Downy Woodpecker

 

The downy woodpecker is the smallest woodpecker that is native to north America. They are found through out most of the United States, except for the arid regions of the southwest, and the southern half of Canada and Alaska.They look similar to the larger hairy woodpecker which is also common with in most of the same range. When comparing the two species side by side the hairy is noticeably larger. However when trying to identify a lone bird look for black spots on the white tail feathers. If there are black spots then it is a downy, it is easier to see an example of this on the lower picture. If you can not see the tail then look at the beak. If the beak is shorter then the width of the birds head then it is a downy. If the beak is about the same side as the head then the bird is probably a hairy.

Like most woodpeckers the downy woodpecker does not migrate during the winter. Most insect eating birds must migrate for the winter to an area where they can still find insects to eat. Woodpeckers use their specially designed beak to forage inside of trees where they can still find insects and insect larva during the winter. Because of their small size downy woodpeckers often are able to forage where larger woodpeckers can not, like thin branches and weed stems. Males usually take these prize locations first. It is easy to tell the difference between males and females because males have a red band at the back of their head, see top photo, where the females do not, see bottom pic.

Minnesota Valley NWR

Since the weather this weekend was not very cooperative, will winter ever end, I will have to post some more pics from the weekend before when it was at least sunny out. Here are a couple of pictures that I took at the Minnesota Valley NWR visitors center that Sunday. Since the visitors center is closed on weekends during the winter, except the first weekend of each month, I decided to walk around instead of photographing birds at the feeders. There were not a lot of birds around and nothing really special but I did get a couple of nice pics. The downy's are usually pretty cooperative.
This female cardinal was beautiful in the sunlight. She stayed there for quite a while and let me take her pic.

Welcome to Spring 2008

Today is officially the first day of spring, finally! It has been a long hard winter here in Minnesota and I, like a lot of people who live here, am looking forward to the change in the season. The weather has only recently begun to change. We finally have started to get highs in the low 40s in the past week or so and some of the snow has begun to melt. This last weekend the weather was pretty mild so I did a bit of birding around the area. I was hoping to see a good deal of spring migrants but I am afraid it is still a bit early for that here. I did see a couple of robins in our neighborhood but only as I was driving by with out my camera. On Friday, the 14th, I got out of work early and headed over to Carpenter Nature Center. I did not see any new spring migrants but I did witness what I believe was some unique spring behavior.
I found two downy woodpeckers that I believe were in the midst of courtship.
Although downy woodpeckers are pretty common here I am not all that familiar with there courtship and mating behaviour.
But for a good half an hour these two birds would continually face each other and bob their heads swaying slightly back and forth.
When one bird would take off and move to a new branch the other would quickly follow and land on the same branch or one near by.
Then they would start the bobbing and weaving again.

I believe that one was male and the other female but it was hard to tell because they would constantly change positions. It was fascinating and I watched them for about 30 to 45 minutes.
I did find a few other birds in the park. There were plenty of black-capped chickadees, at least one red-bellied woodpecker, and a couple of white-breasted nuthatch.
On my way home from the park I spotted a red-tailed hawk perched looking for prey. We still have a lot of red-tails hanging around.

The Beginning of February at the Minnesota Valley NWR

February began with a nice sunny day. I stopped off at the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitors Center after work I was hoping to spot the sharp-shinned hawk that has been hanging around but he did not show up while I was there. I did take the opportunity to photograph some of the feeder birds though. The peanuts in this hanging feeder where very popular.
First the white-breasted nuthatch were fighting over them.
Then a downy woodpecker came in for his share.
The European starlings alternated between the peanuts and the suet feeders. Birds seem to naturally know when bad weather is coming. Right before hand you can usually find them gorging on protein and fat.
The birds were not the only ones out grabbing a meal while the sun was still shining. This little red squirrel was pigging out on seeds that had fallen to the ground.
It was a good thing for the squirrel that he was on the back side of the visitors center because when I left I found a red-tailed hawk perched out front. That red squirrel would not be very much of a meal for a hungry red tail but during the winter you have to take what you can get if you want to survive.

Beautiful Eagles Circling Over Colvill Park

This past weekend I participated in a golden eagle survey in southeastern Minnesota. Unfortunately my group did not find any golden eagles in our area but I did get some opportunities to take some pictures. It was pretty cold that morning, the bank thermometers read -13 degrees as I was driving to the National Eagle Center where we were meeting. That does not take into the account the wind chill factor which was probably around 30 below. I had a little extra time so I made a little side trip to Colvill Park in Red Wing, MN on my way to Wabasha.

Colvill Park is a little city park on the southern outskirts of Red Wing. It has a lot of the things that parks in most cities do, like a swimming pool, playground, picnic area, and ball fields. It also is a good place to do a little bird watching, since it is on the Mississippi River. It is a really good place to do bird watching during the winter months, particularly if you want to see bald eagles. Colvill Park is directly down stream from an Excel Energy plant. The steam plant keeps the surrounding water warm so that it does not freeze, which means that it is a gathering place for bald eagles during the winter. Since it was so cold that morning there were many eagles gathered around, about 40 total.
I took a few pics but since I had to be down in Wabasha soon I could not stay. After I finished the golden eagle survey. I left at lunch time since we had already covered our area pretty well and we had not spotted any, I stopped back at Colvill Park. By this time the eagles had left their perches and I was able to get some great flight shots as the circled overhead on the thermals.

There were quite a few adults but what really caught my eye were these very beautiful mottled immature birds.Immature eagles appear much different then adults do. They usually have brown feathers, brown eyes, and black beaks. At the age of around 4 or 5 they begin to change to the adult coloration that most people easily recognize. When they are in the middle of this process, as these birds are, they can have unique and striking coloration.You can see that the heads are turning white but still have a mix of black feathers. The same with the tail. The beak is partially yellow but still has some black in it. Since the head on the eagle in this last picture has a lot more white feathers then the others it is probably a year older.

Eagles where not the only bird in Colvill Park that afternoon. There was a small group of mallards in the water as well as a female common merganser. In the trees on the side of the river there were a couple of downy woodpeckers playing with a red-bellied wood pecker.

Sharp-shinned adventures at the Minnesota Valley NWR

Last Thursday we actually had some clear weather so I headed over to the Minnesota Valley NWR Visitors Center to check out the feeders. When I arrived I noticed right away that everything was quiet at the feeders. I knew that the Sharp-shinned hawk, that I have seen on numerous visits must be around. A quick scan of the trees reveled the small but deadly predator.
The sharp-shinned hawk is an accipiter. The accipiter family includes sparrowhawks, which we do not usually see in North America, goshawks, and a few other hawks including the sharp-shinned and coopers hawks. Accipiters have broad, short wings and a long tail which helps them maneuver when they fly. Accipiters also have relatively long legs which come in handy to hunt and capture passerines.
After a while the sharpie flew off and the birds began to return to the feeder.

Northern cardinals

White-breasted nuthatch

Red-bellied woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

Even a pileated woodpecker. I think that pileated woodpeckers are pretty cool but when talking to other birders I am never sure which way to pronounce it. Some people pronounce it pill-ee-ay-tid and other people pronounce it Pie-lay-tid. Usually now I call it both, because some birders are crazy and can get hostile if you do not pronounce it the way that they do.

Then suddenly all of the birds at the feeder scattered except one lone downy that was stuck frozen at the feeders.I knew that the sharpie was back before I ever saw it.Fortunately he perched in a pretty good spot for me to get some pics before he spotted the left over downy.And the chase was on. Fortunately for the downy he was able to out maneuver the sharpie and escape, this time.

Hastings CBC

The last weekend in December I participated in two more Christmas Bird Counts. On Saturday I did the Hastings bird count and was partnered with Steve Weston. Steve is a great local birder here in the Twin Cities and has been doing the Hastings count for about 10 years or more so he really new our territory well. The weather was typical Minnesota winter weather with overcast skies, cold temps and light snow, perfect for taking bird photos LOL. The first half of our area was mostly in Spring Lake Park Preserve so we did a lot of it on foot. Since the weather was not too cooperative I did not bring my camera with while we hiked, which was prolly a good because it was pretty quiet any way. On our way out of the Schaar's Bluff area of Spring Lake Park we did spot a horned lark on the road. I got a shot but it was pretty far away and I shot it through the windshield so it is not a very good picture.In the afternoon things picked up a bit. Probably the best birding area that we found was at a feeder station in some ones yard on Pine Bend Trail. These feeders seemed to be very attractive to woodpeckers. There were around 10 downies that we counted.
There were 6 hairy woodpeckers.
We also saw at least 4 red-bellied woodpeckers, a lot of juncos, chickadees and white-breasted nuthatch and our 2 most exciting birds of the day. We saw a tufted titmouse, but it was too far away to get any shots with out entering into these people's yard, and one red-breasted nuthatch.

Even though things were a little slow for us other groups that were part of the count did well. Some of the more interesting birds that were spotted were a flock of red-winged blackbird, gray partridges, American kestrel, great horned and barred owl

Another sharp-shinned at MN Valley NWR

After work on Thursday I wanted to go out and do some birding but the skies were overcast and it was lightly snowing. Since I really wanted to keep my camera dry I decided to head over to the headquarters of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge where I could watch the birds at the feeders through the windows. When I arrived around 3pm there was a small group of people there from the US Fish and Wildlife Service shooting some kind of video. They were setting up to do a shot, using the feeders outside the window as a backdrop, when the camera man pointed out that all of the birds that had been around the feeders earlier had left. I went over to take a look and he was right, the feeders were pretty much empty of birds. I began to scan the neighboring tree tops and it did not take long to find the reason for the empty feeders.
A sharp-shinned hawk was perched in one of the trees behind the feeders. I pointed the hawk out to the people who were filming who were very excited. The woman who was in charge, Valerie, was surprised that all the birds had left the feeder when the hawk arrived. She had heard that the small birds will freeze when a hawk is in the area. I explained that most of the birds probably headed for the brush when the hawk arrived and were now keeping low and still in the cover. Then I pointed out one downy woodpecker that had not gotten away quick enough and had been standing frozen for several minutes on the side of one of the feeder poles.
A few minutes later the sharpie took off and flew up over the building. I expected that all of the passerines would return fairly quickly but the feeders continued to stay empty. I looked at the downy, who had moved to the back side of the pole where it had again stopped moving, and determined that the sharpie was still in the area, possibly on the roof. Another minute or two went by and still no passerines came to the feeder. The downy decided to make a quick break into the woods and about 30 seconds later the sharpie flew back down from the roof to land on a branch right in front of the window.We were all pretty excited since this time the bird was up close and pretty much in the open. It was a good thing too, because with the cloud cover and shooting through the windows, to avoid flushing the bird, I had to open up my aperture to be able to get any descent shots. If the bird had been further away it would have meant even less light.

The sharpy stayed for around 5 to 10 minutes doing some preening and watching for a good meal. Since none of the passerines were around any more he finally took of over the building. I am guessing that this might be the same sharpy that I saw around Thanksgiving in the same area. Maybe I will stop by on New Years Day since this bird seems to likes to visit on holidays. I knew that the sharpy had really left this time because with in a minute or two the area around the feeders was bustling with bird life. There where a couple white breasted nuthatch.There were also quite a few northern cardinals.Both male and female.I spotted red-bellied, hairy and downy woodpeckers, like the one above. There were also black-capped chickadee, dark-eyed junco, American tree sparrow, and starlings.

Birding Two Harbors

I have gotten quite a bit behind on my blogging lately. First issue is that the company that I work for has switched ownership, this is about the 9th time in the 9 years that I have worked there. Unfortunately this has added to my work load and so I have had to work extra hours, which has left me less time to spend getting posts ready. The longer work days also leave me more exhausted which does not help either.

The second issue that has eaten into my blogging time has been my annual calendars. Each year I make calendars, using pictures that Michelle or I shot during the year, as gifts for both of our families. I have doing this for about 7 years. The first couple years I had them done at a drug store, but I was not very happy with the product so I started printing them myself. This year I have decided to have them printed through an online printer because of lack of time. It should be a lot less work not printing them all up but I still had to take time to pick out photos, crop them to the appropriate size, and then lay them out in the vendors software. Perhaps some time when it is slow this winter I will lower the rez on them and put them on the blog, even though I am sure that most of them where posted earlier in the year when I took the photo.

Here are some more photos that I took while I was up in Two Harbors to photograph the Inca dove. All of these photos where taken at Lighthouse Point.

Dark-eyed junco blending into the branches.Black-capped chickadeeBlack-capped chickadee mooning me.An American crow getting a leg up on the competition.A downy woodpecker instead of the black-backed or three-toed woodpecker that I was hoping for.White-breasted nuthatch. With the holidays coming up I will try and work on getting caught up.