Category Archives: Birds
Ms Belted Kingfisher
Friends, This is a young or adult female Belted Kingfisher. The controversy arises because of the incomplete brown on her chest, if she was an adult female, the brown band would be complete. Since the band appears to have a gap in the middle, perhaps she is a youngster just arriving in the northland. The water is now open and she has found a fishing hole below this high line wire. She complained bitterly when I stepped out to take her picture, sorry I disturbed her, love her hairdo, til Tomorrow MJ
Another Bittern
Friends, this bittern is trying to hide in the cattails and sedges in Crex Meadows but the water background is betraying him, when a threat is near, he will stand with his beak raised like this so the stripes down his long neck appear like a pile of rushes, sometimes if the wind is blowing he will wave back and forth to more closely resemble his grassy background, these birds are intriguing and soon when they nest, you will not find them easily, below is a higher magnification of his head, til Tomorrow MJ
One More Grebe
Friends, one more horned grebe for your enjoyment, there are a few of these around Crex. Maybe Crex is a stopover on their migration, will be curious to see if they nest here. til Tomorrow MJ
Birds of a Feather?
Friends, A solitary bird will often try to hide when a car approaches. This Horned Grebe was splashing around inside a massive flock of Coots that was trying to stay out of the wind. No discrimination among the birds, the coots seemed to accept this grebe as one of their own, maybe because they all have red eyes, til Tomorrow MJ
Spring Bittern
Friends, this bird is an American Bittern and with his vertical striping in front is very well camouflaged against all the winter reeds. They fish in the shallows like a heron, with neck stretched out and stabbing prey with that very big bill. In the very early spring you may see a few of these birds, but later you may only hear their distinctive call. They are very secretive and the research community has not studied these birds to reveal their natural history, hmmm, a plan in the works, til Tomorrow MJ
More Grebes
Friends, a rough day on the water but sunshine and warm temperatures still motivated us to visit Crex again, we found a new grebe (for us), this is a red-necked grebe and a first for me, they were there on Sunday and gone on Monday, maybe they flew onward or maybe they are hiding in Crex somewhere, Below is an image of two birds, I am thankful that we were able to watch them as they dove for food and splashed around the ponds, til Tomorrow MJ
Dancing Grouse
Friends, the sharptail grouse are dancing on the Namekagon Pine Barrens. This boy is just getting ready to dance, his eyebrows are raised and the feathers are rolled back to expose his purple airsac , in the image below you can see his sharp tail is raised and wings spread just a little. When he is really dancing, his head will be down and his feet will be stuttering so fast that they blur. Sat in a blind with my good friend (thanks Anna) on Saturday morning, lots of male dancing and carrying on, then on to Crex to make a 12 hour work day. til Tomorrow MJ
Spring Pelicans
Friends, these white pelicans flew over in their migratory route on Wednesday. I saw three big flocks circling and moving north and west. They breed in western Minnesota and North Dakota so they may have been a bit off their usual migration route. I jumped out of my vehicle alongside the four lane and stood on the shoulder to shoot these guys and gals, the big trucks were whizzing by, but i didn’t even hear them, all i saw was blue sky and birds, it has been a long winter and yesterday it was 75 degrees F, wonderful, til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Culture
Friends, birders have a culture that includes an addiction to anything birdy, some list birds, watch birds, feed birds and photograph birds. and some like me sit by the marshes waiting for a bird to just show up, this morning i went to see if I could find the loons that i had seen yesterday, but the only bird present in the fishing hole was this tiny grebe, I thought at first that it was one of hundreds of Pied billed grebes that are always around and almost drove past, but just for giggles i put my binocs on it and shreeked for joy, I have never seen the horned grebe up close, but here he is in all his breeding finery, I love his yellow earmuffs, enjoy, I sure did, til Tomorrow MJ
Water Trail
Friends, this pair of ring billed ducks are cropped to emphasize the water trail that they leave behind while swimming, the ice on the ponds is almost gone and yesterday was a great day at Crex Meadows, lots of sun and warmth in my blind (read faithful Chevy), I was watching a pair of loons diving along a sheet of ice, once they came up within ten feet of me and my camera, yes i got the image, will show it in a later post, til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 