For the third year in a row a visit to a Lake Superior shoreline cabin at Lutsen has produced strange behavior by a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. It hangs by one foot from a wire near the sugar-water feeder it visits. The two previous times we have seen this included aggressive behavior by other hummingbirds. The hanger was poked, its feathers pulled. This time, the other humminbirds coming to the feeder ignored it. The bird hung there for about half an hour, then flew away. We had three individuals coming to the feeder, and once the hanger released the wire we continued to have three.
A few warblers were migrating down the shore the first two days of this month. A report on the email list maintained by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union (state bird club) told of warblers being seen on Park Point in Duluth, several species in good numbers. It will only get better. For birds, fall is here.
At Lutsen, migrant shorebirds were seen on the edges of a pair of sewage treatment ponds at Lutsen. About 40 individuals of six species were present.
A variety of shorebirds flying over a sewage settling pond at Lutsen, on the North Shore.
