Crane Lake Nature Blog

Swamp Laurel

or ”Bog Laurel”.

Pink Moccasin Orchid

Hookers Orchid

Hookers Orchid "up close"

"Canadian" Flower Garden

Blue-headed Vireo on nest

It started out with finding this Blue-headed Vireo sitting on the nest that I found a few days ago!  see this post: http://visitcranelake.com/blog/?p=1682

This morning I watched a Hairy Woodpecker feeding a recently fledged baby Woodpecker. She would go to the peanut feeder and retrieve a peanut, crush it up a little, and then she would climb up the tree to a young chick that was hiding in the upper branches.

I had been watching the Woodpeckers going to the suet feeder and gathering food and carrying it away so I knew there was a nest close by, but I couldn’t find it. I figured when the babies fledged they’d bring their new young ones to the backyard feeders and today was the day they showed up.

Hairy Woodpecker feeding juvenile

Last summer I took this photo on the 26th of June, this year the Hairy’s maybe were able to nest a few weeks earlier than normal.

Blackburnian Warbler

Another bird that is nesting nearby in the Spruce trees that border the yard is the Blackburnian Warbler. This spectacular little Warbler has a high warbly call that I could hear being repeated incessantly. His song wafted through the open windows the other day and my curiosity got the best of me so I went out to try and find him. The Spruce trees where he has been calling from are densely situated so it’s hard to see what could be hiding in there. I snuck around beneath the trees with my binoculars trying to see the bird (and to make sure that was the bird that was calling). I could locate the particular tree that he was in, but trying to spot the brightly colored bird was another story, he was doing a really good job at hiding. I didn’t want to disturb him,so I didn’t phish or anything to try and draw him out. At one point I saw something tiny fly by and I thought to myself, was that a big bug or was it a bird?, then I could hear him calling from another treetop. Once again he eluded me and my binoculars. Then I thought I need to get around to the other side of the trees where the sun was shining. And finally there he was - singing his little “ssee-ssee-ssee” song just as proud as could be.

Now, yesterday, when I got home I didn’t hear his little call and I thought maybe he had moved on to another Spruce stand where there might be more birds. I got a little bummed out thinking maybe my trees weren’t good enough. But alas, this morning - there he was singing his heart out again - in the rain, I might add. Make my Day!!!

Vermilion River

I got up early to head out to Franklin Lake. It was a cool morning and the fog was hanging over the calm river at the bridge on the 491 Forest Road.

Blackburnian Warbler

 I drove along slowly with my windows down (and the heat on!) so I could listen to the birdsong. There was quite the racket going on!

Wild Calla Lily

Swamp Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow

It was a great weekend for Warbler watching. The weather was perfect in the woods early Saturday morning, the sun was out and the winds were relatively calm. The new arrivals were exuberant in their excitement of being back on their breeding territories - the woods were alive with birdsong.

Mocassin Flower

I was at my favorite trail, the Astrid Lake trails that go south from Lake Jeanette, on the bog walk. The Mocassin flowers are blooming along with many other wildflowers.

I was with 3 friends from Nelson’s: Judy, Charlie, and Juanita and we were looking for the boreal specialties that occur in this habitat.

Connecticut Warbler

We were thrilled to find some really good birds this day, among them was the Connecticut Warbler. His ringing warbling song reverberated through the woods - it was clearly the loudest song in the forest! Other birds that we found were:

• Blue-headed Vireo
• Boreal Chickadee
• Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
• Cape May Warbler
• Winter Wren
• Nashville Warbler
• Red-breasted Nuthatch
• Common Goldeneye with chicks

• 

  Labrador Tea

The bog plants are coming to life and taking advantage of the short growing season.

Alder Flycatcher

Later we went back to a different area with an alder swale and picked up an Alder Flycatcher and a Black and White Warbler. We also had great looks at a Black-billed Cuckoo.

The number of new birds arriving in Crane Lake is on the rise in a big way. It seems all the birds came back over night. Like this Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

A fitting name for a handsome little warbler that sports Chestnut colored feathering on either side of his breast. The bold yellow cap brings attention to him.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

His cheerful little song brings joy to the woods: please, please, pleased to meet ya; and is repeated over and over.

Nest

I took a little break, when I got back to my car,  and while sipping on some coffee I spied this nest hanging on a small Jack Pine.

Red-eyed Vireo nest

It was beautifully crafted out of small strands of Birch bark. It looked to me like the nest of a Red-eyed Vireo. For a bird that spends most of its time in the canopy of the forest trees, they surprisingly build their nests very low to the ground. I don’t think this nest was occupied and was probably still here from last year.

Nashville Warbler

and some Warblers are extremely hard to photograph. The Nashville Warbler is one of those Warblers that are extremely hard to get. They’re flying all over the place, never sitting still. And if they are still for a split second, they’re usually way up in the tree top.

Nashville Warbler

One thing nice about this time of year, is that the leaves are not fully leafed-out.

Black & White Warbler

As far as Warblers go, the Black & White Warbler is probably the easiest to photograph.

Black and White Warbler

Sometimes they’ll just sit there and look at you.

Cape May Warbler

The Cape May Warbler is another challenge. They don’t really like to descend from the cover of the conifers.

I do really like the Latin name for this bird, Dendroica tigrina, it refers to the bright orange cheek patch on the side of the Warbler’s head like the orange of a tiger. Now that’s a fitting name!

Parula americana

This little Wood-warbler is one of a few birds that has the same common and scientific name and that is the Parula. There are two species of Parula; the Tropical and the Northern. Bonaparte is credited with naming the bird and in Latin the name would be translated as parus, “a titmouse”; and -ula meaning “little”, a diminutive suffix, hence “little titmouse”. The second part of the Parula scientific name is americana, which refers to American.

The other Parula species, the Tropical, only occurs south of the U.S. border. Both of these species are part of a bigger family called the Parulidae - and that includes all the Wood-warblers.

Northern Parula

The Wood-warblers are coming back to northern Minnesota and Crane Lake in droves.

Northern Parula

May is a lovely time of year and it seems like each new day brings a new bird back from the tropics.

Northern Parula by Cathy Ramberg

Canada Anemone photo by Cathy Ramberg