Anhinga

Anhingas are a waterfowl that is found primarily around fresh water swamps and marshes. In the U.S. they breed around the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas, with he populations in Florida staying year round. They are more common in the coastal areas of Mexico and Central America as well as the northeastern half of South America. Their primary food source is fish, which they hunt by swimming under the water and stalking their prey though the aquatic vegetation and then stabbing them with their pointy beaks.Unfortunately anhingas do not produce the oils that ducks and other waterfowls use to waterproof their feathers, so after each swim the anhinga will look for a safe place where they can perch with their wings stretched out so that their feathers can dry. I took this photo at the Everglades National Park in south Florida.

Peregrine Falcon

 

 Lately I have been spending some time photographing the peregrines at the Ford Bridge that connects St Paul and south Minneapolis. The bridge is not far from an active eagles nest and a spot where Merlin falcons frequently nest, so it enables me to photograph several different nests from several different species in a very close area.

 For the past few years the peregrines have decided to nest under the bridge which makes it impossible to get any decent pictures of the nest. Back in 2010, when most of the pictures in this post where taken, the peregrines nested in the nesting box which is on the side of the dam.

The dam box is very visible from the observation platform at the dam which made it very easy to document the peregrines early life through photographs. When they were very young it was difficult to see them inside the nest box. Fortunately through my connections with The Raptor Center I was able to attend the banding that year. The top photo was taken  at the banding at the beginning of June.

A few weeks later the peregrine chicks were almost as big as their parents and already had a majority of their flight feathers, the second photo. They are also very hungry. In another week they are ready to fledge / fly, the third photo. Eventually they will look like their parents, final photo. This year since they are nesting under the dam I can only photograph them when they visit one of their neighboring perches. Hopefully i will get a chance to photograph the chicks before they leave the area.

American Avocet

 

The American avocet is a shorebird that nests in the wetlands of central North America. They can be found from New Mexico and western Texas in the south, north up into Canada. During the breeding season they become more colorful with some of their feathers become a salmon color. While they are on their winter grounds, in Florida, Mexico and parts of the Caribbean they are just black and white.  

The Picture and video were both taken at Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge in Montana in May.

Tiger of the Sky

 

Here in North America the great horned owl is often referred to as the tiger of the sky. That is because they are a ferocious hunter know for taking larger prey. Often their prey is as large or larger then that of the bald eagle, even though the average eagle here in Minnesota can weigh 2 to 3 times more then the owl. Frequently their prey is larger then the owl, as is the case with the striped skunk which weigh an average of 2 or more times what the owl weighs. In comparison that would be like and average human attacking a female grizzly bear.  

Yellow Warbler Bathing

 One of the few warblers that stays in this part of Minnesota during the summer is the yellow warbler.They breed through out much of the northern half of the US and most of Canada. During the winter they migrate as far south as Central and South America.

Yellow warblers are pretty easy to identify. While many warbler have some yellow color to them most are not as bright or yellow as the yellow warbler. This one was bathing in a small creek at the Minnesota Valley Refuge.

Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus

 Tough to find things in nature that begin with the letter X. Thank heaven for the yellow-headed blackbird, Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus. The Yellow-headed black bird is a bird that is native to the marshes and prairie wetlands of the west. During the winter they migrate down to the southwestern United States and Mexico. Even though we are not really in their range here in the eastern part of Minnesota we do occasionally get them nesting this far east. It seems that this is getting to be a more common occurrence. This is not good news for the red-winged blackbirds that live in the eastern half of North America. Since the yellow-headed blackbirds are larger they will often displace the red-winged blackbirds from prime breeding spots in locations where birds share the habitat.

Whoopers

 The whooping crane is one of the tallest bird species in North America. They are also one of the most endangered bird species in the world. Because of loss of habitat and excessive hunting there were only 23 whooping cranes left on the planet in early 1940's. Sixteen of the birds belonged to a flock that migrated between the Buffalo National Park in Canada, where they breed, and the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, where they spend the winter. The other six birds belonged to a non-migratory population in Louisiana. By the 1950s the whoopers were gone from Louisiana leaving only the Aransas -Buffalo flock.    

By the 1940's the whooping crane was protected from hunting by the Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 1929. In 1966 the Endangered Species Preservation Act was passed by Congress which was replaced by the Endangered Species Act in 1973. The whooping crane was included in both lists which helped in saving some of the remaining critical habitat that these birds required. Because of these new laws and other conservation efforts the Aransas-Buffalo flock had over 100 birds by 1986 and today they are up to 278, as of 2010-2011. A small flock of non-migratory birds has also returned to Louisiana, about 24 birds, and there is a small flock of about 20 non-migratory birds in Florida. There is also a group out of Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin that is working to build a second migratory flock, just in case some disaster where to kill off the Aransas-Buffalo flock. They use an ultra-light airplane to lead the cranes between Wisconsin and Florida each year. The cranes pictured above are part of the Necedah flock. The top photo was taken in Northfield, MN where a pair stopped to rest and feed. The second photo was taken at Necedah where a pair flew in right above me as I was visiting the park one fall. The Necedah population consisted of 115 birds as of 2010-2011.All the crane population numbers come from the International Crane Foundation.   

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Violet-green Swallow

The violet-green sparrow is the most colorful sparrow that I have ever seen. Most of their feathers are a vibrant green color, similar to that of tree sparrows.The green is accented by black and purple wing tips and a mostly purple tail. They are found in the western half of North America breeding as far north as Alaska. They spend the winter in Mexico, Central America and northern South America.  

 The violet-green sparrow breeds in open woodlands.They are a cavity nesters, nesting in tree cavities, rock crevices and old woodpecker holes. They will also nest in more man made items such as under the eaves of buildings, under bridges and sometimes even in nesting boxes. Although they may nest individually they sometimes nest in colonies of up to 50 birds. They also migrate and sometimes feed communally in flocks often mixed with other species of swallow.

Uria aalge

 Uria aalge is the scientific name for the common murre. The common murre is a penguin type bird that is found primarily in the oceans of the northern hemisphere. They are circumpolar which means that they are often found around the coasts of North America, Europe and Asia. While they can fly they spend most of their time in the water. They are excellent swimmers and can dive to depths of about 200 feet in search of fish, squid, or other aquatic invertebrates. The only time that they usually come to dry land is during the breeding season. They breed together in large colonies on the sides of cliffs. Their eggs are quite pointed at one end, so much so that when they roll they do so in a circle. This is a great advantage when you lay your eggs on the side of a cliff. This common murre was photographed during the non-breeding season off the California coast near Monterey Bay.  

Three-toed Woodpecker

 The three-toed woodpeckers range further north then any other woodpecker in the world. At one time there was only one species of three-toed woodpecker but thanks to DNA testing they were split into the American three-toed woodpecker and the Eurasian three-toed woodpecker. The Eurasian three-toed is found across Northern Europe and Russia. The American three-toed is found in Alaska, Canada and parts of the northern United States. These photos were taken in the Sax Zim Bog in northern Minnesota.

 Three-toed woodpeckers are usually permanent residents with in their range, however some three-toed may migrate during the winter if food is scarce. They eat the larvae of different wood-boring and bark beetles. Unlike many other woodpeckers they do not usually bore into the wood in search of prey. Instead they use their beak to pry and scrape the outside bark from the tree leaving the insects beneath exposed. They then use their long and agile tongue to suck up the larvae. Three-toed woodpeckers can be confused with the black-back woodpecker, another three toed woodpecker found with in much of the same range, however the black-back has a completely black back where the three-toed has white speckles on black.

Swans

Swans are large waterfowl that are typically found in temperate climates. They are closely related to geese and share the same subfamily, Anserinae. There are seven species of swans found around the world, only two of which are native to North America.

The trumpeter swan is the larger of the two North American species. They are the largest waterfowl in North America and typically weigh from 17 to 28 pounds. They breed on freshwater wetlands in Alaska, Canada and northern portions of the United States. They migrate short distance during the winter to locations where they can find open water. We do have trumpeter that nest here in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. With in the next couple of weeks I should begin to see cygnets, baby swans, swimming with their parents up at Crex Meadows, where they have numerous pairs breeding This photo was taken at Monticello, MN where the water stays open during the winter.

The other swan that we see here in Minnesota is the tundra swan. They are smaller then the trumpeters typically weighing between 16 to 23 pounds.Tundra swans do not nest here in Minnesota. As their name suggests they are a bird of the far north. They breed up around the arctic circle. During the winter they migrate south. Some parts of the population migrate down to Europe and Asia while others migrate down to the east and west coast of North America.A large chunk of the Canadian breeding population heads south into the central part of the continent before turning east and heading for the coast. In November the Mississippi River, in southern Minnesota, is filled with thousands of tundra swans that stop over to eat and rest. This photo was taken near Brownsville, Mn during the tundra swan migration.  

Roadrunner

There are many birders in the world that we call listers. They are people who maintain lists of all of the birds that they have seen. Many people maintain a life list but the really hardcore listers can have state, county, city, monthly, yard list or even more. I am not a lister per say. I do consider myself to have a life list although I keep it in pictures. In my world if I do not have a picture it is not counted as a life bird.

The greater roadrunner is a bird that has eluded my life list on several occasions.We have spotted them on trips to California, New Mexico and Texas in the past but they always scuttled into the brush before I could get a pic. This year i finally managed to catch one on digital film at the Bentsen State Park in south Texas. The greater roadrunner is actually a ground-dwelling cuckoo bird that lives in arid regions of the southern United States and Mexico. They are well adapted to their harsh dry habitat and can survive for long periods with out water by absorbing moisture from their food. They are omnivores and eat some fruit and seeds as well as insects, birds, eggs, snakes, reptiles, rodents and carrion. Some of the things that they eat are venomous including certain spiders, scorpions and snakes.One of the reasons that they are so hard to photograph is that they can run at speeds of up to around 19 MPH. I have heard that they can reach even higher speeds when evading an ACME rocket fired by a wily coyote but that is just hearsay, BEEP BEEP!