Crane Lake Nature Blog

Northern Hawk Owl

This Hawk Owl was just south of Orr on Highway 53. He was at the very top of a tall Spruce tree - I’d say the tree was about 70 feet tall. It was a nice bright sunny day so I pulled over and got a few shots.

Northern Hawk Owl profile

The Owl was looking all around, he was very actively hunting. I didn’t see him take anything, but he was very interested in what was going on across the highway. There had been some clearing done by the power line and there was a bulldozer over there smoothing out the ground. I’m thinking that the dozer might have been kicking up some small varmints that the Hawk Owl would find tasty.

Hawk Owl

Notice the big white stripe on the side of the head that make this Owl so distinctive. We’re having a major invasion of Hawk Owls this year - later on I saw two more Hawk Owls on my way home from Duluth on Hwy 7 in the Sax-Zim bog area.

Check out the latest from Meadowlands about the Sax-Zim Bird Festival February 12 - 14, 2010: http://www.moumn.org/sax-zim/.

Here is some great information from the DNR with locations of the Hunter Walking Trails around Minnesota.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/hwt/map.html

Just indicate which county in Minnesota you want to check out.

Thanks DNR!

p.s. Thank you County snowplow guys for plowing out the parking lot. You are the greatest!

If you haven’t already noticed, the Voyageur Sentinel newspaper is no longer. I don’t know what happened, but I know that a lot of folks really liked the “local” paper that represented our small communities in the middle of the north woods. The weekly publication will be missed by all.

Pine AND Evening Grosbeaks

I love these birds! And they are so nice to each other and feeding cooperatively.

Grosbeaks

Grouse Trail at Crane Lake

After this last snow, the backcountry trails around Crane Lake are ready for skiing and snowshoeing.

cross-country skiing

The Crane Lake Voyageur Trail was created by the DNR and the Ruffed Grouse society. It’s a non-motorized trail that’s intent is to maintain prime habitat for the Ruffed Grouse. The DNR has many of these type of “hunter” trails scattered throughout Minnesota. They don’t advertise their trails of this type so if you find a good one, it’s your secret. In the Fall the DNR will come through and brush out and mow the trail. They have created open areas back in the forest in places where young aspen are growing. These open areas are great habitat for Woodcock. There’s a big swamp area to the west of the trails and Snipe inhabit that area. I bet in the Spring of the year, after dark, this place is lively with displaying Woodcock and Snipe.

breakin a trail

a pretty steep hill

I’m celebrating the 500^th posting on my blog with this entry. What a milestone! I didn’t even realize that I was getting close to that.

You may wonder, what exactly is a “blog”? If you try to look that word up in the dictionary, they say there is no such word. So what does it mean? Back in 1997 the term Web Log originated, and in 1999 it got shortened to blog. This seems to happen to many words in computer lingo. According to Wikipedia, in 2007 there were 112 million blogs in the blogosphere. Most blogs are what are termed personal blogs where people use them as a reverse-chronological order diary. Many bloggers use the medium to express their personal or political opinions. And then there are travelogs, photologs and really an unlimited number of possibilities exist. Anyone can start a blog with the free software that’s available. I got started at www.blogger.com. But how do blogs make money? And why do people do it? Some bloggers have resorted to advertising on their blogs while other bloggers are hired by companies to help them market a brand or product. Many people do it just for fun.

Social Media has become very popular with folks out there doing “microblogging”, and for that there are popular applications like Facebook and Twitter. (you can follow me on Twitter @ user name Deebirder) Just like our lives are moving faster everyday, microblogging software only lets you blurt out short sentences to express yourself. Twitter allows a tweet to be 140 characters - this forces you to think out your messages in a condensed manner and to use abbreviations.

Pine Grosbeaks

 My blog started out as a personal account of everyday life in a remote northern location, but now it has evolved into more of a promotional blog for the wonderful area in which I live and work. The blog is featured on the www.visitcranelake.com website where people, that may visit in the future, can read about the many little details that the area has to offer. There’s always something happening in the Crane Lake area and bringing attention to these special places is what keeps me motivated. I try to only blog about Voyageurs National Park and the Superior National Forest for these are the areas that border the Town of Crane Lake. The changing seasons and interesting wildlife are a good consistent source of material. Although at times, like in the late fall, finding things to blog about can be a challenge. This fall some writers that maintained excellent blogs retired. It’s a bummer to suddenly have an inspiring blog fall to the wayside, but it happens.

 It’s interesting to look back at the early posts of my blog, starting back in May 2006. In fact a little history about Crane Lake and the internet would be in order here. Back in the 90’s, when personal computers were becoming a way of life, being literally at the “end of the road” in Crane Lake was quite a hindrance. Accessing the newly emerging world-wide web was only a fantasy for us. In order for us Crane Lakers to use the internet, we had to call up servers that were far away, and we had to pay long-distance phone charges. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that we finally got a local dial-up connection. Then we could surf the web for hours without having to pay for the extra phone charges. Although it was slow, we were excited to be part of the larger more technically advanced world. Then it all broke loose when in the summer of 2002, we were able to get DSL high speed connections. Yippee! I was the first person to get the line in Crane Lake and now it’s all history.

Northern Shrike

This Shrike just hit the window. He was stunned for a little bit, but he was able to fly off. A couple of Chickadees followed him into the woods, scolding all the way. This bird is a good example of the barring on the breast of the Northern Shrike. That is a good field mark when trying to distinguish the Northern from the Loggerhead Shrike. I think the strong barring also indicates a young bird, evidently one that’s not familiar with windows - until today.

Hawk Owl silhouette

I still can’t believe my good fortune the other day when I “re-found” the Hawk Owl. The day had started out ordinary enough, and later on in the afternoon I went for a quick walk to check on a neighbor’s residence per their request. I had decided not to take along my binoculars as there wasn’t much action going on. It was the afternoon of December 5th and as soon as I was out in the front yard 3 Swans flew over, honking and looking for open water. I knew right then that I should run back and get my bins, but instead I kept on trudging through the snow.

After a bit I came across a familiar silhouette sitting in a tree by an open area under the power line. Auk!!! It’s my Hawk Owl!!! and I didn’t have my bins or my camera. I knew right then that instead of possibly spooking the bird I better just run home and get my camera. And that I did.

The Hawk Owl makes a striking silhouette and I can recognize that shape from quite a distance. Their bulky body shape and long tail are unmistakeable. It was late afternoon and the skies were a dull gray, the lighting was terrible for photography. 

Hawk Owl

Here’s the same photo, cropped and excessively brightened. I spent some time watching the Hawk Owl and taking lots of pictures. I would creep closer at every shot, being careful not to scare the Owl. I observed the Owl as he alertly watched flocks of Pine Grosbeaks fly over, and a couple of brave Chickadees came close and scolded the Owl. He didn’t move an inch and eventually the Chickadees moved on.  Finally I got pretty close as I climbed up a rock face so that we were on the same level. The temperature was only about 10 degrees above zero, but after my jog back to the house to get my camera, I was not cold. I sat out there close to an hour without any gloves as I never noticed or felt the cold.

Northern Hawk Owl

I think this is my favorite photo from the afternoon. The surroundings look very mysterious and kind of spooky.