Northern Cardinal

This time of the year is fun and exciting, if you happen to live in a northern climate. After several months of winter, with very few birds to photograph, you get an explosion of life. Each morning you wake up to birds singing outside the window. Most of those birds are males. In most species it is the male that does the singing. However both the male and female northern cardinal sing. Even when on the nest the female will sing. Her song is often longer and more complex then her male counterpart.

Are Northern Cardinals More Red in Texas?

The northern cardinal is a bird that we see here in Minnesota all year long. Even in winter the cardinals stick around giving us a little color in our world of white. So when we were down taking a tour of the King Ranch in southern Texas in 2010 we did not pay a lot of attention to the northern cardinals that we spotted. That was until our guide mentioned that the cardinals in Texas seem to be more red then in other places in the United States. This could be possible. Male northern cardinals get their red color from the carotenoid pigments in their diets. Carotenoids are organic pigments found in many plants that range from yellow to red. If a cardinal has a diet that is higher in red carotenoid pigments it may come of as a brighter color of red. Cardinals eating only yellow pigment will not turn yellow though, instead they will become a paler shade of red. So perhaps it is true that the cardinals in Texas are more red but the ones that we saw, and photographed, did not appear any different to me.

King Ranch

One of the big excursions that we planned during our Texas vacation was a day long birding tour of the world famous King Ranch located outside of Kingsville. Since our tour was scheduled to begin early in the morning we drove up to Kingsville the day before and spent the night at a local hotel. It was a good thing that we decided to stay close because it took us a little while to find the ranch visitors center where we had to meet for the tour.

The history of the King Ranch began back in the mid 1830's with young Richard King. At the age of 11 Richard was indentured to a New York City jeweler by his destitute family. The jeweler was a cruel man and so young Richard ran off, stowing away on a ship that was heading south. He spent the rest of his youth working the steam boat lines in Alabama and Florida where he eventually made his way up to becoming a steamboat captain. He then moved to Texas where he started his own steam boat business ferrying goods up and down the Rio Grand. In the mid 19th century, on a visit to Corpus Christi, he traveled the Wild Horse Desert and came across Santa Gertrudis Creek and realizing the possibilities purchased 15,500 acres to begin the King Ranch.

The King Ranch continued to prosper and grow even after the death of Richard King in 1885. King's descendants continued to manage the ranch. In 1934 King's daughter Alice King Kleberg consolidated the King holdings into a corporation and made her children the stockholders. The 1930's also brought a long term lease with Humble Oil, now ExxonMobile, for oil and gas rights on the 1.15 million acres of King property. With the oil and gas revenue the King ranch was able to expand it's holdings purchasing land in other states and countries. Much of this land is used to breed and raise their world famous quarter horses and Santa Gertrudis cattle. The Santa Gertrudis are a crossbreed between Brahman bulls, from India, and British Shorthorn and they are the first American breed of beef cattle.

All of the ranch history was interesting but we were at the King Ranch to check out the birds. The ranch does offer a history tour, which our guide told us is actually quite a bit more popular, as well as their nature tours. Portions of the ranch were tilled for agricultural use this made for perfect habitat for birds such as horned larks or Sprague's pipit.

Most of the rest of the ranch was open pastured used for horse or cattle grazing. In this habitat we found quite a variety of different types of sparrows including the olive sparrow, south Texas is the only place in the US where you can typically find the olive sparrow.

Not all of the birds that we saw were unusual. In many of the wooded areas around the ranch we spotted some of the birds that we have back at home. This included the northern cardinal which are common in Minnesota all year round, although our guide claimed that cardinals in Texas are a brighter red then cardinals elsewhere.

One of our target birds for our Texas trip was the northern caracara. On our past trip to Texas, in 2005, we only saw caracara from a distance and we were not able to get any good pics. This trip, with luck and planning, we spotted carcara at several different locations that we visited including this adult that we photographed at the King Ranch.

Caracara are considered members of the falcon family. They are opportunistic feeders eating mainly carrion. They will however, occasionally eat small rodents like this wood rat that we saw feasting on seeds that had fallen from one of the many bird feeders around the ranch.

Birding Wood Lake Nature Center

On March 26th I also made a foray to Wood Lake Nature Center to see how much of it was still under the grasp of winter.
Most of what I saw were pretty common birds like Canadian geese. It is about nesting time so when another goose approached this pair he was quickly shown the door.
The American goldfinch have begun to molt into the breeding plumage that most people recognize.
And northern cardinals are all over singing.
I was hoping to find an owls nest. I photographed a great horned nest for about 2 weeks at Wood Lake last year, which was the first thing that I began my blog with. But I had no luck.
I even approached this wood duck house hoping that maybe a small cavity nesting owl, like perhaps a screech owl, might be using the box but all that I found was a couple of annoyed squirrels.

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.

MN Valley headquarters 2-21

Winters in Minnesota tend to last a long time and can get some what depressing. Sure we have some cool winter birds but most of them are only in the northern part of the state. Down here, in the southeastern part of the state we mostly see the same birds through out the winter such as dark-eyed juncos, tree sparrows, crows, goldfinch, white breasted nut hatch,

downy and hairy woodpeckers
and northern cardinals.
But in the last couple of weeks of February I started to notice some differences on my frequent trips to the Minnesota Valley NWR visitors center. There have been some changes and some new visitors to the feeding stations that they maintain there. One noticeable change is that the goldfinches are beginning to get there color back. Goldfinches molt twice a year, once in the winter, into the drab olive color and once in the spring into the brilliant lemon color that most people identify with goldfinch.

A new visitor to the feeders have been house finches. Originally house finches were a resident of the southwestern US and Mexico but in the 1940s they were introduced to the eastern US. Since then they have spread and are now year round residents for most of the US, including most of Minnesota. I have not seen many around this winter and I have not seen any at the MN Valley NWR this winter, until now. Anther year round resident that has been noticeably absent until recently have been house sparrows. House sparrows were introduced to North America from Europe in the 1800s.
The most exciting new visitor has been a fox sparrow.
While I remember some reports on the list servers back in December about a fox sparrow at the MN Valley NWR I have not seen any in my many trips here. Fox sparrows are birds that we usually only see during migration. There wintering grounds are in the southeastern US where there is less snow making ground foraging easier. Their summer breeding territory is in the western US, northern Canada and Alaska. Spotting a migrating fox sparrow is usually a good sign that the spring migration has begun. Let's hope so, we can certainly use a bit of spring up here in the frozen north.

Carpenter Nature Center

On Tuesday January 15th I made a quick stop at Carpenter Nature Center between jobs to check out the feeders. I didn't have a lot of time, since I still had to get ready for my entertainment gig. There was a nice assortment of winter passerines visiting the feeders. The most exciting bird of the afternoon was the red-breasted nuthatch.
We seem to have more red-breasted nuthatches around this year then normal. There have been lots of people who have seen them at their feeders this winter but I have not been able to get many good shots of them so getting these pics made it worth skipping my nap, its a long day working 8 1/2 hours and then going out and working another 3 hours so usually I rest in between. Usually when I am out all that I find to take pictures of are the white-breasted nuthatch. There were plenty of those around too.

There were also the typical chickadees, juncos, tree sparrows, and northern cardinals.I also found a pair of house finches hanging out.Unfortunately I did not have enough time to check out the river for the harlequin duck or Barrow's goldeneye that have been hanging around. Guess that will have to wait for a future trip.

The first weekend in January

Here are some miscellaneous pictures that I took on the first week end of January.
This is one of many white tailed dear that I saw on a quick trip through Fort Snelling State Park on the 7th. I am hoping to get some good fawn pics at Fort Snelling this spring.The sharp-shinned hawk that has been hanging around the feeders at the Minnesota valley NWR visitors center was back again for a while on the 7th.I have begun to see starlings again. They have been mysteriously absent this winter until lately.The female northern cardinals are much more interesting then the male cardinals are. Fortunately there are usually some of each hanging around the Minnesota Valley NWR visitors center.This little opossum came up to eat some of the seeds on the ground under the feeders at the Mn Valley NWR on the 5th.I love the little pink toes. They are really cute but you think that they would get cold.A lot of woodpeckers hang around the Mn Valley NWR visitors center. Most are downy or hairy but there are usually a couple of red-bellied woodpeckers around too.I shot this red-tailed hawk on the side of the freeway while I was on my way home from the Mn River Valley NWR on the 7th. It is a bit blurry because the truck was still moving a bit.

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.