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The winter plods on...
Jan. 31st, 2022 12:27 pmThis writing was slightly delayed, owing to illness in the past week. However, there was no shortage of lively activity since the last update. With each passing week, this winter seems more like the winters of old, when severe cold would stay around for long periods of time. I should note that this is more perception than reality. According to data, this winter is not really much different than an average one by the standards of the upper Midwest. There has been a slightly above average snowfall and the amount of cold is so far about average for a winter as well. But the last two years were generally milder, so even a normal winter seems out of place after a 2-year respite.
There have been several novel sightings at the feeder recently. Let me preface this by saying that there have been a few more severe cold snaps. This often brings new wildlife into the feeders. And that is what happened this time. I had my first sighting of pine siskins, just as I predicted might happen in the event of a return of severe cold. So far there are not many of them, and other varieties of finches are much more common. We have hordes of finches everyday, but most of them are the more common varieties of goldfinches and house finches. However, we have also had redpolls in, and in the past week were also the first sightings of the hoary redpoll, which is a paler version of the same species. I'm pleased that my guesses about visitors to the feeder came true. Oftentimes it's just a matter of watching and waiting.
All of the regulars have still been coming into the feeder as well. The deer are getting bolder. It took quite a while after hunting season was finished before they were comfortable enough to come when it was still daylight. But finally that occurred. In particular, there's still an 8 point buck, and a large number of does. Several of them seem to be pregnant. There is also a smaller buck with half a rack that comes in sometimes as well. This is not always a good thing. The other night they annoyed me greatly by coming in several times in the middle of the night. The outside yellow lamps with motion sensors would kick on repeatedly. I found it hard to sleep through this as I am photosensitive. They keep trying to get up to the hanging feeders, as they know there is abundant seed there, but they're not quite able to make it. But it doesn't stop them trying.
The turkeys are now very clearly entering mating season. Today I heard the first gobbling of spring. There were at least two males among a number of females. Their faces have turned bright blue and they are displaying very aggressively. This will go on for months. There is one large Tom that comes in alone. He is an older tom with a large beard, and he is aggressive. He will not tolerate any company. The turkeys are daily visitors. At times, they will have standoffs with the deer. The does will sometimes get intimidated by the large flock of turkeys. The deer around here seem to be skittish anyway and around the turkeys they are always at least tense. For what it's worth the turkeys don't seem to be very enthused about the deer either. The turkeys also chase off the crows who come into forage in the morning. The crows begin at the top of the valley and work their way down to the highway over the course of the day. There are far more of them than there were in the Western Suburbs of Minneapolis.
As for rare visitors, there was also an evening grosbeak recently. I had not seen one since I stayed on the Gunflint Trail in spring of 2016. Really I don't often think of seeing them here, in these latitudes, and I almost wouldn't have believed it, except that they have been reported around this area. Mainly when I have seen them it was up around the Brainerd Lakes area or even farther north. In the Western Suburbs, sightings of rose-breasted grosbeaks were fairly common however, but this was much more of a springtime thing -- they would often check in right around the same time in May every year, and sometimes again in September migrating the other way. Given the cold I had also hoped to maybe see a northern shrike, but that is one visitor we have not had yet. All the birds of prey are the usual ones expected around here. Just the other day I saw the bald eagle who lives in this valley soaring in the bright sunshine.
Something that crossed my mind is the migrations of water birds. Just how much migration does occur these days? I'm skeptical that a large portion of our water birds really go south. I have not been down to the St. Croix River in some time, but The areas of the river that were open earlier in the year have now iced over. Yesterday I was on a short trip with a friend. That probably warrants an entry of its own but we did briefly cross the Mississippi River along with one of its tributaries, the Crow. The Crow is also iced over, but the Mississippi River north of here was free of ice. There were large numbers of swans, geese and ducks in the open areas. This would explain the large number of these that were observed foraging for waste corn in the farm fields or congregating in fields along the banks of the Crow River. It seems that there are large endemic populations and they don't bother to go south if they can help it. This would match my observation of ducks around the Minnehaha Creek area, I would often see them flying at dusk even in the middle of winter when it seemed there was no open water. Well there was, I just didn't know exactly where.
We are now entering the tail end of January. The pattern this year has been a fairly monotonous up and down roller coaster ride. Mild spells will be followed pretty reliably by frigid ones lasting days. This is in fact the pattern that has held since November, albeit getting worse. The only major difference now that we have crossed the meteorological midwinter point is that the lows are not quite as low as they were then. A moderation is coming but seems glacially slow, and given the unremitting pattern I am kind of over this winter. Even the soggy, slushy and muddy conditions of the Pisces season will probably seem like an improvement. As I have slogged through this rather tedious winter, at least the novelties of wildlife never really let up. In not too long, it will be 3 months that I've lived here, and already a pretty lively and varied wildlife has been observed.
There have been several novel sightings at the feeder recently. Let me preface this by saying that there have been a few more severe cold snaps. This often brings new wildlife into the feeders. And that is what happened this time. I had my first sighting of pine siskins, just as I predicted might happen in the event of a return of severe cold. So far there are not many of them, and other varieties of finches are much more common. We have hordes of finches everyday, but most of them are the more common varieties of goldfinches and house finches. However, we have also had redpolls in, and in the past week were also the first sightings of the hoary redpoll, which is a paler version of the same species. I'm pleased that my guesses about visitors to the feeder came true. Oftentimes it's just a matter of watching and waiting.
All of the regulars have still been coming into the feeder as well. The deer are getting bolder. It took quite a while after hunting season was finished before they were comfortable enough to come when it was still daylight. But finally that occurred. In particular, there's still an 8 point buck, and a large number of does. Several of them seem to be pregnant. There is also a smaller buck with half a rack that comes in sometimes as well. This is not always a good thing. The other night they annoyed me greatly by coming in several times in the middle of the night. The outside yellow lamps with motion sensors would kick on repeatedly. I found it hard to sleep through this as I am photosensitive. They keep trying to get up to the hanging feeders, as they know there is abundant seed there, but they're not quite able to make it. But it doesn't stop them trying.
The turkeys are now very clearly entering mating season. Today I heard the first gobbling of spring. There were at least two males among a number of females. Their faces have turned bright blue and they are displaying very aggressively. This will go on for months. There is one large Tom that comes in alone. He is an older tom with a large beard, and he is aggressive. He will not tolerate any company. The turkeys are daily visitors. At times, they will have standoffs with the deer. The does will sometimes get intimidated by the large flock of turkeys. The deer around here seem to be skittish anyway and around the turkeys they are always at least tense. For what it's worth the turkeys don't seem to be very enthused about the deer either. The turkeys also chase off the crows who come into forage in the morning. The crows begin at the top of the valley and work their way down to the highway over the course of the day. There are far more of them than there were in the Western Suburbs of Minneapolis.
As for rare visitors, there was also an evening grosbeak recently. I had not seen one since I stayed on the Gunflint Trail in spring of 2016. Really I don't often think of seeing them here, in these latitudes, and I almost wouldn't have believed it, except that they have been reported around this area. Mainly when I have seen them it was up around the Brainerd Lakes area or even farther north. In the Western Suburbs, sightings of rose-breasted grosbeaks were fairly common however, but this was much more of a springtime thing -- they would often check in right around the same time in May every year, and sometimes again in September migrating the other way. Given the cold I had also hoped to maybe see a northern shrike, but that is one visitor we have not had yet. All the birds of prey are the usual ones expected around here. Just the other day I saw the bald eagle who lives in this valley soaring in the bright sunshine.
Something that crossed my mind is the migrations of water birds. Just how much migration does occur these days? I'm skeptical that a large portion of our water birds really go south. I have not been down to the St. Croix River in some time, but The areas of the river that were open earlier in the year have now iced over. Yesterday I was on a short trip with a friend. That probably warrants an entry of its own but we did briefly cross the Mississippi River along with one of its tributaries, the Crow. The Crow is also iced over, but the Mississippi River north of here was free of ice. There were large numbers of swans, geese and ducks in the open areas. This would explain the large number of these that were observed foraging for waste corn in the farm fields or congregating in fields along the banks of the Crow River. It seems that there are large endemic populations and they don't bother to go south if they can help it. This would match my observation of ducks around the Minnehaha Creek area, I would often see them flying at dusk even in the middle of winter when it seemed there was no open water. Well there was, I just didn't know exactly where.
We are now entering the tail end of January. The pattern this year has been a fairly monotonous up and down roller coaster ride. Mild spells will be followed pretty reliably by frigid ones lasting days. This is in fact the pattern that has held since November, albeit getting worse. The only major difference now that we have crossed the meteorological midwinter point is that the lows are not quite as low as they were then. A moderation is coming but seems glacially slow, and given the unremitting pattern I am kind of over this winter. Even the soggy, slushy and muddy conditions of the Pisces season will probably seem like an improvement. As I have slogged through this rather tedious winter, at least the novelties of wildlife never really let up. In not too long, it will be 3 months that I've lived here, and already a pretty lively and varied wildlife has been observed.
