Articles

Blane Klemek column: Feeding birds benefits humans, too

I’ve been gone so much from my home over the past month and a half that I sort of forgot about my fine feathered friends.

Blane Klemek column: Turkey vultures possess adaptive characteristics

Edward Abbey once wrote of the turkey vulture; “Let us praise the noble turkey vulture: no one envies him; he harms nobody; and he contemplates our little world from a most serene and noble height.”

Blane Klemek column: Winter dens of bears vary

The American black bear makes Minnesota its home. Yet seeing a bear in the northern forests is a rare event. Even rarer than observing a black bear going about its business, is seeing one in the wintertime.

Spring bird watching is fun

April has been a good month for avian adventures. I returned from a late March trip to Illinois where I helped put leg bands on hundreds of lesser scaup on the mighty Mississippi River – where spring was well under way. I was more than ready for Minnesota to catch up. For it was there, where the Mississippi runs wide and deep along the border of Iowa and Illinois, that I got my first taste of springtime.

Otters enthusiastically embrace fun

If ever there was a creature that seems to enjoy life more, relishes playtime and roughhousing as much, or takes more pleasure in spending time with family just lying around or goofing off, then I’ve never met the critter. Without a shred of doubt, river otters fit this bill wonderfully.

Mountain vacation leads to discoveries

Much of the enjoyment in traveling to other parts of the country is observing resident flora and fauna and trying to identify the newly encountered species.

Bald eagles are inspiring sights

Author and ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent, whose words I have quoted in the past, wrote an interesting passage in his book, “Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey,” about the bald eagle. He wrote: “On June 20, 1782, our forefathers adopted as our national emblem the bald eagle, or the ‘American eagle’ as it was called, a fine looking bird, but one hardly worthy of the distinction.” It’s telling of his disdain for the emblematic bird, as he continues to write, why he italicized the word “looking.”

Wren species occupy various habitats

I miss the song of the house wren. The chirping, bubbly and incessant song – nearly as persistent a singer as the red-eyed vireo – is a birdsong that I came to enjoy when I lived just a few miles north of where I do now. What’s interesting is that the surrounding habitat is not all that different between my former and current homes. Yet, for whatever reason, and despite putting up wren houses, no house wrens have moved in, much less even stopped by for a look-see.

Columns

Blane Klemek column: Minnesota boasts nine species of woodpeckers

Woodpeckers are a group of birds perfectly adapted for what they do best.

Blane Klemek column: The raven is a special bird

Ravens. There’s something very special about this large black bird so similar looking to its smaller cousin the American crow, yet so very different. They’re a symbol of the Northland’s cold and snow-laden wintertime coniferous forests –their calls beckoning, resonating, haunting.

Blane Klemek column: European starlings are successful competitors

Many years ago when I was employed as the manager of Wetlands, Pines and Audubon Sanctuary, a wildlife refuge and environ-mental education center near Warren, Minn., some of my duties included building, installing, monitoring, and maintaining bluebird and wood duck nest boxes. I especially enjoyed monitoring the structures to see if any boxes were occupied by nesting birds, squirrels, raptors or what have you.

Blane Klemek column: Backyard bird count gives amateurs chance to contribute to science

The National Audubon Society and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology are once again sponsoring the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC).

Blane Klemek column: Upland sandpiper inspires emotions

July 9, 1997. “I called a curious upland sandpiper to me today. He or she landed less than a few yards from me on top of a post.”

To hibernate or not to hibernate?

A friend of mine recently asked me, “Do muskrats hibernate?”

Blane Klemek column: Magpies are expanding range

A friend of mine who lives southeast of Bemidji recently wrote to me asking a couple of interesting questions, along with relating some stories and observations about a bird that seems to have become more abundant than they used to be, especially in the Bemidji area.

Blane Klemek column: Goldfinch vied for state bird

On a bitterly cold morning recently, while I filled my backyard birdfeeders with black-oil sunflower seeds, I paused for a moment to take in the sights and sounds of the Minnesota winter.

Blane Klemek column: Dead, dying trees are homes for black-backed woodpecker

While I was working as a interpretive naturalist at Itasca State Park during the summer of 1995, Ben Thoma, a since-retired naturalist who worked at the park every summer for more than 40 years, announced one afternoon to me in his gruff and commanding voice, “Go see the black-backed three-toed woodpecker right now!”

Weasels are furry and fearless

Many autumns ago, in fact it was September 1984 to be precise, I was enjoying a ruffed grouse hunt along a wooded trail near the Rainy River upstream from International Falls. I was lucky enough to have a bird in my game pouch. On my stroll back to the car, I decided to stop along the trail in order to field-dress my bird.