A Snowy Owl is being seen at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It is very difficult to see, however, because it spends most of its time far from any accessible viewing point. The bird is a juvenile, as determined by the amount of black on its feathers. Snowy Owls make a perhaps annual appearance at the airport. Its flat terrain is familiar to birds from the Arctic tundra. The hunting has to be good, too. These photos were taken Thursday morning. 

I spent Wednesday in Aitkin County, wandering through the Savannah State Forest, just looking. There were White-winged Crossbills to be seen, and redpolls, Pine Siskins, Gray Jays, various woodpeckers, and one Ruffed Grouse. On the way home, some Tundra Swans swam at the edge of the ice rimming Mille Lacs Lake. Bird of the Day was the juvenile Golden Eagle I saw over the Hedbom Road, which cuts east-west through the forest. It turned three slow circles right above me. The bird is in the photo. Key ID marks are the white windows in the wings and the black band at the end of the white tail. After the first year, the white disappears. Golden Eagles are regular in Minnesota, but not common. They are seen each fall at Hawk Ridge in Duluth.

  A good quick late-fall early-winter birding trip is a tour of the west shore of Mille Lacs Lake. Jude and I were there a feew of days ago, sun shining, water blue. We hoped to find loons in large numbers, but I think we were late. Common Loons gather on the lake during fall migration. Over 1,000 birds have been counted in one day. From the overlook at Garrison we had 17 in sight at once. There were Red-breasted Mergansers, Bonaparte’s and Ring-billed gulls as well. Red-breasted and Pacific loons can be seen there, too, but not this day. Several years ago a Yellow-billed Loon, an extremely rare lower-48 visitor was seen for a few days. It arrived late in the season. Ice formed, trapping it because it did not have enough opem water for the long running takeoff loons need. Eventually, a Bald Eagle ate it. (Pictured are a pair of Bonaparte’s gulls in winter plumage.)

 White-winged Crossbills, like their cousins Red Crossbills, are nomadic birds, moving to find spruce-cone seeds, their major food source. It’s been a bad seed year north of us in Canada, so White-wings are beginning a modest Minnesota invasion, pushing south of their usual but erratic winter range. The birds have been seen in Faribault, Rice, Douglas and Sherburne counties, as well as St. Louis, Aitkin, and Otter Tail, where they would be more likely. Birders have been heading for Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge for the past several days to look for crossbills in a spruce stand about a mile in on the Blue Hill hiking trail (parking lot on Sherburne County Road 9, west of the refuge headquarters. The birds, in groups of from a handful to as many as 40, move widely through the 40+ acres of spruce. I saw crossbills three times in 90 minutes Saturday (15 Nov) by walking up and down the plowed firebreak along the eastern edge of the stand. Watch for fast-moving birds flying just above the tree tops. You sometimes can hear them chatter as they arrive. Take the Blue Hill trail from the parking lot, and bear left at the first fork. Continue on that trail until you reach the spruce stand. It will be obvious. ALERT: While this portion of the park is closed to deer hunting, surrounding land is open to hunting. Officials recommend you wear a blaze-orange garment of some kind. (The photos were taken at Sherburne NWR.) 

Tundra Swans are migrating through the area. A flock of the large white birds was seen this morning (Thursday, 13 Nov) on Lake Calhoun. Yesterday, I found a flock of about 500 feeding in a small lake on the north side of  Highway 212 near mile marker 111. This is about 45 minutes west of Eden Prairie. The birds nest in far northern Canada and Alaska. They are enroute to wintering grounds along the central Atlantic coast. Flocks of several thousand are seen annually on the Mississippi River near Weaver (between Wabasha and Winona). (The photos were taken along Highway 212. The birds with their butts in the air are feeding on vegetation growing in the shallow water.) Â

 Federal duck-stamp competition and surrounding events begin Saturday with display of the 2008 stamp art contest entries at the Bloomington Art Center. There are many events scheduled through Oct. 18, the day the 2009 stamp winner will be announced. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better opportunity to view wildlife art, take tours and wildlife walks, learn about wildlife photography, learn to identify birds, meet some of the nation’s most talented wildlife artists, and participate in the excitement of the contest itself, including announcement of the winner. For a complete schedule, go to web site www.fws.gov/duckstamps/contest_events.htm

   Crex Meadows wildlife area will hold a festival this Sunday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Events will begin at the Crex Visitors’ Center just north of Grantsburg, Wisconsin. Crex is a wildlife area of more than 30,000 acres. The festival coincides with the peak gathering there of migrating Sandhill Cranes. Thousands of cranes will be seen, along with many other species of birds. There are guided tours at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. To get to Grantsburg, take I-35W north to Minnesota Highway 70 and follow it east for 15 miles to Grantsburg, which is just across the St. Croix River. In Grantsburg, follow the yellow goose footprints through town to the visitors’ center. The photo is of Sandhill Cranes at Crex.

 This is a good rule to follow when identifying birds: the simple and common answer almost always is the correct answer. Take the Black-headed Grosbeak for example. It is a species found west of the Missouri River. It has been recorded in Minnesota, but not annually. The problem is that female and juvenile Black-heads closely resemble female and juvenile Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, a common Minnesota species. Separation of the two species is possible with a good look at the breast and/or underwing linings. So, with perhaps a fleeting view or a less than perfect view, the least likely but most exciting possibility can come to mind: a Black-headed Grosbeak is at my feeder. This happens here every fall. This misidentification probably was not nearly so common in the days when bird ID books contained only eastern North American bird species or only western. That way, we did not see Black-heads and Rose-breasteds side-by-side as we do today in the Sibley, National Geographic, and new Peterson guides, for example. The common answer was the only one we had. The bird pictured here is a juvenile Rose-breasted Grosbeak (I think).