Crane Lake Nature Blog

Red Crossbills

Beautiful Red Crossbills on the Echo Trail. The bright green/yellow Crossbill is a female.

Hermit Thrush

I found this very animated Hermit Thrush down the Echo Trail the other day. Their song is one of the most beautiful birdsongs. Their flute-like voice can be heard through out the woods up north. One of our most common birds that are most often heard, but not seen. They are known skulkers and rarely come out and show themselves.

Voyageurs National Park’s Moose population is holding steady.

http://www.nps.gov/voya/parknews/voyageurs-national-park-completes-2013-moose-population-survey.htm

Spring migration is underway with new birds arriving in northern Minnesota every day.

One bird that migrates out of the Crane Lake area in the dead of winter is the American Crow. At Crane Lake they have historically left the area in December and then returned the end of February. Many Crows just migrate to southern Minnesota and some winter as close as the Iron Range. In the winter here, the Crow is replaced by huge Ravens that migrate down from Canada and spend the winter around Crane Lake. Some of the local Ravens don’t migrate and will hang around their nest sites to defend their territory.

Prior to this winter, I thought the only big black birds here in the winter were the Common Ravens, but this year I had a pair of Crows visiting the birdfeeders in my backyard. I believe this pair of Crows nest on the island and I think they decided to stay in their territory to protect their nest site. I’ve watched them survive the weather by eating sunflower seeds. They’re probably finding other scraps of food in the area too, but it’s curious to watch them gulp down whole sunflower seeds.

A flock of Crows is called a “murder of Crows” and a flock of Ravens is called an “unkindness”. Such descriptions are interesting to me and maybe it suggests that these birds are not well-liked. Some superstitions that are negative in tone involve Crows, Ravens, and even Owls.

So I saw a joke on the internet this winter that would describe this photo of my two “yard” crows:

Attempted Murder

 ”ATTEMPTED MURDER”

American White Pelicans are making a comeback according to the DNR’s latest press release. The big white birds that are loafing on the rock islands and floating on the big lakes of Voyageurs National Park are Pelicans! A bird that was rarely seen until recent history.

American White Pelican, photo by Doug Stone

In the spring of the year, Pelicans develope a big orange flap on the top of their big orange bill. Both males and females grow this flap in the springtime. Later in the summer the flap is gone. No one really knows why the flap grows or what it’s purpose is. Only a Pelican knows for sure!

http://news.dnr.state.mn.us/2013/04/05/pelicans-return-to-minnesota-after-near-extinction-2/

Nothing says winter in northern Minnesota like our very special northern Owls that move down into Minnesota in the winter time.

Northern Hawk Owl

Like this Northern Hawk Owl. I got these photos a couple years ago when there was a Hawk Owl irruption. Many Hawk Owls were moving south that winter and they were plentiful around northern St Louis County.

Northern Hawk Owl “false eyes”

Some species of Owl have what are called “false eyes” on the back of their head. I wonder why some Owls have them.

Northern Hawk Owl

Lots of Redpolls are at birdfeeders in Minnesota this winter. These tiny birds of the Finch family sometimes completely overwhelm area birdfeeders and can occur in flocks of 100+ birds. There are two species of Redpoll that occur in Minnesota; the Common and the Hoary Redpoll. Within those two species are several sub-species. Here is a link to a fantastic article about how to identify the various species and sub-species. The article is about Redpolls in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is our close neighbor to the north.

http://aba.org/nab/v65n2redpolls.pdf

White-winged Crossbills visit the feeder.

I couldn’t believe it when I saw 3 unfamiliar birds mixed in with the usual feeder birds.

There were 3 White-winged Crossbills visiting the platform feeder along with the Redpolls and Pine Grosbeak.

White-winged Crossbill

They look very similar to a Pine Grosbeak, but they’re about 2/3 the size.

White-winged Crossbill

The White-winged Crossbill is much more colorful than their cousin, the Red Crossbill.

Red Crossbills are more of a brick red color – the White-winged is the same red color as a Pine Grosbeak. All these birds are of the Finch family and they mostly eat seeds year round.

White-winged Crossbill, male

Both species of Crossbill are unique in that the upper and lower mandibles of their beak actually cross, as you can see in this photo. This adaptation makes extracting seeds out of cones easier.

Crossbill, white-winged

In fact, I’ve read, that some Crossbills’ beaks cross from right to left, while others’ cross left to right. Some are left-handed and use their left foot to hold the cone and aid them in their extraction, whereas some would be deemed right-handed as their bill crosses the opposite way and they use their right foot to hold the cone.

White-winged Crossbill, female

The female is an interesting color, kind of a rusty red and very streaky.

White-wing Crossbill, female

 Both sexes have the broad white wing bars and white tips on the tertial feathers.

white tertial tips

The White-winged Crossbill at the back of this photo who has his back to the camera shows the white tertial tips. They look, to me, like buttons on a vest.

There are lots of Redpolls around the birdfeeders this year. And usually if you look closely there will be one Redpoll in the flock that looks a lot whiter. That could be a another species of Redpoll called a Hoary Redpoll. It seems there are many Hoary Redpolls around Minnesota this winter.

Hoary Redpoll

Hoary Redpoll and Common Redpoll

In this photo there is a Hoary Redpoll and a Common Redpoll together. Hoary males will have less red on their breast than a Common and the Hoary has a stubbier beak, but that’s hard to see unless you are really close. Hoary’s also have a whiter rump and very few streaks on their flanks.

So the next time a flock of Redpolls fly into your feeders, see if you can see the difference.

Today on the MOU (MN Ornithologists Union) listserve, a discussion was started about birds mimicking other bird calls. The European Starling is famous for its’ ability to imitate many other birds, in fact, a Starling can be taught to talk (although, they’re really just mimicking) – just search for it in YouTube and you will find many videos out there.

The Starling is an exotic bird that was brought to the new world from Europe in the 1700s. They will imitate Peewees, Robins, Pine Siskins, House Sparrows (another exotic), Killdeer, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-bellied Woodpecker among others.

Blue Jay

Another bird that makes use of mimicking is the Blue Jay, which is a native bird. The first time that someone told me that a Blue Jay can do a perfect imitation of a Broad-winged Hawk, I was skeptical. But then that fall, when I heard the whistle of a Broad-winged Hawk, instead of seeing a Hawk, there was a Blue Jay flying by and I could see that it was the Jay that was making the noise.

So here I was sitting in my office one day with the windows open, when suddenly I heard the call of a Bald Eagle. Now if you know the call of a Bald Eagle, it is a rather weak and sounds a lot like a Seagull, not the stately call that you would think a bird of that stature would make. Anyhow, this Bald Eagle sounded really close so I looked out to see if I could see it. The only thing I saw was a Blue Jay and he was opening and closing his beak at the same time I was hearing the Eagle — it was the Blue Jay making the call!

On the listserve this day, people commented that Blue Jay make many mimicking calls and can imitate Red-shouldered Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Osprey, along with the Broad-winged Hawk and Bald Eagle. Notice they are all raptors? I’m sure the Blue Jay has found that their mimicking abilities give them an advantage in many ways. One way they use their skill is to scare all the little birds away from a bird feeder so they can pig-out!

Blue Jays love peanuts!