Have you ever heard crickets in the springtime? You may think so but what you were probably hearing was really American toads. American toads are common in the eastern United States and Canada. In the spring males look for a mate. They call out to receptive females by expanding the pouch on the underside of their throat called a dewlap. The mating call sounds similar to the sound of crickets. The easy way to distinguish between the two is that frogs and toads croak in the spring while crickets sing in the fall. So the next time that you think you are hearing crickets in the spring look around the water and you might see a toad like the one above.

Burrowing Owl

 Burrowing owls are a part of of a genus of smaller owls called Athene. The burrowing owl is the only member of the genus that is found in North or South America. They live in open grassland, agricultural fields, and desserts in the western half of North America, Mexico, and parts of Central and South America. They live in underground burrows which they most often commandeer from rodents such as prairie dogs or larger ground squirrels, they will also use holes that are dug by badgers looking for prey. They often collect animal dung which they use to line the entrance to the burrow to help detour predators. They will nest as far north as south central Canada but birds that nest in Canada and the northern U.S. will migrate south for the winter. Most of the other burrowing owls will stay on territory year round.

While most U.S. burrowing owls live in the west there is a subspecies that lives in Florida and the Caribbean. Since their are not any larger digging rodents that live in their range these burrowing owls dig their own burrows. The loose sand found in the area make this possible. The first shot is of a western burrowing owl photographed in Idaho while the second shot is a Florida burrowing owl. Burrowing owls will hunt at any time day or night but they prefer hunting in the morning or evening. They eat a wide variety of prey depending on what is available. They typically eat a lot of large insects, such as grasshoppers, scorpions and beetles, which they catch during the day. At night they usually hunt for rodents such as mice, rats and ground squirrels. They will also eat things like snakes, lizards and small birds. It is often possible to see borrowing owls during the day, often sitting on the ground or a low pole, which makes them easier to photograph. During the middle of the day though they are usually back in their burrows to get out of the midday heat.

Great Horned Owl

The winters here in Minnesota can be pretty drastic. During the winter there are less thing for me to photograph. With no bugs around my photography turns almost exclusively to birds. Unfortunately there are also a lot less birds around, since there is much less for them to eat, however many of the birds that you can find in the winter are spectacular. Some of the cool birds take me a bit of travel if I want to see them but a few can be found all around the state.  

Great horned owls are resident here year long. Their down feathers protect them from the cold and they eat 

almost anything so it is very rare that they can not find prey. Staying around during the winter provides them with the advantage of nesting early. Here in Minnesota they are often on the nest by the end of January. This allows the young owls to have time to grow large enough to defend themselves before many of the other avian predators return to the area. It also helps in finding a nest. Great horned owls do not make their own nest so they have to borrow one, usually from a hawk, heron, or squirrel. Since most hawks and herons do not return that early in the year the owls often have a number of empty nests to chose from. The second photo is of a GHO chick branching. Before they can fly young GHO will climb around the branches of the tree where the nest is located. Sometimes they fall, but the parents will still feed and care for the chick on the ground. Unless a person comes by and finds them and takes them home. If they keep them for too long the owl will be imprinted and will not be able to be returned to the wild. So if you find a chick the best thing to do is to leave it be. If it looks injured or like it might be in danger from ground predators (coyotes, fox, raccoon  house cats) then take it to a rehab facility. Most facilities will give it any care it needs and then return it to the nest if possible, that is what they do at The Raptor Center.   

Tundra Swan

 This morning I am heading out to Brownsville, MN, near the Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin border. I am hoping to have the opportunity to photograph tundra swans. We have a pretty good population of nesting trumpeter swans here in Minnesota but the tundra swans are only around for a few weeks during migration. You can tell the difference because the tundra swans have the little yellow tear drop on the beak under the eye and the trumpeters do not. Tundra swans nest up above the Arctic Circle but they winter along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. On their way to their wintering grounds thousands stop on the Mississippi River near Brownsville, MN to refuel by eating the tubers of water vegetation found there. Once the river freezes up they will head south east again. I am hoping that I am not too late. Our temps have dropped below freezing during the night for the past few weeks but the daytime temps have been in the upper 40's with the low 50's projected for today. If I did miss the swans I still have a chance at photographing bald eagles along the river and I may swing into south western Wisconsin and see if any of the golden eagles have returned to their wintering grounds.

Darner

One of our newest education birds at The Raptor Center is this young female American kestrel. At TRC we try not to think of the birds in human terms, but since we have over 30 education birds we do name them so that we can keep them straight. Often when we get a new bird we let the community suggest names. This helps to get people more interested in raptors and The Raptor Center. Sometimes, though, the volunteers get to make the suggestions as a reward for all of the time that we donate. In the case of this female kestrel it was up to the volunteers to make the suggestions and I am very proud to say that the name that I suggested was chosen. Let me introduce you to Darner the female American kestrel. We try to name them something that we can use as a teachable moment when we are talking to people during programs or tours. American kestrel primarily eat large insects like grasshoppers, moths, butterflies and dragonflies. During migration they primarily eat common green darner dragonflies that migrate south at the same time. This is the reasoning for Darner's new name.  

Great Grey Owl

The great grey owl is a large owl that is found in the boreal forests of North America, Europe and Asia. They are the largest owl in the world, by length and wingspan. Their size is deceptive though, even compared to other owls. There are several other owl species that are not as tall but still out weigh the great grey, including the Eurasian eagle owl, Blackiston's fish owl, snowy owl and great horned owl. Great grey owls also have small feet compared to other large owls and because of this in general they hunt smaller prey. They mostly hunt field mice and voles. Great grey owls do sometimes breed in northeast Minnesota. More often we see them migrate down from Canada when there are shortages of prey species on their normal range. Each winter a few of these birds are spotted in the northern part of Minnesota. These are usually young birds that probably do not have an established territory. When there is a prey crash we can get an invasion and see many more of these owl. In the winter of 2004-2005 we had an unprecedented invasion where it was estimated that over 5000 great grey owls came down from Canada. During that winter it was easy to see great grey owls perched, like above, or even hunting in plain sight in the middle of the day. While it was exciting to see these exotic owls it was also sad because many died due to starvation or where hit by cars.    

Baby Black Bear

Minnesota has a healthy population of black bears. The MN DNR estimates about 20,000 black bears in the state mainly in the northeastern third of the state. The mating season for black bear is from May to July however the female black bear will not immediately become pregnant after copulation. She will hold the fertilized egg until around November. If she is healthy she will become pregnant and the cubs will be born in the den while she hibernates, usually January. If she is not healthy the egg is reabsorbed and the pregnancy terminated. I guess you can say that bears are pro choice. This youngster emerged from the den with his mom. If danger is nearby the first instinct of the cubs is to climb a tree. He will stay with his mom through out the rest of the year and hibernate with her the next winter. The following May before mom comes into estrus she will chase the cub away and make it known that it is time for it to be on its own.

Ruddy Duck

Ruddy Duck

The ruddy duck is one of the more interesting looking ducks that are found in North and South America. They are a stiff-tailed duck and sometimes swim with their tail pointing up towards the sky. They breed in wetlands with a lot of vegetation. The nest is usually built in the tall grasses to hide it from would be predators. They are a migratory waterfowl and they usually spend the winters in warm coastal waters. I photographed this ruddy duck at Medicine Lake NWR in Montana.

   

Pi

This handsome fellow is Pi. Pi is one of our education birds at The Raptor Center. He may look a bit different then many of the bald eagles that you have seen before. That is because Pi is just beginning to become an adult. Bald eagles do not reach maturity until they are around 5 years old. While they are immature they look quite different. Their feather are mostly brown, although some do get a mottling of white feathers on their wings and/or chest. Immature eagles also have a dark silvery beaks and brown eyes. PI is about 4 years old. With this years molt he has begun to get his adult plumage. This process usually takes 2 or 3 molts to complete and since they molt each feather only once a year the entire process will take a couple of years or more.

Bearly Far Enough Away

 

 There have been very few time that I have been worried about my safety while I have been out photographing. Most the time I am not photographing anything dangerous but on occasion I have had opportunities and been quite close to moose, wolf, bobcat and black bear. I always make sure I do not get any closer then the animal will tolerate. I do not want to stress the animal or find myself in a bad situation.

The one time that I was kind of worried was on a trip to Yellowstone a few years back. As we were driving down the road on our way to the Lamar Valley I noticed a guy looking at something of to the side of the road. I stopped to check it out and found that he was looking at a grizzly bear seeping in a little home made bad about 100 yards away. Shortly after I got there the bear stood up and looked directly at us. I am guessing that it had caught a whiff of our scent on the wind. Bears have a very good sense of smell. Even though it was a good football field away it was still pretty scary. Bears can run quite fast so it would have been an all out sprint to the car, which was about 25 feet away, if the bear had charged. Even so we both decided it would be a good idea to back up. We slowly moved back towards the road and my car, walking backwards and keeping an eye on the bear as we went. After a few minutes it must have decided that we were not a threat because it lay back down in its hole and went back to sleep. I have ended up closer to grizzlies on a couple of occasions but have never had one stare me in the eyes like this one did and hope that I never do in the future.

The osprey is a very interesting raptor. They are sometimes called the fishing hawk, because they are almost 100% fish eaters. However the osprey is not a hawk at all, they are in their own family. They are the only diurnal raptor, one that is active during the day, that has the ability to shift a toe so that they can have 3 toes forward and one back or two facing forward and two facing behind. The only other raptors that have this ability are owls and the Osprey definitely is not an owl.

Altamira Oriole

 The Altamira oriole is the largest oriole in the United States. They live in open riparian woodlands in Mexico, Central America and south Texas. They are omnivorous, eating fruit and insects which they pick off of trees. I photographed this bird at Bentsen State Park near McAllen, TX.

Their basket shaped nest is the longest of any bird in North America. They can reach up to about 25" long. They are made out of grass fibers and epiphyte roots that are woven together by the birds. Altamira orioles usually do not nest too close to each other even though they are not really that territorial.

Sea Otter

The sea otter is a marine mammal in the weasel family. They are also on the endangered species list. At one time there was an estimated population of 200,000 to 300,000 sea otters living along the Pacific coast of North America. In the 1700's through to the early 1900's they were extensively hunted for their fur and by 1911 there was only about 1000 to 2000 left in the world. Thankfully conservation efforts, as well as an international ban on hunting has allowed the sea otter populations to rebound but loss of habitat and competition with humans for food are still a concern for those who wish to preserve this wonderful species.

Rough-legged Hawk

The rough-legged hawk is a circumpolar species that is native to the Northern Hemisphere. They nest in the tundra and taiga regions of Alaska, Canada, Europe and Asia. During the winter they migrate south into central Asia, Europe and the United States. Even though they are the same species they are usually referred to as a rough-legged buzzard in Europe and Asia, as most buteos are called buzzards instead of hawks. Their common name is because they are one of only two species of North American hawks that have feathers that go all the way down to their feet, the other is the ferruginous hawk.

Saw-whet Owl Eating a Mouse

 

One of the best photo opportunities that I had this winter came from a small saw-whet owl that over wintered at local nature center, Dodge Nature Center . The kids in one of the classes at the nature center first found the owl and it was still hanging around a month later when the birding community found out about it. Since the nature center is close to my house I stopped by frequently to check on the bird and snap a few pics. Each day I found it in the same tree. A couple of times it had mice.  I had to wait several hours for it to get hungry enough to wake up and eat, but it was worth it.

You Can't See Me !

Yellow-bellied Marmot

Chipmunk

If you do not live in North America you may never have had the pleasure to observe a chipmunk in the wild. The only species of chipmunks that is not found in North America is the Siberian chipmunk of Asia. Chipmunks are a genus of small lined ground squirrels. They are cute and often inquisitive. They often live near human populated areas and often become habituated to people. They are omnivores and eat seeds, nuts, fruit, small mammals, frogs, bird eggs as well as discarded human food.

Barrow's Goldeneye

I photographed these Barrow's goldeneye ducks in Yellowstone. While most Barrow's goldeneye are found in the northwestern portions of North America there is also a population in Iceland. It was the birds in Iceland that were first described and named after Sir John Barrow.

Common Loons

 

Olive-sided Flycatcher with Bee