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5 days ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
Twenty-something odd years ago, observing a cottontail rabbit here in the Northland was an oddity, especially in the countryside and forest. It seems there were always cottontail rabbits in towns, but I’d be hard pressed to remember noticing them inhabiting northern Minnesota’s vast forests. Not so, today.
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1 week ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
Wood ducks and a handful of other species of waterfowl are cavity nesters. Buffleheads, common goldeneyes, common mergansers and hooded mergansers are other duck species that nest in tree cavities, too. And what’s more, all these species of ducks will use artificial nesting boxes as well. But it’s the wood duck that has benefited the most from artificial nest boxes, also called "wood duck houses." Wood ducks were a species in trouble at the turn of the 20th century.
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2 weeks ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
The wild turkey is one of the most impressive and uniquely North American avian species. Native to this continent, wild turkeys are found throughout all states except Alaska. In the 1960s, the subspecies Rio Grande turkey from Texas was translocated to the Hawaiian Islands and released. Today, nearly 20,000 Rio Grande turkeys flourish on all six islands. And though wild turkeys are considered native to this continent, there is one species of wild turkey that’s like no other.
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3 weeks ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
Hibernating and semi-hibernating mammals throughout the Northland have emerged from their hibernacula. Some of the true hibernators, such as chipmunks, thirteen-lined ground squirrels and woodchucks, are already out and about. American black bears, which are not considered true hibernators, have also stirred awake and are busy foraging for whatever they can find to eat to replenish depleted fat reserves.
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1 month ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
Oh, glorious spring, my favorite time of year. While old man winter reluctantly and eventually takes a backseat to sister spring, we can revel in the annual renewal now upon us. On a recent solo drive to Roseau on State Highway 89 from Bemidji, I silently celebrated the many avian observations along the way. I observed a host of songbirds, a meadowlark among them.
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1 month ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
I recently joined a group of friends for our annual winter camping and fishing trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness. There were six of us this year. Sometimes, it’s as many as seven or as few as four or five. We gather in Grand Marais on a chosen late-March Thursday morning at Subway, have a quick bite to eat, and head up the Gunflint Trail in a procession of trucks loaded with our pulks and gear, full bellies and plenty of enthusiasm.
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1 month ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
Few North American songbirds have received as much attention by people as eastern bluebirds. The male’s musical song, beautiful blue plumage and rusty red breast, not to mention both sexes’ parental devotion to their young and their acceptance of artificial nesting boxes, make them a favorite of young and old bird enthusiasts alike. Here it is, barely spring in the Northland, and male eastern bluebirds are beginning to show up.
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1 month ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
Seasonal songbirds and other wild birds are trickling into northern Minnesota once again. Now that it’s officially spring, expect many more to follow. Already, I’ve observed a handful of migrants — American robins, horned larks, ducks, geese, trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes and just a few days ago, my first red-winged blackbird. As is the case with many birds, male red-winged blackbirds typically arrive at the northern breeding grounds well in advance of the females.
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2 months ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
Many communities throughout Minnesota host statues and monuments commemorating various iconic characters and animals. There’s Rothsay’s greater prairie chicken, Bemidji’s Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, Baudette’s Willie Walleye, Alexandria’s Viking “Big Ole," the world’s largest loon in Vergas and the Iron Man in Chisolm, to name a few. A personal favorite and among my most endeared Minnesota mammal is Otto the Otter — also known as the river otter.
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2 months ago | 
bemidjipioneer.com | Blane Klemek
By the end of March, the migratory American woodcock will be arriving in Minnesota from their wintering grounds. These odd looking birds are actually shorebirds but inhabit forests instead of wetlands, lakes or other riparian habitats. When the male woodcock arrives here in the Northland, they search for locations for their singing grounds. Typically, these sites include a component of young aspen and openness.
