5.6, f5.6 at 1/3200 TV, ISO 400

Well, a couple weeks after Duluth had 8 inches of snow, we got what may be our first sticking snow of the winter. Duluth was blessed with 11 inches of snow on the hill (and zero down by the lake) and we had about 5 or 6 inches. Cold temps are predicted for this week AND we are possibly getting another snowstorm this coming weekend so this snow may very well stay until March/April.

After church, Bjorn and I went out shooting (He was very helpful by sleeping soundly in his car seat for over an hour…I was even able to listen to the News from Lake Wobegan!). Six inches of wet snow stuck to every tree trunk, branch, twig and blade of grass creating a winter wonderland. I love driving backroads after a heavy snow. Snow simplifies normally blaaah landscapes, sometimes turning them into stunning scenes.

Our first stop was for a perched Bald Eagle on Spring Lake in Carlton County. Her interest was likely directed at several small flocks of Hooded and Common Mergansers that swam near the shore. Eagles are opportunistic, and a crippled or weak duck would make a nice early winter meal. She was a long ways away but one look through the 400mm convinced me that it would be a cool “bird in the landscape” photo. I had to position the tripod so the bird didn’t meld with the background dark spruces. She needed to have snowy trees behind her to be able to see her in the final image. I present two versions of that scene here. The horizontal image would look great printed large…It may be a bit disappointing viewed small as in this blog.

Barns and farm panoramas are also an interest of mine. I love the simplicity of this farm combined with the White Pines, red barn and white snow. I actually desaturated all other colors EXCEPT red in Aperture (not that there was much color anyway). Barns are disappearing and scenes like this may be difficult to find for the next generation of photographers.

Eagle images: Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f5.6, 1/500 at f8, ISO 200, tripod
Barn image: Canon 7D, Canon 70-200mm f4 at 70mm, 1/350 at f8, ISO 400, handheld

Sometime around noon on this lazy Saturday, I received a message from birder extraordinaire, Jim Lind, that a Boreal Owl was hunting around his uncle’s yard northwest of Two Harbors. Now a Boreal Owl is a very rare bird, but I’ve seen many (including one just two days earlier), but for Bridget it would be a lifer. So we bundled up little Birk Anders (it was time for his nap anyway) and headed north.

It was a gorgeous day for a drive anyway…40 degrees and sunny. About an hour later (after a long debate about which fast food place to drive-thru) we arrived at the rural home only to find that it had flown into the woods and they had not seen it for a while. I decided to tromp through the pine woods to see if I could find the little guy. The snow was deep!…Up to my knees and powdery so simply walking was a workout. The term “needle in a haystack” kept creeping into my mind. I was listening for the scolding of chickadees…They often mob small owls. Sometimes its tough to determine if they are scolding you or an owl. Then I heard an extremely agitated Red-breasted Nuthatch. But I only glanced at the spruce since the feisty little nuthatches are easily perturbed. After slogging through the deep snow for ten more minutes, I gave the large spruce another look…And there he (she? It?) was…tucked against the trunk just waiting for another vole to make a fatal mistake and show itself. I hurried back to the car and got Bridget. She couldn’t have asked for a better look. Neat bird. I crept within 20 feet and he never even glanced at me…Typical of these “tame” birds. I shot several dozen images with both the 400mm f5.6 and flash (mounted on the hotshoe…a bad habit that gives the birds redeye or ‘steel eye’ but which, I feel I can fix in Photoshop) and the 200mm to give more of a “bird in the habitat” look. Minutes later, Tony and Tom Hertzel showed up as did Peder Swingen (whom I’ve seen at the last three Boreal Owl sightings in less than a week).

A wonderful afternoon…And little Birk Anders slept through the whole thing!

Canon XTi, handheld, f5.6 at 1/400, ISO 400

Close up with Canon 400mm f5.6, bird-in-the-landscape shot with Canon 70-200mm f4

Which do you like best? All four frost images were taken on the same morning. The changing light and rising sun accounts for the variation in color…Except the purple one which is the result of me changing the white balance and saturation in Aperture. And would it surprise you to know that the frost was on the driver’s side door of my 1999 Subaru Forester?