A quick day trip eastbound to the west side of Minnesota lakes country created a special time birding on the water with friends and a loon family. After picking up my friend Linda at Cormorant Lake, we visited on the way to Little Pelican Lake to begin the loon pontoon voyage with Andy on a beautiful afternoon with a blue sky filled with varying degrees of puffy white clouds. It was a relatively short cruise but it was monumental in providing a change of scene and a diversion into conversations among friends, while enjoying the ultra-fresh air and scenery bathed in unequaled shades of green – the search was on.
For the first time, we didn't encounter a loon on Little Pelican Lake during our initial circle, so Andy pontooned along the narrow connecting river to Pelican Lake where the water was surprisingly calm considering how big the lake is. We stayed on the east end of the lake, and it seemed as though Andy new exactly where to go, for almost as soon as he turned the boat north, we simultaneously saw a loon – with 2 medium-large downy young. W eased into photo position – far enough away so the loons would continue with their foraging activities. The adult was diving and bringing food to the light-tan young, although the big hatchlings often had their heads positioned below the water surface to watch what they could see in the clear water.
It was a great opportunity to photograph the loon family's activities, and after reviewing photographs I could see the female wasn't catching small fish as suspected, she was catching small crayfish to feed to her downies. For more of the story and several revealing photographs, refer to my Bird Photography feature at the end of this issue. A couple Mallard pairs and a Great Blue Heron rounded out the somewhat sparse avifauna, along with an Eastern Phoebe in Andy's yard and a Sharp-shinned Hawk carrying prey near Linda's lake home. But the loon family were the stars of the show, along with my great friends Linda and Andy who always add so much to our time shared on the water.
I did take a short side trip north of Linda's at Hamden National Wildlife Refuge, where there is a beautiful mix of tallgrass prairie hills and wetlands where I saw Bobolinks displaying, Tree Swallows using nest boxes, and an adult Bald Eagle being doubly dive-bombed by a screaming male Northern Harrier and a Common Raven (I've never seen a harrier so intense).
Closer to Home: It was surprising to have raptors take the stage in my neighborhood on a windy Saturday, but 2 miles north and 7 miles south of my office I encountered adult Bald Eagles, flying above Bobby's Bay and standing on the west rim of Hille Pond. The Hille eagle eventually took a short flight to an open area of shoreline where it waded into the shallow water to drink before taking off again to circle the area. When I took at a look at the photos I tried to take of the grand eagle in low-light cloudy conditions, I noticed that one photo showed a large secondary feather being blown in the wind after falling from the eagle's wing.
Of course, I had to see if I could find the symbolic feather, so drove from my office back to the pond, donned my mosquito-proof mesh suit and head cover, and walked along the northwest half of the pond, back and forth twice, but only found 2 wing feathers molted by Giant Canada Geese. Oh well, many pink coneflowers were in bloom along with new buckbrush growth and flowers, and the prairie grasses were as green as they get, making for a memorable mosquito-less feather quest. (Of course, I would have re-cast the feather to the wind if I found it.) And I almost forgot, as I walked close to the water's edge, another female Green-winged Teal led a brood of 9 remarkably tiny newly hatched ducklings out of a new growth of bulrushes that lined that area of shore. Mallards and Redheads were loafing nearby, and I heard a Willet calling and a Marsh Wren singing among the territorial songs of Red-winged Blackbirds.
Earlier, during my initial drive south, I observed 3 duck broods at Charo Marsh, including the 2+ week old Northern Shoveler brood, a 2-week old Mallard brood of 9, and a single newly hatched Mallard duckling that followed closely behind the adult female, just 20 feet from the larger brood of Mallards. Closer to home there were Black-crowned Night Herons, White-faced Ibis, a Great Egret, a Snowy Egret, 2 solo Great Blue Herons in flight, and many Black Terns. Oh, and the pair of Swainson's Hawks were flying in tandem above the Alaska Grove, as was a lone Swainson's calling territorially while soaring above the Old Schoolhouse Grove.
After an inch of rainfall overnight, Sunday the male Swainson's Hawk was standing in a new rainwater pool, not far from a pair of Mallards. Was he drinking, foraging, about to bathe, or just getting his feet wet and muddy? The last couple times I checked on the south Ferruginous Hawk nest, there hasn't been any sign of hawks; but I'm hoping the apparent young pair will return next spring and lay eggs in 2027. Haven't see any action at other local hawk nests either, but it is hard to judge what's going on now that the nests are hidden behind dense leaf cover.
As the possibility of a sunny summer evening improved, I decided to drive the 26 miles to the northwest Ferruginous Hawk nest to check back on the young Ferruginous Hawks after 8 days, just in case the big nestlings were approaching the branching or fledging phase. When I arrived, from a distance it looked like a young hawk was perched on a branch a few feet from the nest, but through binoculars it was easy to see it was the adult female perched next to the nest. However, it also looked like there may be 4 large feathered nestlings in the oversized nest, and I will be checking on them more often as they near fledging.
That's when I decided to make the suspected Burrowing Owl nest site my final destination, even though I haven't seen an owl the last 3 times I checked – 13 days in all. That said, the sentinel Burrowing Owl was perched just where I would expect him to be, so I picked a good spot to observe his behavior and to photograph. After what seemed like a considerable waiting period, the small owl began to pursue a low-flying insect on the wing, grabbing them in its talons and immediately taking them to the perceived nesting burrow site. Although I wasn't able to focus on the quick flights of the owl, I did focus on its usual perch to wait for it to return, and I managed a couple action photos in that way.
As I was thinking of leaving, I looked up from my camera to see a remarkable surprise – a second Burrowing Owl was perched on the adjacent metal fencepost, likely the female taking a break. The question then was: Taking a break from incubating eggs, or from brooding and feeding young nestlings. With the male active in taking bugs back to the burrow, has their nesting attempt progressed to the nestling stage now? The female only stayed a couple minutes, but how fun it was to see the pair perched near one another – and to photograph the female too. Ready to head out again, the male suddenly became very concerned as he scanned the sky above him. I looked to see a Tree Swallow making U-shaped dives toward the owl as he began ducking and sometimes spreading his wings in response. I tried to anticipate the action and managed to take a couple interesting photos in the process.
On my way back to the office, I encountered 3 duck broods, the first of which was a bit of a surprise – a Wood Duck with her brood of 8 ducklings – along with 2 Mallard hens with 7 and 5 ducklings each. Speaking of duck broods, there are many single Blue-winged Teal now, suggesting females are incubating full clutches of eggs, but most Gadwalls are still in pairs, as are Ruddy Ducks – both late nesting species. Also during my return, I observed a pair of Swainson's Hawks hunting in a recently baled hayfield, and across the road an apparent Ferruginous Hawk made a hunting strike on an adjacent prairie hillside. The sun was positioned on the other side of the hawk, so it was hard to tell its true identity until my photos revealed it was a Krider's Red-tailed Hawk with a characteristic white underside and mostly white head, leading me to initially believe it to be a Ferrug.
Monday evening after storm clouds were breaking up I slipped away to check for duck broods on the way to Charo Marsh. The initial brood to surprise me was the first Gadwall brood of summer, numbering 7 ducklings that were feeding voraciously on the water surface with the female detached about 20 feet. Next I observed 3 young ducklings without an adult in attendance, but they may have been young Mallard ducklings (I checked back on this location but didn't see the ducklings again). There was also a Northern Shoveler brood of 4 young ducklings with a hen, all before Charo Marsh.
On the south side of Charo I observed the brood of 9 Mallard ducklings with a female again, and on the west side was a pretty brood of 7 new Northern Pintail ducklings. I returned to the northwest bay of Charo Marsh a half-hour later and saw 2 females with ducklings in the same spot; 1 was the pintail brood, and the other was happily the Green-winged Teal hen with 6 ducklings that I found last Monday – now a week old – and I hope I can get some weekly photos of the brood to document their development – maybe along with the pintail brood too. Highlights among other birds included a male Yellow Warbler, a pair of American Bitterns, Clay-colored and Grasshopper Sparrows, a Bobolink, a Common Nighthawk, and several Upland Sandpipers.
Yard Birding: Sunday a Northern Flicker called loudly from my yard, and Monday it called nearby periodically during an hour-long period. Saturday evening 3 male American Goldfinches were interacting (chasing and calling) at the far end of my backyard. Feeder visitors remain the same, with many more visits from cute fledgling robins, sometimes 2 at a time. Actually, Tuesday morning (yesterday) there was a family of 5 robins perched in a circle around the jelly dish I have positioned in the center of a circular platform feeder – 3 fledglings being fed by a female and male.
It seems that every day I expect to see Baltimore Oriole fledglings, and I think they have left the nest – they just haven't made it to my feeding station yet. Certainly, the adults have been especially busy collecting insects and jelly, and I enjoyed having the male perch on a sumac branch just 2 inches outside one of my bay windows – how kool was that! House Finches and their new fledglings continue to stop by, as does at least 1 adult male Orchard Oriole.
With the 250th celebration of American freedom just ahead this Saturday, plan to make this a 4th of July weekend to remember! And to the north, Happy Canada Day today as you celebrate year 159 years since confederation July 1st! As noted in the first article in this issue, our staff will be on vacation during the next week (me included!), so there will be lots of birding action to share when our next issue arrives in your email Inbox. I hope you have a variety of exciting birds to enjoy during your holiday outings, and at home – Good Luck!
Article and Photos by Paul Konrad
Share your bird sightings and photographs at editorstbw2@gmail.com