A Sage Thrasher, a bird usually seen west of the Dakotas, has been hanging around the canoe racks on the northeast side of Lake Harriet. It first was found yesterday, and was seen again this morning. It has been foraging on the ground near the lake shore, perching on nearby trees, and sometimes feeding on last year’s crop of hackberries. The species has been seen in Minnesota before, about once every eight or 10 years.

Resident bird species are just getting into courtship, most migrants are yet to arrive, but Great Horned Owls have chicks in their nests. These young birds are perhaps two weeks from fledging — leaving the nest to begin their training for self-sufficiency. It will last into fall. Crowded into this nest, found in Burnsville yesterday, are one adult owl and two chicks. When it comes to being babies and cute, mammals have a real edge over birds.

A reader sent me this photo recently, asking, What is it? It’s a Domestic Mallard, sometimes all white with yellow-orange bill and legs. It’s also known as a Peking Duck. People raise them. Sometimes you’re seeing their livestock, sometimes an escaped bird. Interbreeding with wild ducks can cause puzzling plumages.

A Peregrine Falcon has returned to the Colonnade building in Golden Valley where falcons have nested for several years. It was seen this morning flying near the building, and later perched just above the location of the shallow box placed for nest use (15th floor, northeast corner). The building is in the northwest corner of the intersection of Highway 100 and I-394. The photo is of one of the falcons that nested there four years ago.  Â

Northern Flickers come in two flavors — yellow-shafted and red-shafted. The latter most often are seen west of the Great Plains. Here, we would expect to see yellow-shafted birds, like the one shown in the first two photos. It was in our backyard a couple of days ago, taking advantage of sunshine to do some grooming. The wing-feather shafts are yellow, as are the interior feathers of the wing. Tail feather shafts and the underside of the tail feathers also show yellow. You can see that in the photo taken last spring of three flickers engaged in some courtship action. The black mustache mark indicates a male bird.

The northwest corner of Nebraska and a bit of adjoining territory to the north in South Dakota are the only places on the continent were you have a chance to regularly see all three bluebird species — Eastern Bluebird, Western Bluebird, and Mountain Bluebird. The latter is what we are seeing the past two days in South Dakota’s Custer State Park. Pairs are establishing territories and choosing from the nest boxes set here on fence posts along the wildlife tour route. Below, a female Mountain Bluebird approaches a nest box. The male was foraging in the prairie grass nearby, where he found this grub. Eastern Bluebirds should be in Minnesota any minute now, if not already there. They are our nesting species.

 If you’re eager for spring and the return of waterfowl — something more sexy than our ubiquitous urban Mallards — you can get an early fix at the small lake immediately west of the Blackdog power plant. The lake is full of Common Mergansers. The plant is immediately east of the 35W bridge over the Minnesota River. There’s an exit off 35W as soon as you cross the bridge heading south. There are mergansers on the river, too, and there’s always a chance to find Bald Eagles there. A Belted Kingfisher recently was reported. The land is part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Watch for a parking area on the south side of Black Dog Road as you approach the plant from the west. A path leads to an observation platform that gives you good views of the lake and its birds. Binoculars and/or a spotting scope will be a big help. The mergansers in the photo are males. It’s not shown here, but there was a bit of courtship display by both male and female mergansers.

  Every winter a handful of Varied Thrushes stray east into Minnesota and beyond from their forest homes in the Pacific Northwest. These visitors feed on fruit. They often hang around a bountiful tree for days. At first glance, Varied Thrushes can be mistaken for robins; they’re often found feeding with robins, another bird that feeds on fruit. But the bold stripe at the top of its breast and the orange slash on the Varied Thrush’s head can’t be missed it you look again. The bird shown here was feeding in a crab apple tree in Roseville. It was photographed in a nearby cottonwood tree.

 White-winged Crossbills, a finch species of northern spruce forests, are being seen in many areas of Minnesota this winter, including the Twin Cities. Crossbills feed on the seeds found in spruce cones. The cone crop in Canada is poor this winter, so the birds have moved south in search of food. They’ve been seen in Minneapolis, Plymouth, Falcon Heights, Mendota Heights, Hastings, and Sherburne County, among other metro locations, and from Ely and Hibbing south to Fillmore and Houston counties. They’re being reported from all over. Any spruce tree with cones is a candidate for crossbills. The birds do indeed have mandibles that cross, allowing them to pry cone sections open so they can extract the seeds. These birds were photographed at the parking lot of the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce in Plymouth. The bird above is a female,  below a male.Â

 We took a road trip along the Mississippi River yesterday, looking mostly for eagles. We found seven Bald Eagles at the Colville Park marina on the south edge of Red Wing. There is excellent river access there, plus a few dozen mallards. Two more eagles were seen between Colville and Wabasha. We visited the National Eagle Center in that city. This beautiful facility is worth a visit. It’s located in downtown Wabasha, on the river. It offers exhibits, well-informed volunteers to answer your questions, huge windows opening onto river views, and four resident birds, three Bald Eagles and one Golden Eagle. All are birds unable to successfully live in the wild.  The eagles are tethered inside. Visitors can get very close to the birds. ( The photo is of the Golden.) We took the Wisconsin side of the river north. A couple of dozen Bald Eagles were on the ice at Alma, just below the lock and dam there. Just south of Alma we watched a large flock of Wild Turkeys flush out of a cornfield and into the woods as a juvenile Golden Eagle made a lazy pass at them. That bird was the highlight of the day. (Web site: www.nationaleaglecenter.org)