Birds Battling the Blizzard

Today was one of those days that we knew ahead of time we’d be coming home early from school.  A blizzard warning was forecast to begin at 11 AM.  Interestingly the skies were crystal clear today, but the 40 MPH winds created a ground blizzard with white-outs and drifting across rural roads.  As soon as I was released from school I took a drive out to the house of one of my coworkers who excitedly called me this morning to report she had a Snowy Owl along her 1/2 mile-long driveway.  I went to check it out, but the bird was long gone.

So I then picked up Marin and the two of us went on to pick up Evan from school.  I walked into school and found a beaming Evan who excitedly dug in his back-pack to pull out the special envelope from the school nurse that contained the tooth he lost that day! It was definitely an exciting moment and fun to listen to the slight change in speech in Evan who now has two holes in his face.

Since we were already in town, I decided we would head out to the city airport because Randy had found a Snowy Owl out there the previous evening.  We simply had to check it out.  We found the owl no problem as it was right where Randy described it – on top of small knoll by a smashed grain bin out past the runways.  The great distance from the road and the blowing snow made it tough to even verify we were looking at a Snowy, but I was able to capture the Snowy’s essence in the photo below.

Snowy Owl at Willmar Municipal Airport

Snowy Owl at Willmar Municipal Airport

And since we were at the airport, we had to drive by the F-15 that is on display.  Evan also had to tell us about the different buildings he toured here with his Cub Scout den a few months ago.

U.S. Navy F-15 at Willmar Municipal Airport

U.S. Navy F-15 at Willmar Municipal Airport

You can see from the flags above just how windy it was today.  On the way home we spotted a rooster pheasant right near our home that was fighting this wind with all his might just to find something to eat by the road.

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Rooster (male) Ring-necked Pheasant

The kids didn’t see the rooster on the first pass, so I had to turn the car around and go back.  Now the rooster was on Evan’s side, so he saw it easily.  But Marin, on the opposite side and strapped into a car seat, could not see it and was sure to tell us as much. “Where? I can’t seeeee!”  So I had to turn the car around again so it was on her side, but that turkey of a rooster came right up by the car and Marin couldn’t see it when she looked out her window.  Finally it ran away from the road giving her a view.  I had to drive back and forth on the shoulder several times to jockey for position to give the kids a view and to try to take a picture of this bird struggling with the wind.IMG_6541

Evan was much more excited to see this rooster than the Snowy Owl earlier.  I think he was in awe of this bird’s splendor as the sun hit its breast when he exclaimed, “Look at that RED chest!”  I never get tired of seeing roosters either.  They are one of my favorite birds.  It was a nice bonus bird for this unplanned birding outing.

Rooster Ring-necked Pheasant

A Typical Monday: Errands, Lessons, and a Snowy Owl Check-up

I am fortunate to teach at a school with a four-day school week, which means that I have several Mondays off.  These days are often a chance for me to catch up on some projects and just hang out with Marin.  Today was no different as Marin and I got not one, but two oil changes done, and we shopped for the groceries too.  Marin was an absolute trooper always keeping herself entertained wherever we went.  At the car dealership she and I played with toy cars in the their playroom, and at the store she “helped” me shop.

I also like Mondays because I’m able to drive Evan to and from school.  It’s nice for him to be able to sleep in a little longer on these days.  After Marin and I picked up Evan from school, we went to Evan’s piano lesson.  Again Marin was a trooper as she was dragged along to something else. This time she played her Kindle and danced to the live band that was playing at the coffee shop where we waited.

After piano I decided to take advantage of the increasing amount of daylight to go look for our resident Snowy Owl with the kids.  I’ve made several checks on this owl in the last month to keep tabs on it, and I have seen it and reported it a number of times.  Most of the time, though, I’m by myself or with other birders so I don’t write about it on this blog.  It has been fun to have a Snowy Owl so close to home – just 12 miles away.  Every time I go out looking for it, it’s like a big game of “Where’s Waldo?” since it’s never in the same place and it blends in with the white landscape.  Sometimes I find it perched on the ground in fields, sitting on irrigators, or perched up nicely on a powerline pole.  Today was a pole day as we found it right away in beautiful light with clear blue skies, no less. Unfortunately, it flushed from the pole as soon as I pulled safely onto the shoulder, and it landed on a nearby Morton building.  My photos were taken from nearly 75 yards, but I managed to get some fun ones without disturbing the owl.  While these owls frequently perch on buildings and houses, this was the first time I’d witnessed it.

Our Resident Snowy Owl

Our Resident Snowy Owl

This owl has been significant for many birders. A couple of my friends finally saw their Kandiyohi County Snowy Owl with this one.  In fact, Joel had been waiting for over a decade to see one in our county. For many others, this was simply a Snowy Owl life bird.  And other, hard-core birders known as county listers – those who keep a list of birds for each of Minnesota’s 87 counties – have made the trip to see this owl because Kandiyohi has been a tough county in which to tally a Snowy. This owl has been very photogenic and has stuck around for well over a month now.  It definitely spices up the mundane winter birding around here.

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A wide-angle shot for my mom...and Morton Buildings

A wide-angle shot for my mom…and Morton Buildings

I don’t know how long we will get to enjoy the company of this magnificent owl.  This has been an historic year for Snowy Owls across the country as they have invaded the northern states in droves.  Who knows when we will ever see another winter like this one.  Therefore I’m going to soak up the experience of our resident Snowy by visiting it often and doing my part as a citizen scientist to document its continued presence on eBird.org.  As fun as it’s been for the kids to see these owls (numerous times), I don’t think they fully appreciate or understand the significance of this phenomenon.  Maybe someday they can look back at these posts and see just how cool of a time this was.

Chasing the Long-tailed Duck by Evan

First my Dad found out about the duck on his email.  We found the duck on the Mississippi River in Sartell, MN.  And it was PRETTY cold!!

Dam across the Mississippi River in Sartell, Minnesota

Dam across the Mississippi River in Sartell, Minnesota

There were other ducks there too…Common Goldeneyes about 30 and Mallards about 95.

Common Goldeneye Drakes

Common Goldeneye Drakes

It was our second try to find this duck.  There were 2 other people with me – dad and Marin. And I got to skip school!  And I got to spend over an hour in the car.

Evan and Marin looking through the Common Goldeneyes for the Long-tailed Duck

Evan and Marin looking to find the Long-tailed Duck among the Common Goldeneyes

And it was hard to see because it goes under the water all the time!

The Long-tailed Duck was difficult to spot!

The Long-tailed Duck was difficult to spot!

Long-tailed Duck

The Long-tailed Duck is formerly known as the Oldsquaw

Long-tailed Duck

This Long-tailed Duck was first discovered by Herb Dingmann on January 29th.  Herb showed up to point the duck out to us or we never would have found it!

Then we watched the movie Nut Job in a theater.

Evan the Blogger

Evan the Blogger

 

 

Editor’s Note: Evan wrote this post himself. The title, word choices, punctuation, and points of emphasis are his. My involvement was helping him do a pre-writing activity to brainstorm the facts. I also wrote the captions for the pictures.