Rough-legged Hawks

Am really trading in quality of photos for the sake of story-telling. Another set of not-great shots - but kinda cool to see a dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk do its thing in the air. They don't exactly hover - but they do seem to hang there while they check the ground below for possible furry vittles.

Long tailed and Other Ducks

Not award-winning by any means, but here are a couple of shots of the Long-tailed Duck (formerly Old Squaw) that spent some time on a couple of Metro area lakes a couple of weeks ago. He is in with the Common Golden eye - can you see the one low-rider in the group? You can tell they were a little ways from shore. Cool bird, though!

I really do love ducks, and Ring-necked Ducks are one of my faves. You can see the size difference in comparison to the Mallards.

This is a shot of multiple species of those ducks all moving to the lake that will be the "roost" for the night.

Tufted Titmouse!

How about some yummy Tufted Titmouse for a grey and blustery day? These were taken in Menomonie WI earlier this fall. This is a bird whose range appears to be shifting a bit. I would love to start seeing these in the Mpls Metro area someday. They have really strong feet for hanging in trees, like Black-capped Chickadees, so a good idea to get them out of nets right away. They also have some extreme attitude hidden under that Maximum Cuteness.

Brown Creeper!

I really do live a charmed life. I get to see so many cool birds, and get to hang out with cool people. This past weekend at Springbrook Nature Center banding, I learned a ton of new (to me) information about birds from Ron Refsnider, and then - we had a Brown Creeper in hand! This is not exactly a Holy Grail, but probably not far from it. Check out how tiny they really are. And then - marvel at those long nails on the toes. The bi-colored decurved beak. And the beautiful russet feathers at the base of the tail. And while we are talking about that tail - check out the sharply pointed tips. This bird promptly flew to a near-by tree trunk and hunkered against it, in the posture I am used to seeing.

More Rough legged

Here are Frank Taylor and Bill Clark with the Rough-legged Hawk! What a great bird!

You can see the feathers down the tarsus - we made sure the band would not ever bother her in moulting or otherwise impede her.

Okay, yes - this is what it looks like. Thanks to Rick - this captures my most favorite thing to do after banding the hawks - taking in their wonderful smell. It really is something indescribable - the hawks anyway. Falcons are most musty smelling.

Last bird of the season to touch the nets - was a female Black-backed woodpecker! She unfortunately boinged out so we wouldn't have her in the hand but she was a great last bird for the season! They have only three toes, and usually follow recently burned pines. Sax Zim Bog and parts of Duluth usually report sightings in the winter. I hadn't seen one at the blind yet.

Special thanks for Frank, Rick and Chuck for their friendship, knowledge, and willingness to let me be a part of this team that is more of a family. Until next season . . . .

Last weekend at the blind for 2010 season

I will post lots more pics later. Busy day so will just post pics that Frank Taylor sent (thank you, Frank!) We didn't get lots, but we sure got a cool one - a Rough-legged came in! Also had Bill Clark come and sit with us, which was fantastic to learn all the great study work he is doing on the Harlani red-tails. More soon!