June 7, 2015 - Bird Photos

Here are some bird photos I took this spring. Yellow-headed Blackbirds are not as common as Red-winged Blackbirds. Both species like the same habitat: marshy edges of ponds and lakes with a good stand of cattails. This is a male Yellow-headed Blackbird. I took this photo in Cohasset, MN, a reliable place to find these birds.

BlackbirdYellowheadedmaleCohasset20150506

Como Lake in St. Paul, MN, is a good place to spot migrating waterfowl in the spring. I saw this beautiful male Wood Duck when I went to Como Lake in late April.

DuckWoodmaleLakeComoPaul20150428

There were several Ring-billed Gulls at Como Lake. This one did some fishing and came up with a nice meal. The fish looks like a small Crappie.

GullRingbilledwithfishLakeComoPaul20150428

These male Mallards were taking a snooze on a large rock near the parking area at Como Lake.

MallardmalesleepingLakeComoPaul20150428

At our lake home in northern Minnesota, migrant birds have returned for the summer and are now setting up their nesting territories. We have several Common Grackles that show up at our feeders. Grackles are not the most popular birds, but I’m always impressed by their iridescent colors.

GrackleCommonDunningLakeBovey20150425

This male Purple Finch is another summer resident at our lake home. He’s very colorful, but the female is much plainer. If you imagine all the red on this bird changing to white, that’s what a female would look like. We usually get several pairs of Purple Finches nesting around our home. Later in the summer their newly hatched fledglings join them at our feeders and they become our most numerous species.

FinchPurplemaleDunningLakeBovey20150425