The Midweek Quad Owl

As this year just kicks off I started to see the need for my weekday efforts to begin targeting specific unique birds after work. The amount of time from 3PM to dark (roughly 5PM) is so small that I need to be efficient with my time and the ability to binge on birds in a county drops each day as I cover the core counties more completely.

So on Wednesday (16th) I had a plan. I would drive into Minneapolis after work in the traffic looking to track down an Eastern Screech owl that had been provided to me by friends. I would then couple that with an airport snowy owl hunt, which I'm never really confident in honestly.

I assumed these efforts would take my available time and maybe I'd stop somewhere to listen for other owls. My first stop along the river was a success after about 20 minutes where I found the red morph Eastern Screech soaking up the waning sun in a tree cavity facing the river. (Pictures on my Instagram under hj70ft username.) The hardest part of this hunt was realizing this bird is an absolute champion at hide and seek even in good light. I quickly motored down Cedar Avenue to get to Cargo road at the airport to give myself a chance at the Snowy Owl hanging out this year.

I believed I found the bird after a couple minutes in a pile of snow that remained on a runway edge. I got my camera and confirmed with some long range shots. At the same time a gentlemen stepped of his car indicating he had taken a picture of the same area, but no owl was in the pile. I kindly noted the bird was present and showed picture to him from my camera. He was amazed to have missed it with his camera pictures and asked what my reach was. After he heard 3000mm was the Nikon P1000 reach (125x zoom) he understood better that as a non-photographer I was under a lower quality option that had the ability to cheat distance in a way high end optics can't.

Brimming with confidence I ran to Bass Ponds area looking to maybe add Hennepin Brown Creeper or a freshly reported Tufted Titmouse while my luck was up. I arrived at the lot and started putting my backpack together. I hadn't left the parking lot when I heard 2 Barred Owl hooting back and forth in the adjacent valley. 3 Owls in about 1 hour total of time!

I hiked in and ran into Pete Hoeger looking to add the Tufted Titmouse also. I didn't have any luck on that front, but soon multiple Brown Creeper sounded off as well as a Northern Flicker from nearby. Later near sundown I was able to get my Hennepin American Tree Sparrow. As I hiked the last 1/4 mile before going back up the long entrance road a Great Horned Owl started to sound off as well from the hillside trees. It entered as my 4th Hennepin owl species in about 3 hours time and certainly something I won't soon forget.

My targeted efforts netted 9 new county tics even though I was laser focused just on the first 2. I'm guessing the very active Bass Ponds area was benefiting from our first bought of sunshine in many days with birds being extra active until late into the daylight hours.

Just goes to show how much you can accomplish from 3PM to dark and even after the sun drops.