A visit from the Conley crew

Well we had an exciting week here at Camp Itasca! The fam came up to visit last Thursday, and stayed for a long weekend. They rented out a cabin on campus and it was so much nicer than mine, so I just camped out there all weekend (its best features were a shower, couch, wifi, and a porch). We went on some adventures: to the Headwaters, to see some really big pines, looking for birds, watching sunsets; and sometimes we just chilled, hammocked, grilled, etc. They also brought me up some fun stuff, such as lots of food, a BANJO, and lots of new books to read.

At the Mississippi Headwaters

A very large White Pine tree

Watching the sunset over Lake Itasca

On Monday they took off, and that day in class we saw two rare birds that I have never seen before (that we've been searching for in class since last year!): a pair of Black-backed Woodpeckers, and a Blue-headed Vireo!

Itasca is just at the edge of the Black-backed Woodpecker range, so while they are not common here, they have been known to be in certain areas around here. We've gone to some of these places and "called" to them with recordings of their own calls (territorial birds will often respond to their own calls), with no success... then one day at the Headwaters they just appeared out of nowhere! A little later we chased down the very rare Blue-headed Vireo (their relatives the Red-eyed Vireo are extremely common), and got a great look at it! It may not seem that exciting, but it was really cool!