A Green Heron And Other Birds Brighten Minnesota Summers

We've entered the middle of summer here in Minnesota. As I've been spending more afternoons and evenings outside enjoying the warm weather, it's been fun for me to also see what else is enjoying the weather that Central Minnesota is offering. The next time you are outside, take a look, and even more importantly, take a listen.

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Birdwatching Has Been Fun This Year

Most afternoons, I'll spend a couple of minutes, maybe up to an hour, just sitting on our back patio, reading as well as soaking up some sunshine. It's been a fun spring and summer at our house as we've seen a good variety of birds that I've never seen before, as well as the more common ones. It's strange to me how we can 'forget' about birds during the winter months, as we seem to seldom hear them.

So far this summer, I've managed to hear and see a Green Heron, which has seemingly made our backpond into its summer home, as well as seeing a Belted Kingfisher hanging around the pond too.

I'm a little embarrassed to say I've never previously seen either bird before in my life, but thanks to a Bird ID app, I was able to figure out what the 'bigger' birds were that seemed to be frequenting the pond.

A Full Suet Feeder Has Fed Plenty Of Birds

My wife has started keeping a suet feeder near our back patio door, and just about every hour, you can hear and see a hungry bird feeding on the suet. The most common visitor we've seen this summer has been a Hairy Woodpecker. Also a fairly common bird in our area, but one I've not seen before.

A fun fact that I learned about the Hairy Woodpecker is that they can be found sometimes around one of the largest woodpeckers, the Pileated Woodpecker.

Hairy Woodpeckers sometimes follow Pileated Woodpeckers, and sometimes appears when it hears the heavy sounds of a Pileated excavating. As the pileated moves on, the Hairy Woodpecker investigates the deep holes, taking insects the pileated missed. - All About Birds

Have you seen any 'fun' birds this summer while you've been out?

How many Minnesota towns made this list?