July

  July was a good month for birds.  Traveling through Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota, we saw Trumpeter Swans, Wood Ducks, Brown Creepers, Golden Crowned Kinglets, Golden Winged Warblers, and a Bobolink.  Good variety.  Here is the whole list:  

Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Wood Duck
Mallard
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Western Grebe
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Broad-winged Hawk
Swainson’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
American Kestrel
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Black Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Common Nighthawk
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-headed Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Western Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Western Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Rock Wren
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Mountain Bluebird
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Golden-winged Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
Bobolink
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
Bullock’s Oriole
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

  And to start off August, on Sunday, we got a lifer.  A White Winged Scoter on Bemidji Lake!  Now we have all three North American Scoters.  Lucky us!    

Bog plants

In the peat bog, there aren’t many nutrients. Oxygen in the water is limited. The water is acidic. Plants have to adapt to those conditions to survive. The mosses that grow there grow slowly. They decompose even slower, which creates the peat bog. Layer after layer of slowly decomposing moss building in from the edges until the lake water disappears altogether, leaving saturated peat moss instead.

It’s a good place to find carnivorous plants, like tiny sundews

…and the larger pitcher plants.


Lake Bemidji State Park

We didn’t move there, we just drove over there for a hike. We took the Bog trail; a trail that leads through a black pine and tamarack forest to a sphagnum peat bog. It took a boardwalk to get out over the peat bog to the edge of Big Bog Lake.


Itasca State Park

I’m swatting all the mosquitoes so the next people to visit won’t have so much trouble with them.

Everywhere we go pretty much looks like this:

We try to get out to somewhere each day. Today we got out to the headwaters of the Mississippi. As the water comes out of Lake Itasca, you can wade across the headwaters of a 2,500 mile river.

And today, while we were wondering around watching for loons and grouse, we spotted a life-bird; a golden winged warbler. We got a good long look, but he was deep in the trees. Here is my best picture of him:

You probably can’t see him. He’s in the upper left behind a leaf.

Here it is, blown up a little. (He’s still behind the leaf, but now he’s at the upper right.)