June 16, 2013 - Misc Photos

Eastern Chipmunks are always cute photo subjects. This one was under the bird feeders in our yard, stuffing its cheeks with seed spilled by the birds.

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This pair of Mourning Doves showed up in our northern Minnesota yard this spring. They are very common all over the United States but it’s only the fourth time in 18 years that I have seen them in our yard. In all four cases, they only stayed for one day. I guess we just don’t have the kind of habitat they prefer.

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I was visiting the T. S. Roberts Bird Sanctuary in Minneapolis, trying to photograph a Hooded Warbler. I saw the bird but couldn’t get close enough to get a photo. While I was there, another visitor saw my camera and told me she had something I might like to photograph. She took me to the spot where she saw this bat resting on a tree. Bats do sleep during the day but they usually settle down in a more sheltered area where they won’t be disturbed. We have several kinds of bats in Minnesota and they can be hard to identify, so I don’t know which species this is.

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While driving along Itasca County Road 10 in northern Minnesota, I noticed this Porcupine in a tree. It was eating Pussy-willow buds. Porcupines are good climbers and can often be seen high in trees eating bark, leaves, or buds.

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A few miles down the road I came across another Porcupine. This one was right out in the open, crossing a field. Everyone knows Porcupines have sharp quills used to defend themselves. But the quills are only located on the tail. What looks like quills on the rest of the body are just white hairs. Notice the long claws; these are helpful when climbing trees.

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My friend Shawn and I were birding in Scenic State Park when we heard a Connecticut Warbler. This is a wary species that is hard to locate. It flew close to us but was in the shadows. I took a couple of shots anyway and they looked terrible. But, using Photoshop, I was able to rescue this photo and it turned out to be quite an interesting shot.

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