Casey, our old yellow Lab, needs to step out a couple of times each night to answer nature’s call. Taking him outside has become my nightly routine. I don’t mind it. In Hovland, we have silent nights and the dark sky sparkles with thousands of stars. While Casey totters about the backyard, I stand there and take it all in.
Casey, our old yellow Lab, needs to step out a couple of times each night to answer nature’s call. Taking him outside has become my nightly routine. I don’t mind it. In Hovland, we have silent nights and the dark sky sparkles with thousands of stars. While Casey totters about the backyard, I stand there and take it all in.
In recent weeks, I’ve heard single chirps overhead in the darkness. At first I thought it was the sound of hunting bats, but after listening to them for a few nights it was apparent the chirps were made by passing birds. An email to a birder friend confirmed the single-note chirps were most likely made by migrating songbirds, which often fly at night. They chirp to maintain contact with one another in the dark.
What’s remarkable is that I’ve heard chirps every night since mid August. The sheer scale of this songbird migration is astounding. Overhead, unbeknownst to most of us, is a seemingly endless stream of small birds flying south. Do we truly appreciate or protect this amazing natural resource?
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Also visible along the North Shore now are migrating hawks, which follow the shoreline rather than flying across the expanse of Lake Superior. While many raptors soar the updrafts high above the ridges, others pass over just above the trees. When working in the yard during September, I am treated to a constant procession of passing hawks.
The best place to view the birds is at Duluth’s Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, where raptor experts and naturalists are on hand to answer your questions and help you find and identify the birds. Hawks are captured and banded there, giving you the opportunity to view them up close. You are likely to see hawks anytime from mid August through the end of October, especially on days when the wind is from the northwest.The migration peak in the latter half of September. For more information, check out the website www.HawkRidge.org.
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Along the North Shore this fall you may be better off bird watching than bird hunting. Endless rains during the spring and summer appear to have decimated grouse reproduction. Folks who are out and about in Cook County, including me, are seeing very few birds. This is very discouraging, because last fall was the first year I had “Ok” hunting since the population crashed early in the decade. In fact, I had the poorest grouse hunting in my lifetime (hunting every year since the mid 60s) in 2005 and 2006.
Maybe it will be better where you hunt, though hunters were “grousing” about low bird numbers across the grouse range in 2007. Due to the wet spring in many areas, we may not be able to put much stock in drumming counts this year. The drumming counts are a tally of the breeding population, but autumn grouse abundance is based upon nesting success.