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. 

 Perhaps you have seen this item elsewhere. Just in case: A Bar-tailed Godwit, monitored by satellite, has flown a migration distance of 7,242 miles nonstop. The route was Alaska to New Zealand, the latter where the species spends our winter. The godwits making this world-record trip do not eat, drink, or sleep during the flight. The birds are about the size of a Ruffed Grouse, but with longer, narrow wings suited for long-distance flight. They leave Alaska weighing about 1.5 pounds, and weigh half as much when they arrive in New Zealand. The Bar-tailed Godwit shown was photographed on its nesting territory in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, June 2007.Â

 Someone called today to tell me of a flock of American Robins in the Lake Hiawatha neighborhood.Is it unusual to see robins here in winter? Nope. Robins will skip their fall migration. Availability of food probably is the determining factor. Last winter, a flock of robins could be seen here and there in the Wayzata area.The one reliable place to look for them was the Wayzata bait shop, east of town. Every morning the bait guys would clean the dead minnows from their holding tanks, tossing them into the snow near the building.Robins came routinely to eat the fish. Ornithological literature says that robins eat fish, along with snakes and shrews, when their usual diet of invertebrates and fruit is not readily available. One of the fishy robins is pictured here.

 We’ve had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at our feeders for the past month. It was here again this morning, Dec. 1. This is a late appearance for this species. It’s sort of tattered looking, an incomplete molt probably. It quietly sits on the feeder edge or on our watering pan, fluffed up in the cold. Obviously, it hasn’t been moved yet to hit the migration trail. By now it should be in deep southern Mexico or northern South America. Bob Janssen’s Minnesota birding bible (Birds of Minnesota, UM Press 1987), listing distribution and migration information, shows three dates in November when this species has been reported in the southern half of the state. There are two December dates, the 2nd and the 17th. Of course, the book is 20 years old and other reports might exist, but our bird, for whatever reason, is beginning to take a run at the record book. Two more days and second place is his alone.

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

   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.

 Many lakes in and around the Twin Cities presently are hosting large flocks of American Coots. Coots are smallish dark waterfowl that congregate in significant numbers as they prepare for fall migration. Lake Minnetonka has thousands of coots. On my side of town, both Medicine and Parker lakes have large black patches of coots. They are not hard to find. But in all my years of watching birds I never have seen one of these flocks in the air. It’s difficult to get any coot to actually fly. They prefer to dive at sign of danger, or skitter along the surface of the water to distance themselves. But these migrating flocks fly in, and they fly out. I have to believe that these birds both arrive and depart in darkness. There are life birds and there are life birding events. I’m waiting to put flying flocks of coots on my list.