I love American kestrels. They are lovely birds and it is good to see them on a hunt. But their habitat and prey are disappearing and so, too, are the kestrels. They are plentiful near me (or were before the avian flu); I need to go for a walk in the nearby wildlife preserve to see if I can spot some. I’ve been avoiding it precisely because I didn’t want to be depressed about the lack of birds this year.
There’s been aerial combat the last few days between three hummingbirds for rights to the nectar feeder. I took it down today to refill it and one of them came at my head.
Just to add: The TV news reported she’d had to be warned before to stay the fuck away from the monk seal. And the news had some impressive additional video from above, looked like drone video, that showed the pup frolicking in the water nearby while Mama was quashing the threat.
[singsong voice]“And what did we learn?”[/singsong voice] 
My kids always hated when I asked them that.
I saw this precious baby fawn outside our pasture. Mama didn’t seem to be around, but I know when the fawns are tiny, they do leave them alone while they’re off doing Mama Deer business. A neighbor of mine took this picture.
It’s the time of year for Hummingbird Thunderdome.
Aren’t they the cutest things?
We had zero ducks on our pond on Sunday, after the wildlife center released nine juvenile mallards on Thursday. This morning my gf dumped 5 pounds of cracked corn by the pond. An hour or so later there were ducks, including the nine juvies!
I’m not sure what happened to these pictures. I did something terribly wrong. But I think if you click on the picture, both pictures that I posted will appear. I had to take a screenshot of what she texted me in order for me to download it.
My sister saw this bird in her yard (NE Minnesota). We are flabbergasted at what it could be. She said the crows were very interested in it but didn’t try to harm it. I thought maybe a young turkey vulture but she said it has feathery pantaloons. She lives within a couple of miles of the zoo, so she called and asked if maybe a bird had escaped. They told her all birds are accounted for.
Does anyone have an idea?
I’ll try to figure out the photo issue.
So feathered legs don’t work (though partially feathered ones would) but Black Vultures are rare strays in Minnesota. The primary feathers splayed out like fingers in flight and the stance on the ground would kinda lean in that direction. But that is one odd image.
That’s quite a piece of convergent evolution…
US
UK
…right down to the spots (!).
j
You know what? I have seen precisely one brood of ducklings this year. One all year. The only reason I didn’t post about it was that I was thinking it’s maybe UK specific, or maybe even regional in the UK. I dunno, but it has been striking.
j
Yes, I was confused, the first time I saw European kestrels. And I thought they were all falcons, but no.
Let’s hope your ducks migrated further north this year and that the cause of their absence isn’t avian flu.
It might be a juvenile black vulture, which can show a whitish color on their heads but I am not surprised that it was seen in NE MN. That’s an area that does get strays due to it being part of a major migration path and generally a variety of good eats for many birds.
It looks like a bad cross between a bald eagle and a rough legged buzzard.
Right? Of course they’re actually still fairly closely related in a general sense being in the same genus, hence the convergence on a pretty recognizably similar color/morph is perhaps not so odd. But it seems they derive from an earlier split from a basal lineage and are not each other’s immediate sister taxa in the genus.
It was certainly the closest thing that immediately came to mind as plausible. It’s a good find for Minnesota if it ever verifies 
. Though maybe in fact it is some exotic from a collection - that’s a rough image to ID from.
It is odd! It’s almost prehistoric looking. A vulture of some sort is the first thing we thought of too. But I don’t think so. I think I’m going to contact the local Audubon Society.
Recent hard rains have brought out some roadside rarities. I zipped past this small patch of carnivores then went back later for some close ups - Drosera filiformis tracyi.
A reliable birder worked on the pictures in photoshop and for the area, the bird’s eye matches for a common grackle.
Hmmm…yeah, I can see the eye and the pale head makes sense. But those legs look pretty robust. Maybe?
A grackle with vitiligo maybe?
Be sure to let us know if they were able to identify it.