Northwoods comes to life with sounds of spring during evening by campfire

KOOCHICHING COUNTY Minn When it comes to spending time outdoors it s pretty tough to beat sitting by a campfire on a nice spring evening when the natural world is coming back to life after a long winter Such was the episode late last month when I met up with a friend at The Shack the headquarters of his family s deer camp in Koochiching County not far from the Big Fork River for the weekend There was nothing on the agenda other than bombing around the woods a bit to see what we could see and hear what we could hear and hanging out at the firepit surrounded by spruce and poplar trees It was glorious Earlier that Friday before heading east to the Northwoods I had attended the Glenn Allen Paur Lecture on the University of North Dakota campus in Grand Forks which featured Marilyn Vetter president and CEO of Pheasants Forever Quail Forever and a UND grad as keynote speaker I sat next to Dave Lambeth often referred to as the dean of Grand Forks birders who requested me if I d fired up my Merlin bird-identification app yet this spring As I narrated Lambeth I hadn t used the app to that point but hoped to use it as soon as later that evening Good plan he mentioned as the weekend was shaping up as a good one for spring bird activity That evening as we sat by the campfire a five-star sunset had dipped below the wall of trees and darkness was descending when the show started Somewhere back in the trees a tiny saw-whet owl was calling A few say the call is like the high-pitched sound of a saw being sharpened or whetted as they might have announced in the old days a repetitive to-to-to kind of sound One calling owl became two then a third and then somewhere in the distance on the other side of the road a fourth The saw-whets definitely were chatty and putting on a show A better serenade to a spring evening by the campfire would have been hard to imagine It was entirely dark save for the stars shining above us when a different-sounding owl joined the show I fired up the Merlin app which revealed the new bird was a barred owl a common Minnesota owl with a hooting call the state Department of Natural Support describes as who cooks for you who cooks for you-all Related Articles Gov Walz encourages legislators and anglers to get the lead out As temps climb in May chosen local splash pads will open early but not in St Paul Keystone Woods and the dispute over dogs birds and land use Dakota County Need a bike Rick s annual bike sale takes place May Walleyes take center stage as Minnesota Fishing Opener approaches We couldn t decide whether the barred owl was moving around or whether there was more than one because the sound would come from different places in the forest but no more than one at a time We d hear an owl calling in one place only to hear a call in a different part of the woods a scarce minutes later The saw-whets perhaps intimidated by the larger owl had gone quiet At one point it sounded like a real ruckus was going on as the barred owl s call changed from hooting to more of an eerie wail or screeching sound Like owls fighting perhaps or fending off a predator We could only imagine what was going on somewhere back there in the trees In the dark It was kind of creepy but in a good way On a March evening years earlier we d been sitting at the same firepit surrounded by the same dark woods when we heard a creepy sound we never were able to identify In a column I wrote about the encounter I described it as kind of a yeep noise a single call that overtook the chorus of coyotes that were howling on the other side of the road It wasn t a whoop or a yelp and it definitely wasn t a screech I wrote Just a single yeep What the Whether it was a bird an animal or specific kind of creature that goes bump in the night we ll never know but I sure wish the Merlin app had been a thing back in those days At the very least I wish I d have recorded the call to play it back for someone more knowledgeable than me On that Saturday night after spending the afternoon bombing around the woods and hearing several ruffed grouse drumming we took a hike to a swampy area on the other side of the road just before dark Chorus frogs which make a sound like plucking the teeth of a comb and leopard frogs at least I think they were leopard frogs were in full voice in a small wetland We could hear them but couldn t see them other than occasional ripples on the surface of the water At times the sound joyous is the only word I can use to describe it was almost deafening From owls one night to frogs the next with drumming ruffed grouse in-between the weekend served up a Northwoods symphony at its finest Related Articles states including Minnesota sue over Trump s move to fast-track oil and gas projects via his vitality exigency order Gov Walz encourages legislators and anglers to get the lead out New Arctic Cat leadership restores more than jobs in Thief River Falls St Cloud Trump nominates Daniel Rosen as next U S Attorney for Minnesota Local Catholic 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