Canada Jay

Canada Jay: Most of the breeding range is not subject to human disturbance. Has declined in a few areas after clearcutting of the forest. It can be found in spruce and fir forests. Found in various kinds of coniferous and mixed forest, but rarely occurs where there are no spruce trees.

These fluffy jays seem fearless, and they can be a minor nuisance around campsites and cabins, stealing food, earning the nickname "camp robber." Tough enough to survive year-round in very cold climates, they store excess food in bark crevices all summer, retrieving it in harsh weather. Surprisingly, they nest and raise their young in late winter and early spring, not during the brief northern summer.

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Hairy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker: although still very widespread and fairly common, thought to have declined from historical levels in many areas. Loss of nesting sites (with the cutting of dead snags in the forest) is one potential problem. Starlings and House Sparrows may sometimes take over freshly excavated nest cavities.

It can be found in forests, woodlands, river groves, shade trees. Accepts a wide variety of habitats so long as large trees present; found in deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forest, groves along rivers in prairie country, open juniper woodland, swamps. In the southwest and from Mexico to Panama found in mountain forests, mostly of pine, but also in the cloud forest in Central America.

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Pileated Woodpecker

Numbers in the eastern United States declined sharply in the 18th and 19th centuries with the clearing of the eastern forest. Since about 1900, a gradual comeback, with the species becoming common again in some areas. May be adapting to second-growth woods and proximity of humans.

Found in conifer, mixed, and hardwood forests; woodlots. Favors mature deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous forest, also the coniferous forest. A big, dashing bird with a flaming crest, the largest woodpecker in North America (except the Ivory-bill, which is almost certainly extinct). Excavating deep into rotten wood to get at the nests of carpenter ants, the Pileated leaves characteristic rectangular holes in dead trees. This species became rare in eastern North America with the clearing of forests in centuries past but has gradually increased in numbers again since about the beginning of the 20th century. Where unmolested, it even lives in parks and woodlots around the edges of large cities.

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White-winged Grosbeak

White-winged Grosbeak: Medium-sized stocky finch with a crisscrossed bill. Adult males are bright red with a black tail and wings marked by two bold white wing bars. White-winged Crossbills remain in flocks year-round, even during the nesting season. They forage mostly in spruce and tamarack, prying open the cones with their crossed bills to eat the seeds. They also take grit from the ground and eat insects during summer. In years when spruce and other cones are scarce, large numbers irrupt, or wander far out of the usual range.

It can be found in Boreal forests, mostly spruce and tamarack. During irruptions, look for them in spruces (including ornamental plantings), hemlock forests, weedy fields, and occasionally at backyard bird feeders.

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Northern Hawk Owl

Northern Hawk Owl: A bird of boreal forests, the Northern Hawk Owl behaves like a hawk but looks like an owl. Its oval body, yellow eyes, and round face enclosed by dark parentheses are distinctly owl. Horizontal brown stripes mark the belly Its long tail and habit of perching atop solitary trees and hunting by daylight, though, are reminiscent of a hawk. It is a solitary bird that tends to stick to the boreal forest, but some winters it moves south into the northern United States, delighting birders near and far.

It is believed that they can detect prey by sight up to half a mile away. Along with their tendency to hunt in the daytime, their symmetrical ear openings are cited as evidence for daytime hunting—their ears presumably have less acute hearing than the asymmetrical ear openings of species such as Boreal and Great Gray Owls. Even so, hawk owls can still find prey by sound, even when it is under a foot of snow. The Northern Hawk Owl sometimes wanders or invades areas far to the south of their normal range. Invasion years tend to occur when small-mammal populations decline following a good reproductive season.

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Black-capped Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee: Widespread and common, and numbers apparently stable, possibly increasing in some areas. Found in Mixed and deciduous woods; willow thickets, groves, shade trees. Most common in open woods and forest edge, especially where birches or alders grow; avoids purely coniferous forest. Where it overlaps with other chickadee species in the north and west, Black-capped is mostly restricted to deciduous groves. It can live in the suburbs as long as nest sites are available.

Little flocks of Black-capped Chickadees enliven the winter woods with their active behavior and their cheery-sounding chick-a-dee call notes as they fly from tree to tree, often accompanied by an assortment of nuthatches, creepers, kinglets, and other birds.

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Boreal Owl

Boreal Owl: Northern populations in North America probably face no immediate threats. Status of western mountain populations still not well known.

A rather mysterious owl of dense northern woodlands. Except when calling at night in very early spring, it is easily overlooked. Until the 1970s it was not known to breed anywhere south of Canada; recent explorations have shown that it is a resident in many mountain ranges in the western United States, nesting in the forest at the highest elevations. In the northeast, winter invasions sometimes bring a few Boreal Owls south to areas frequented by birders.

Mixed-wood and conifer forests, muskeg. Nests mostly in forests where coniferous trees such as spruce or fir are mixed with deciduous trees including aspen or birch. Such habitats are found at low elevations in the north, only in high mountains toward the south. During winter invasions, usually found in groves of conifers.

Hunts mostly at night (although nighttime is not entirely dark in summer in far north). Hunts by moving through forest from one perch to another, watching for prey, then swooping down to take prey in its talons. Can capture prey hidden under snow or under dense vegetation, because ears are adapted for the precise location of sounds. It feeds mostly on voles and mice, also small squirrels, shrews, pocket gophers. Also eats small birds of various kinds, and insects, especially crickets.
Vulnerability Status resulting from climate change: HIGH
Hunts mostly at night (although nighttime is not entirely dark in summer in far north). Hunts by moving through forest from one perch to another, watching for prey, then swooping down to take prey in its talons. Can capture prey hidden under snow or under dense vegetation, because ears are adapted for the precise location of sounds.

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Red-breasted Nuthatch

Red-breasted Nuthatch: A small, compact bird with a sharp expression accentuated by its long, pointed bill. Red-breasted Nuthatches have very short tails and almost no neck; the body is plump or barrel-chested, and the short wings are very broad.
Red-breasted Nuthatches are blue-gray birds with strongly patterned heads: a black cap and stripe through the eye broken up by a white stripe over the eye. The underparts are rich rusty-cinnamon, paler in females. They move quickly over trunks and branches probing for food in crevices and under flakes of bark. They creep up, down, and sideways without regard for which way is up, and they don’t lean against their tail the way woodpeckers do. The flight is short and bouncy.

Red-breasted Nuthatches are mainly birds of coniferous woods and mountains. Look for them among spruce, fir, pine, hemlock, larch, and western red cedar as well as around aspens and poplars. In northeastern North America, you can also find them in forests of oak, hickory, maple, birch, and other deciduous trees.

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Aspens in Winter

Aspen Trees are medium-sized deciduous trees, commonly 20 to 80 feet in height, and 3 to 18 inches diameter. Trees more than 80 feet tall and larger than 24 inches diameter are occasionally found. Their bark is smooth, greenish-white, yellowish-white, yellowish-gray, or gray to almost white in color. The green color is from chlorophyll in the bark. Their bark may become rough and fissured with age.

Aspen leaves are smooth, bright green to yellowish-green, dull underneath until they turn brilliant yellow, gold, orange, or slightly red in the fall. Aspen reproduces both by seeds and by root sprouts, though sprouting is the most common and successful form of reproduction. Aspen produces small flowers, on catkins that are 1-2 inches long. These flowers are produced in the early spring before the leaves grow on the trees.

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Bald Eagle & Deer Carcass

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Lake Superior Sunset

Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes of North America, is also the world's largest freshwater lake by surface area, and the third-largest freshwater lake by volume. It is shared by the Canadian province of Ontario to the north, the U.S.

ake Superior is not only the largest of the Great Lakes; it is the largest body of fresh water on Earth. Situated on the northern edge of Wisconsin, Lake Superior extends from the upper peninsula of Michigan north to Ontario, Canada, and reaches west to the eastern edge of Minnesota. The name Superior refers to its size and also designates the lake's position as the northernmost of all the Great Lakes.

The lake is about 160 miles (257 kilometers) wide and about 350 miles (563 km) long. It has a surface area of 31,700 square miles (82,100 square km) and a water volume of 2,900 cubic miles (12,100 cubic km). The shoreline measures 2,726 miles (4,385 km), according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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Split Rock Lighthouse #1

Split Rock Lighthouse is a lighthouse located southwest of Silver Bay, Minnesota, USA on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The structure was designed by lighthouse engineer Ralph Russell Tinkham and was completed in 1910 by the United States Lighthouse Service at a cost of $75,000, including the buildings and the land. It is considered one of the most picturesque lighthouses in the United States.

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Split Rock Lighthouse #2

It is part of Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. This park offers numerous recreational opportunities. Visitors can cart-in their supplies to pristine campsites along Lake Superior. Scenic trails along the lake link up to the spectacular Superior Hiking Trail. Anglers cast their lines for lake trout, salmon, and brown trout. The rocky beach is perfect for skipping stones into Lake Superior.

Split Rock Lighthouse State Park has a rich and varied history. From 1899 to 1906, the Merrill and Ring Lumber Company logged most of the original Norway and white pine from the area. During peak years, the company operated a short railroad up the river. Pilings from old wharf and dam can still be seen jutting out of the water at the mouth of the Split Rock River. In 1905, a punishing November gale (the kind Lake Superior is famous for), claimed the Edenborn and the Madiera (a barge the Edenborn was towing) as well as five other ships, within a dozen miles of the Split Rock River. The tragic sinking of these ships fueled the demand for a lighthouse. The fog signal building and lighthouse were completed in 1909 and commissioned one year later. For 59 years, the keepers at Split Rock warned ships away from the rock and treacherous North Shore with its 370,000-candlepower beacon. In 1971, the federal government deeded the lighthouse station to the State of Minnesota to be operated as a historic site. In 1976, the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) assumed operation of the site which included one of the most photographed lighthouses in the United States.

Hiking Trails in the park connect with the magnificent Superior Hiking Trail. This trail parallels much of the Lake Superior coastline and passes by scenic waterfalls. Trails wind through beautiful stands of birch, spruce, fir, and ash trees. The winter landscape is also spectacular adding to the popularity of the cross-country ski trails.

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