Snowy Owl

The snowy owl is a large species of owls found in the tundra of Alaska, Canada, Europe and Asia. They are the largest owl species, by weight, in North America and slightly smaller then the Eurasian eagle owls that are found through out much of Europe and Asia.

Snowy owls are white with varying amounts of black mixed in. Males are typically mostly white while females and young birds have more of a black and white mottling. The bird in the top photo appears to be a young bird while the one in the photo above is probably a mature male.

Snowy owls have thick feathers that completely their body including their feet and toes. This provides insulation that allows them to survive on their territory in the tundra year round. Unlike most species of owls snowies are primarily diurnal, active during the daytime. They eat rodents, primarily lemmings, and some birds, such as ptarmigan.

Occasionally during the winter there is a shortage of prey. This can be due to a crash in the prey base or a very successful year of raising young which increases the population. When this happens snowies may migrate south in search of food. Typically these are young birds who do not yet have an established teritory. Here in Minnesota we see snowy invasions every three to five years. When they come south the most common place that we see them is at the airport. The airport is similar to their natural habitat on the tundra. It is large and flat and usually has a good amount of rodents for the owls to hunt. As you can see by the above photo the planes do not seem to bother them much.

Pine Grosbeak

The pine Grosbeak is one of the largest members of the finch family, Fringlilidae. They are found in the boreal forests of Alaska, Canada, Rocky Mountains, and Eurasia. Most pine grosbeaks stay on territory year round but they will migrate south, into southern Canada and northern United States in North America, when there is a shortage of food. They eat seeds, fruit, tree buds and some insects.  

Males and females are distinctive in color. The top photo here is a female while the red bird in the second photo is a male. They breed in coniferous forests, often building a cup shaped nest in the fork of a conifer tree. They are strongly territorial during the breeding season but during the winter they often feed in flocks, staying near trees with fruit until it has all been consumed. They are also not very wary of people and will come to feeders mostly to eat sunflower seeds.

Roseate Spoonbill

 The roseate spoonbill is one of six species of spoonbills found around the world. They are all a part of the Threskkiornithidae family which also includes ibises. According to DNA studies the roseate spoonbill, which is the only spoonbill in the Americas is most closely related to the yellow-billed spoonbill that is found in southeast Australia. It is believed that these two species evolved from a common offshoot of the ancestors of the other four species.

The roseate spoonbill is found primarily in tropical regions of South America and the Caribbean. There are also small numbers of this species that breed in North America. The North America birds breed along the Gulf Coast in southern Texas, Florida, and Louisiana. They seem to prefer fresh water habitats but are also found in coastal saltwater areas. They swing their odd shaped beak from side to side to sift through the water and silt on the bottom and forage for crustaceans, aquatic insects, frogs, and small fish. Their food provides the carotenoid pigments which give the birds their pinkish coloration.

Clay-colored Sparrow

The clay-colored sparrow is one of the most numerous songbirds found on the central plains of North America. They breed in central Canada and the north Central United States and winter primarily in Mexico. They breed in shrubland habitats. The breeding territory is smaller then most other species of sparrow because they forage away from their breeding territory. They forage on the ground and eat a variety of seeds, grasses, leaf buds, and insects.

Males typically come back to the same nesting territory each year but females usually choose a different territory and mate each year. Their nest is usually located on the lower branches of a bush near to the ground. Females build the nest, which is cup shaped, but males help by bringing nesting materials like twigs and grass. The eggs take a week and a half to two weeks to hatch. The chicks are born helpless and with out feathers. In 7-9 days after hatching they leave the nest. They are still not able to fly at this time but they will spend the next week on the ground in the bushes where they will be fed by their parents.   

Black-throated Green Warbler

Queen Butterfly

 

The queen butterfly is a member of the Nymphalidae or brushfoot family. They are found in temperate, tropical and semi tropical areas of North, Central, and South America. In the warmer portions of their range they can be found year long and in the northern portions of the range they are found July-August. They are in the same family as the monarch and soldier butterflies and can be difficult to distinguish from the soldier without class inspection.

 Adult queens roost communally at night. During the day males patrol for willing females. Courtship and mating typically take place in the afternoon. A pair may remain coupled for an hour or more. Females can mate up to 15 times before they are through. The female lays the eggs individually typically on something in the milkweed family, their primary larval host plant. When the larva, caterpillars, hatch they eat the milkweed which makes them unpalatable to many of their would be predators. The caterpillar will go through six growth stages, called instars, in which they will shed their outer skin. During the six instar they will find a place to pupate. They will send 7-10 days in their pupae and then emerge as an adult butterfly. The butterflies are still toxic to most predators primarily from the milkweed that they ate during the larval stage.

Whisper

For the past several years I have had the pleasure of putting together the calendar for The Raptor Center. Each year it has been a struggle trying to figure out how to photograph the birds, after all most of my experience has been with birds that do not sit still let alone pose. This picture is my favorite so far. This was the October photo in the 2013 calendar. The photo was taken in a small pumpkin field at the University of Minnesota St Paul Campus, where The Raptor Center is located. The UofM St Paul Campus houses the School of Agricultural and the School of Veterinary Medicine, which is why it is one of the few places in Minnesota where you can find a barn owl and a pumpkin patch. Whisper is one of our education birds. She came to TRC from the World Bird Sanctuary. The World Bird Sanctuary raises barn owls as part of a release program in Missouri but Whisper was slated to become an education bird.  

Pyrrhuloxia

There are a number of species of birds around the world that have names that are difficult to pronounce and spell but the pyrrhuloxia has to be near the top of the list. The name is actually a combination of two genus names Pyrrhula, which roughly means flame-colored, and Loxia, which roughly means crooked. The name refers to the red color primarily on the males and the crooked shape of the beak.

The pyrrhuloxia is a relative of the northern cardinal. They are year round inhabitants of the deserts and scrublands of the extreme south western United States and Mexico. They are omnivorous who typically forage on the ground for seeds, grasses, and insects. They will also feed on cactus blooms and fruit. Most of the moisture that they need comes from the foods that they eat. 

Eared Grebe

 I am sure that most people have heard the story f the ugly duckling. How a chick that looks different then all the other duck chicks grows up to become a beautiful swan. Well there are some species of birds that go through a similar metamorphosis each year. Take the eared grebe for example. The subject of both of these photos are eared grebes. Other then the red eye they do not look the same and I bet that if you spotted the two of them right next to each other that most people would think that they were two different species.

Of course spotting these two next to each other would be highly unlikely. The top photo is the eared grebe in its winter plumage. This photo was taken in California in February. Eared grebes migrate to the Pacific Coast, southwestern United States, and Mexico. The second photo is an eared grebe in its breeding plumage. I guess that it is hard to find a mate when you are in black and white. This photo was taken in Montana in May. Eared grebes breed on inland lakes in the western half of the U. S. and Canada.

Olive-sided Flycatcher

 The olive-sided flycatcher has a large and diverse breeding range. They breed across Canada, Alaska, the western half of the United States and the northeastern United States. Here in Minnesota they breed in the northeast corner of the state but both of these birds were photographed in the south east part of the state. During the winter these birds migrate to parts of Central America and northern South America.

Olive-sided flycatchers eat flying insects which they usually catch in flight. I watched this bird catch about a half dozen bees with in a few minutes. From his perch on the branch he would fly up into the air, looping around, and then return to his perch with a bee in his beak. Olive-sided flycatchers live in forested habitats. Burned areas are preferred habitat because there is usually plenty of burnt snags for them to hunt fromand not a lot of brush to get in their way while they hunt.

Golden-backed Snipe Fly

 Like many people I am not a big of flies. There are approximately 120,000 species of flies in the world and most of the ones that I have encountered are not on my friends list. In my experience many fly species are parasitic. They bite mammals, birds, and people and drink some of their blood. During the summer the deer and black flies in the northern two thirds of Minnesota can be almost unbearable. Then there are house flies that are always trying to raise their maggots in your food and garbage. However I did come across this rather cool looking fly in the southeastern corner of the state. The golden-backed snipe fly is native to eastern portions of North America. I am guessing that Minnesota is on the edge of their range because I have only seen these flies once in my 50 long years of life. There is not a lot of information available about this species, or most insects for that matter, but it is believed to be a predator that eats other insects instead of a parasite. So not only does it look great but it is also less biting.

Sandhill Cranes at Dusk

In the fall Crex Meadows becomes a staging grounds for hundreds of sandhill cranes gathering to fly south for the winter. During the day they visit the farm fields, some of which are a part of Crex and others are in the surrounding area. They eat left over grains and insects building up their energy reserves for the long upcoming flight south. At night they stand in the shallow lakes and pools of Crex. The waters act as protection and alarm against ground based predators that might try and sneak up on the birds in the dark. The treat for us humans is in the morning and night when the cranes are flying out or returning. In this shot the sun had just sunk below the horizon. Birds were still coming in providing me with wonderful silhouette shots against the blaze orange sky. 

Northern Parula

 The northern parula is a small American wood warbler. In mixed flocks they are usually one of the smallest birds with kinglets typically being the only smaller species. They breed in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada. They winter in southern Florida, Caribbean, and Central America.

 The northern parula breed primarily in forested habitat. The build pendulum styled nest from hanging vegetation. Birds in the north tend to use beard moss or coniferous twigs for nest construction while southern populations tend to use Spanish moss. In the middle, the southern Great Lakes region, northern parula do not breed. It is possible that this is because most of the habitat in these areas lack of epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants, that they look for to build the nests.

These birds were all photographed during migration. The top two were photographed near my home in southern Minnesota in May. Northern parula only nest in north eastern Minnesota where there are a lot of boggy areas that have trees with moss growing on them. The bottom shot was taken on South Padre Island in Texas. Northern parula do nest in east Texas but not usually that far south. This little water fountain was a first stop for many birds after making the long flight across the Gulf of Mexico.

Dorcas Copper

The dorcas copper is a small northern butterfly that is typically found around bogs or other wetland areas in Alaska, Canada, and parts of northern United States. There is typically one brood per summer from June through August. They are very similar looking to the purplish copper.

Females lay their eggs one at a time on the underside of the leaves of their host plant, which are cinquefoils. In the fall the eggs fall to the ground where they will overwinter as eggs. In spring the new caterpillars will emerge and crawl back up the new host plants and begin to eat the leaves.