Mini Vacation to Northern Minnesota

Since I didn't have to work this weekend, I convinced Mr. Johnson that he would love to spend hours in a car on a drive up to the Sax-Zim Bog for a winter birding adventure. Stoked up on coffee & some delicious Perkins muffins, we headed out early Saturday morning for the 255 mile trip. I knew it was going to be a good birding day when three Pileated Woodpeckers flew over us on our first pit stop north of the Twin Cities. Even with unexpected snow, slippery highways and plenty of overturned vehicles in the ditch, we continued northward on our quest to see awesome birds. And we weren't disappointed!

Here's a pictorial review of our incredible birding mini vacation. This review will start and end with what were birding highlights for me, and all the good things in between.

We were heading out Admiral Road and McDavitt Road to finish up our drive through the Sax-Zim Bog birding area. Up ahead on McDavitt Road, we spotted some parked cars and people out with cameras and tripods. Thinking this might have been the Black-Backed Woodpecker reported earlier in the week, we stopped so I could get a chance to see it too. I wasn't the least bit disappointed to see a Great Gray Owl instead of a Black-Backed Woodpecker!

After only a minute or so, this beautiful owl decided to fly over to another dead evergreen snag nearby, and I was there to capture the short flight!

Wow! (I'm sure I had the dopiest smile on my face while I was taking these pictures!)

The owl spent quite a bit of time looking at the ground. I'm sure it was trying to locate something tasty to eat.

Good-bye beautiful owl! Thanks for making my day so special!

I saw my FOY Red-Breasted Nuthatch (they haven't visited my birdfeeders in SE Minnesota this winter).

We also enjoyed seeing and hearing Common Ravens.

Along Admiral Road and McDavitt Road, some folks have set up a couple of bird feeding stations. These are good places to stop and see lots of birds taking advantage of the unexpected bounty. Black-Capped Chickadees were the most plentiful birdies at these feeding stations. It was not unusual to see at least 8 at a time! I also got a great look at a Boreal Chickadee, but it flew away before I even had the camera turned on.

Through the windshield I snapped this really awful photo of a pair of grouse. We ran into some Rochester birding friends (who were also having a mini vacation at Sax-Zim) and they said these looked like Sharp-Tailed Grouse.

Sophie got to ride along with us for the trip. There were a couple of places where we were able to let her out of the car to just run around.

Even though she's an elderly doggeh now, she still thoroughly enjoys trips in the car and finding new scents wherever she happens to be (no matter how deep the snow is!)

Do you like Northern Shrikes? We saw a total of three of them during our drive through the Sax-Zim Bog birding area.

We do have them in SE Minnesota, but again, not commonly seen at any time of year.

Here are a couple of Pine Grosbeaks and a Common Redpoll at the top of an evergreen.

Very pretty birds! Want to see them closer? Here's the Common Redpoll. This is a male. During an irruption year, I have seen them dining on thistle seed at my birdfeeders, but none so far this year.

Here's are 2 female Pine Grosbeaks at one of the feeding stations on Admiral Road.

(See her peeking out from behind the bucket on the left side of the photo? I didn't even notice her until I was editing this photo!)

Here's another beautiful female perched on a branch.

Here's a male Pine Grosbeak perched on a branch above me. They're actually a pretty large bird at 9" -- about the same size as a Northern Cardinal -- so they're really easy to spot.

While I was watching the Pine Grosbeaks, I also noticed a large bird sitting in the top of a tree just up the road. It definitely wasn't an eagle, crow, or raven, but I couldn't tell for sure what it was except that it was a raptor of some sort (judging by the head and beak size/shape).

After walking a little bit closer, this bird decided it had had enough of my scrutiny and decided to fly away. Fortunately, I had my camera ready and was lucky enough to get this shot which confirmed its identity -- Rough-Legged Hawk.

(See the nice black wing tips and dark elbow spots? A beautiful raptor!)

We never saw the Evening Grosbeak, Northern Hawk Owl, or Gray Jays, but I was really happy with all the birds we had seen during our visit. However, the most exciting sight of the day for me took place just a short distance from our turning on to the main road and heading for home. Even though this is a really poor picture, can you tell that it's a Black-Billed Magpie?

This bird was perched in a tree near the road, but as soon as we stopped the car it flew away. I started snapping pictures hoping that at least one of them would turn out, and this picture turned out the best (of the other worse ones!) I've only seen Magpies once before in Minnesota and it's been at least 20 years. I loves me some Corvids!

As we were departing the Sax-Zim Bog birding area, the skies started to clear and we enjoyed what turned out to be a beautiful sunset heralding the end of a lovely birding day in Northern Minnesota.

For any of you who have thought about attending the Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival, I urge you to strongly consider this festival for next February. I'll see you there!


Oh yeah, one more thing......I made good progress on this new shawl I started and knitted on during the 500+ miles spent riding in the car yesterday!

Last Day of January

We finally made it to the end of January -- it always seems like a really long month each year. We had a little bit of snow all day and I was able to snap a quick photo of this beautiful male cardinal while I was eating my lunch today. There's nothing like a brilliant red cardinal to brighten up a gray winter day.

Yesterday I finished a little shawl that I started last August. This is the Multnomah Shawl, and you can find the free pattern by clicking here.

I like these little wool shawls because they're nice to dress up any outfit, plus they're actually pretty warm too. An added bonus of this shawl is that the green in this variegated yarn is an exact match to this godawful green blouse I bought on clearance at JCPenney's a few years ago. Now I know I'll be wearing this green blouse much more often (notice my happy face!)

The other neat thing about this shawl is that I got the chance to use one of the new shawl pins I purchased last week from one of my fellow Etsy shop owners. This cute little flower shawl pin is perfect on this shawl. If you're looking for a shawl pin, please check out some of Amy's other cute designs at this link to her website.

A couple months ago, a new yarn shop opened in Winona, Minnesota. It's called Yarnology and I've already made several trips down there where the wonderful shop owners have everything I need to satisfy my knitting addiction. Last weekend they had their grand opening celebration so Mr. Johnson and I made the drive to Winona again so I could take part in the grand opening event and sign up for a drawing. The really nice thing about going to Winona (in addition to Yarnology) is that we have usually have time to drive through the scenic Whitewater WMA and look for birds & wildlife, plus Winona has lots of restaurants and we get a chance to try a new one on each trip. Anyway, getting back on track here, last Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call from Gaby (one of the Yarnology owners) letting me know that I had won a prize in their drawing. Woo-Hoo!! And look at this fabulous prize I won.......

A beautiful lacy shawl pattern and 10 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool yarn to knit it with (plus a little package of T-pins for blocking). On the way home, I also picked up 2 tubes of glass beads that will look beautiful on this shawl. I was so happy to receive such a wonderful prize and can't wait to get started on this shawl (as soon as I finish a dog sweater for a co-worker and the last Special Olympics scarf). I'll be sure to post pictures of this shawl once I get started on it.

A New Gadget!

Here's my newest gadget for enjoying birds & nature: the Nature's Window 3 outdoor monitoring device! I ordered it shortly after the first of the year and it arrived last week. Six feet of microphone cord is the standard with this unit. However, because of where I planned to locate my unit, I paid for an additional 30-foot microphone cord.
Here's the microphone -- it's really tiny! I was a little skeptical of how much sound this might pick up.

After setting up the monitor and running the cord out the dining room window and across the arbor that's built over my downstairs patio, this is all you see of the unit. It's almost completely invisible except for a little bit of the cord coming from the side of the house to the arbor.

The sound quality of this Nature's Window monitor is fantastic! It picks up bird sounds from a good distance away. Because we live so close to the highway, it also picks up a fair amount of highway noise, however instead of sounding annoying, this constant background noise almost ends up sounding like ocean waves, so it's actually kind of relaxing!

What I really like about this monitor is that now I can hear the outside sounds without having to crack open a window on these dreadfully cold days! And I can't wait until spring when the cardinals start singing their cheerful songs. Once summer arrives, I'm thinking I'll probably leave the monitor turned on all the time -- what could be better than having crickets and tree frogs sing me to sleep and waking up to the songs of orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks, robins and brown thrashers!

Hello? Is Anybody There?

Downy Woodpecker stopped by the dining room window yesterday morning with a message:

"Hello? Ruthie, are you there?"

"Could you please put down that stupid knitting long enough to fill my suet log?"

"K......thanks.......bye!"

Sharp-Shinned Hawk

Sundays and Mondays are my designated weekly Project FeederWatch days. There were any number of household chores I could have tackled this day, but I chose to sit near the dining room window with my knitting projects and watch birds in the backyard instead. Of course, my new camera was within arm's reach also and I was lucky enough to be ready when this little Sharp-Shinned Hawk flew into the backyard! In the absence of bluejays -- chickadees sounded their frantic "dee-dee-dee-dee" alarm call to let all the other little birdies know that this Sharpie had arrived!

She landed in the oak tree for only a few moments before she decided to take wing again. (I LOVE the continuous shooting mode on this camera!)

My disappointment in her departure was quickly replaced with joy as she flew just a short distance to a branch in the crapapple tree about 3 yards from where I was sitting!

Right below this tree hangs a small tray feeder frequented all day long by juncos and house sparrows. I love the intensity of her gaze as she scans to make sure no little birdies might be hiding somewhere down there.

Scanning the feeders across the yard for potential meals.......

Isn't this a great shot? I was wishing there would have been a sparrow down there somewhere for her!

When no little birdies showed up, she took the time for a little preening.

But always ever watchful for any prey that might unknowingly venture into the backyard.

A little preening of the back feathers always feels good too!

And still no prey in the backyard.......

Taking a little more time for preening those back feathers and then she was gone, flying out to an evergreen in the backyard where house sparrows like to hide.

Total time elapsed for this visit was about 5 minutes, but what a treat for me to see this beautiful little raptor up close! I wished her luck in her hunting endeavors and urged her to help herself to as many house sparrows as she could manage! (The other really cool thing about this Sharp-Shinned Hawk is that I can record her visit on my Project FeederWatch checklist as a backyard feeder visitor!)

Recently Completed Knitting Projects

I haven't shown you any photos of knitting projects lately, so that's what this post is going to be about. Last year, one of my resolutions was to try an keep an accurate record of knitting projects I started and finished during the year. I printed out worksheets and actually did pretty good until the middle of November when I was just so busy with knitting projects that I didn't take the time to keep track for the last few weeks of the year. However, I was pretty faithful about recording my projects for the rest of the year. In a review of the list, here are the results for 2010: Projects started was 112! Projects completed was 98. Ideally the number of completed projects would be greater than projects started, but only in a perfect world (which also explains why I have so many unfinished projects stashed all over the house!)

I've already decided I won't be keeping track of any knitting projects this year -- at least not officially. However, here are a few of my FOs (finished objects) for 2011.

A co-worker asked if I could make an earflap hat for his wife similar to a hat they saw on the Columbia website. I didn't have a pattern, but drawing on my years of knitting experience and components of several different hat patterns, here's how the hat turned out. It had to be purple and pink with long tails on the earflaps. I knitted it with Vanna's Choice 100% acrylic yarn, so it's machine washable and dryable (plus the yarn is really soft). I really like how this hat turned out.
Here's one of the scarves I'm knitting for the 2011 Special Olympics USA Scarf Project. I found out about this project from another knitting friend's blog. I've pledged to knit 3 scarves in these "official" colors of blue and turquoise. All of the athletes will have a handmade scarf to wear when participating in the 2011 Special Olympics. I'm sure it will be quite a sight to see all of them wearing these beautiful scarves.

I like to try new yarn colors. I picked up this ball of Patons wool a couple weeks ago because I was curious to see how this weird color combination would knit up. I probably will not buy this yarn again, but I'm sure there's someone who will see these half-mitts in my Etsy store and will love them enough to buy them.

Lastly, here's a small shawl I finished last week. I started it on Dec. 24th and the yarn used to knit this was Berroco Sox Metallic. (Ravelry members can download this pattern for free -- it's the Dane Shawl.)

I wore it to work yesterday. I love that it will coordinate with a lot of different colored tops. I know I will wear this shawl often.

Here's the back view. I was going to be just a few yards short to finish up this shawl but then I visited Yarnology (where I originally bought the yarn), the lovely owners there had a partial ball of this yarn in their backroom and graciously loaned it to me so I could finish up my shawl without having to purchase a whole 'nother ball. Now that's what I call "customer service!"

This yarn is beautiful with a silver metallic thread running through it. It was hard to photograph, but if you look real close a the photo below, you might be able to see it.