Dec. 20, 2015 - Birds Seen This Fall

Here are some bird photos I took this fall and didn’t have room to share earlier.

On October 24, we had an early snowfall in the Twin Cities. I knew there were lots of crab apples left on the trees in Central Park in Roseville, Minnesota. This male Northern Cardinal was one of several birds taking advantage of the fruit buffet.

CardinalNortherncrabapplesCentralParkRoseville20151024

I was birding near our home in northern Minnesota and came across this adult Bald Eagle sitting in a tree along Hwy 7. It was scanning the nearby fields looking for something it could catch for its next meal.

EagleBaldScenicHwyjustnorthBalsamStoreItascaCounty20151121

Common Redpolls are annual winter visitors to Minnesota. Some have arrived already, but so far there haven’t been reports of large flocks of them. This photo was taken on Itasca County Road 72 when I was out birding.

RedpollCommonItascaCountyRoad20151121

In the middle of November, my friend Shawn and I were birding near Lake Winnibigoshish (usually just referred to as “Winnie”) and we saw this Bohemian Waxwing at one of the resorts along the lake. It was all by itself; usually we find a whole flock of Bohemians when we see them.

WaxwingBohemianWilliamsNarrowsResortItascaCounty20151114

This American Robin showed up in our yard in northern Minnesota at the end of November. That’s kind of late but not unheard of. Some years, if there is food available, you can find Robins all winter in northern Minnesota.

RobinAmericanDunningLakeItascaCounty20151128

Here’s a Fox Sparrow in our yard around the middle of October. Most of them have migrated south already. However, I’m participating in the Grand Rapids Christmas Bird Count today and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone in our group sees some Fox Sparrows.

SparrowFoxDunningLakeItascaCounty20151018

Each fall, during deer hunting season, I go to the local butcher and get some deer ribs that are discarded after the deer are processed. I hang them in our yard and all our winter birds love eating off the ribs. A bonus for us is that the local Pileated Woodpeckers start showing up for the feast. It almost seems like they have figured out when deer ribs appear in our yard. We’ll start seeing them right around the first of November, just before the hunting season. Because this bird has a black mustache, it is a female Pileated. A male would have a red mustache.

WoodpeckerPileatedfemaleDunningLakeItascaCounty20151120