Wild Wild Woods

NestWatch, the citizen science project!  We look for cavity-nesting birds in trees as well as in nest boxes.  A pair of Downy Woodpecker...

NestWatch!  Several nest boxes are in the yard and woods, waiting for cavity-nesting birds.  Each box has a small video cam so we c...

The female Mallard strolled through the wild wild woods with determination.  The male followed her with equal resolve. They wandered in...

These new cones and needle-like leaves are emerging on our non-native European Larch Larix decidua .  The old cones (at top in the photo) ...

Needle-like leaves (right) emerging in clusters, and new cones developing on the deciduous conifer American Larch Larix laricina .  The s...

A very few of last year's berries remain on the American cranberry bush as colorful background for the new buds of this year's leave...

Bloodroot.  Thick juicy underground stems. Sap of blood red. Sanguinaria , its fitting Latin name, meaning blood red.  But walking in the ...

The raptor Coopers Hawk came to the water bowl for a drink, then dropped his tail feathers into the cold water while looking around for...

Robins returned to the wild wild woods; they heard it is now "astronomical spring".  

Downy woody  Picoides pubescens is the smallest woodpecker of the wild wild woods.  We see two or three at a time, searching up and do...

This hawk was gliding over the feeder garden looking for breakfast.  The American Crows, who had been snatching...

We heard the shrill whinnying calls of the male Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus as he made his way through the woods, then came t...

19th annual Great Backyard Bird Count -- in the wild wild woods today, Mourning Dove, Pileated Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hairy Woo...

These two European Starlings have been coming to the suet feeders for a week or so.  Their Latin name Sturnus vulgaris is fitting, since...

Today, just as the heavy snow started falling, two Redpolls showed up at the feeder garden.  They darted often back into the woodland ed...

In gardening season, I found buried several pieces of the old barbed wire that used to be the fence row when this was farmed lan...

The seedheads of Joe Pye Weed stand at the edge of the woods. When nibbling these seeds, the Goldfinches nearly disappear by blending in ...

Female: red crest on back half of head Male: red crest on entire head plus red "moustache" Every w...

A fallen tree in the wild wild woods has become a feeding trough for critters and birds.  (See "insect picnic" posted on 7-20-1...

Now that some snow blankets the ground, we can easily see tracks in the woods.  Rabbits, grey squirrels, red squirrels, mice, chipmunks...

Today the male yellow-shafted Northern Flicker Colaptes auratus visited the suet block for breakfast.  It was a wet foggy winter mornin...

Today we spotted the Sharp-shinned Hawk at the feeder garden, probably hunting. The raptor perched for a while on top of one feeder p...

This winter is slow to chill Minnesota.  The "trumpet vine" Lonicera 'Major Wheeler' is still blooming!  Not just hanging...

Usually we see Nuthatches walking UP a vertical tree trunk or hitching DOWN a steeply slanted tree branch, pecking insects he finds in...