Last visit of July

Today was my 8th and final visit for the month of July. I'm surprised I got up to 8 seeing as how how and muggy it has been this month. The rain just continues and this morning was wet again from the previous day's weather. There were plenty of birds out today and among others I saw Cardinals, Catbirds, Downy Woodpeckers, Goldfinches and a Green Heron. One bird in particular was doing it's best to avoid a photograph. It was a common yellow-ish bird I've seen often, and in fact I remember incorrectly identifying it earlier as a Yellow Warbler. This one was hoping back and forth on the lower parts of cattail stems and I sat there for a long time before I was able to catch a decent photo. I noticed it has a faint eye-ring and mostly a yellow colored throat so I'm convinced now that it's a female Common Yellowthroat. After I'd almost completed the north side, a young looking Doe popped out of the woods onto the trail and began walking right towards me. I knelt down on one knee like I often do and it continued toward me stopping only just a few feet away. Her face looked to be peppered with ticks or something but upon looking closer at my photo I think they were engorged mosquitoes. This year has been especially bad for mosquitoes with all the rain. Sometimes I think they're bad enough to drive the Deer right out of the woods. I often keep an eye on the small Willow shrubs now for birds as I've seen just about every kind perched in them at one time or another. But today I noticed something else. Almost everywhere were pairs of these brown and green beetles. The green head is a shiny, iridescent emerald green. It also looks like they eat the Willow as the leaves were chewed within close distance of every beetle. I looked them up and learned they are "Japanese Beetles." They are native to Japan and thought to have arrived in the U.S. in the 1900's. They've become a serious pest of roughly 200 different plants in America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_beetle

Another few soakings

This Saturday it had already rained hard in the morning from about 8 to 9am. I waited this out before heading to the park thinking I'd be dry for at least the next hour -but I was wrong. Not too far into my walk I spotted a dark shape on the path that I thought was a piece of wood or something. Upon closer inspection it was Toad who probably came out to enjoy the wet weather. I tried to move him off the trail but he wouldn't budge even when I grabbed him so I let him be. About 20 minutes later I'd just crossed the straight part of the path on the north side when it began to down-pour yet again. I stood in a place under some trees and tried to wait it out, but the rain picked up in intensity and I found myself moving around looking for a drier spot. In a matter of minutes I was soaked from head to toe and still had 3/4 of the way to go. What a bummer. Amazingly the rain stopped almost as abruptly as it had started, the sky cleared completely and the sun came out full blast in just a matter of minutes. I noticed a Flickr bouncing around right on the paved path -probably looking for insects after the rain. As I was trying to get some shots, I could see movement behind me but paid little attention thinking it was just another park-goer. When the person that I thought was coming still hadn't passed me I turned around to realize it was a Doe. It looked like a young one but did not have any white fawn-spots. Later near the south side I spotted this Cardinal against the clear blue sky. I'm guessing it was a young female by it's rather grey-ish appearance, and it's only real recognizable feature being the large orange bill. The bird was clearly drying itself out in the bright sun -just as I was trying to do at the same time. Later in the day it rained yet a 3rd time in just one day!

Major flooding

Our weather this July has been unbelievably hot and humid. It seems that almost every day is 90+ with 70% or more humidity. We had one day last week where they said it was even more humid than it typically gets in the Everglades of Florida! So for that reason and some other travels, I've not made too many posts this month. I was away last weekend but I'd heard that the Twin Cities received some pretty intense rain. I think the city of Roseville measured 4 or 5 inches and there was even a part of a railroad track that washed out and derailed a train in Fridley, MN. I had no idea that the park was so severely flooded when I arrived on Wednesday evening. Long stretches of both the wood chip trails and even the paved path were completely underwater and impassable. I had to take a major detour around the ball fields on the west side. On one of the wood chip trails that wasn't flooded I found the Cooper's Hawk nest again. I couldn't see any chicks in the nest this time but as I was looking I scared up the parents who were both roosting further down below the nest. One flew along the trail and perched again just a little ways further down. I walked slowly right underneath it and paused just once to snap a quick pic. As I continued around I came across more and more flooding. For some odd reason I'd started on the north side and went counter-clockwise today which proved to put me in a predicament. Coming around the south east side, I found the paved trail completely flooded. There was literally no other way to get back to my vehicle -that is unless I wanted to walk along 69th Avenue. I decided to just go through the water versus backtracking. I couldn't tell how deep it was but I soon realized it was pretty close to the tops of my shoes and my feet were quickly soaked. After I'd gotten through, I came to yet another flooded portion of trail. Since I was already wet, I kept going and found this portion to be even deeper, way above my shoes. Yuck! In just minutes time I reeked of stale swamp water. Just before getting back to my vehicle, I noticed 5 or 6 Great Egrets hunting in the water which used to be the baseball fields. This is officially the highest water I've ever seen at the park.

Hot Hot Hot

It was nearly 12:30 in the afternoon by the time I arrived at the park this Sunday. It was extremely hot and humid today and I'm learning that I deal better with cold temps than I do with hot. During my entire walk today all I could think about was how hot I was! Minnesota doesn't just get hot but it also gets some pretty extreme humidity -sometimes much worse than even Florida. With the hot temps I really didn't see much for the first half of my walk. When I came to the footbridge over Shingle Creek on the north side, I stopped in my normal spot to take a photo of the creek. I rested my arms on the metal railing as usual but pulled them off quickly as I nearly burned myself on the hot metal! There was a female Wood Duck with quite a few ducklings on north side of the bridge and I almost envied them floating along in the cool water. Not too much later on the northeast side, I spotted a Doe quite close to the edge of the trail. I watched behind her and quickly noticed a pair of fawns trailing behind. A lot of times when I encounter Deer very closely at the park I will crouch on my knees and lower myself to appear shorter and smaller. Surprisingly this has worked to my advantage time after time and generally the Deer will either pay me no mind or even walk closer towards me. This was the case again today as the Doe walked almost within arms reach of me. The Fawns followed right behind but scanned the crossing well before venturing across. Each Fawn was only in plain sight for just seconds before they jumped across the trail. I tried for some more photos at this point but they were already moving so fast that I wasn't able to focus very well. Later in my walk I spotted an Indigo Bunting but was not able to get a photo. I stalked it for a little while, listening to it's call and trying to devise a pattern in my head to remember if I heard it again. I remember it seemed to have 7 notes with an emphasis on the first 2 but I will have to look it up and see if indeed I was listening to the correct bird.

Good Summertime Walk

I arrived at the park just after 9:30am this Saturday. It was already warming up to near 80º and I wondered what I would see if anything. There are fields of tiny yellow wildflowers near the south side that stretch quite a ways out towards the middle of the park now. These areas can look more yellow than green. As I was looking closer at one of the flowers I noticed this white moth on the underside of a flower clump. I think these are the same common white moths that never seem to stay still so I took advantage and grabbed a photo. Later on the wood chip trail I noticed a few Dragonflies with almost a bright yellow body. I'm paying a bit more attention to them now after learning just a few varieties recently. There were two of this color hanging out together and it took me a while to sneak in close enough for a photo without scaring them away. I will have to learn what this variety is called. On the northeast side I ran into another park-goer who was obviously watching something outside of the trail. I spotted two Fawns right away as they were not that far off the trail and heading slowly closer. These are the first pair of Fawns I've seen this year and they are quite big already -much bigger than the small ones I'd spotted in the month of June a couple years back. I waited patiently for a good photo but had the toughest time getting a clear shot as the pair were still shorter than most of the surrounding foliage. It's a bit darker in this area too and I just couldn't steady my camera long enough to focus well. As I was heading back to the south side I heard a bird call that I can now easily recognize clearly as a Common Yellowthroat. I scanned the spindly young Willow trees surrounding the little pond and eventually found him there. I'm not sure what it is about Willow trees but I've found Yellowthroats there more often than anywhere else. Sometimes the Willow leaves can look almost the same color yellow so I wonder if it is just a safe place to roost for them. I wonder about why this bird has such a dark coloring right across it's eye. I have a feeling it is an adaptation of being most active in the bright summer sunshine.

One Extra Day

Today was Monday and the 4th of July so I had an extra day to visit the park. Today also marked a special occasion because my hike was with a fellow nature lover -someone whom I'd actually met at the park itself. Paul is amazingly knowledgeable in all kinds of aspects when it comes to nature and wildlife. I thought birding was quite a challenge until Paul was showing me how to identify Dragonflies and Damselflies. We tried catching a few with a net and I snapped a quick photo of this one as he was holding it. This is the same bright blue one I've been so fascinated with and previously referred to as a "Dragonfly." I now know it is in fact a "Damselfly" because it holds its wings parallel with it's body when at rest. I believe it's name is a Common Blue Damselfly. I also learned to spot a male and female "12-spot" Dragonfly. Later while near the south west side of the park a Hawk swooped overhead and perched close by. It moved a short time later to another tree but stayed in close proximity. We had a few good glimpses and could tell pretty quickly that it was a Coopers Hawk. I always think their back side had almost a blue-ish color and this was definitely the case. As we stood there watching it we were thinking it's behavior was rather territorial. Then we looked almost straight up to realize we were directly underneath a large nest. Furthermore there was a Chick visible in the nest! Paul said he saw some movement indicating another one but it must have been further down inside the nest. This was quite a sight as I've never really seen a young raptor before. Their eyes and beak look almost way too big for their head. Paul and I also had lots of fun watching the Osprey who where back again today. In fact, we spotted three of them together! In addition I think we may have found their favorite place to perch and eat the fish they are pulling out of the lake.

Great Day of Birding

It was another warm day this Sunday but I got a slightly earlier start than yesterday. Even so I was eager to head into the cover of trees on the southwestern wood chip trail. About half way up the trail I spotted a large Hawk perched and facing directly towards me. From this vantage point I couldn't see it's tail or backside and it was also hard to tell the coloring as I was looking into the sun. Interestingly it was sitting on one leg with the other tucked in towards it's breast. Based on it's size and what little I could see, I would guess that it's a Red-tailed Hawk. It's head and beak looked too large for a Cooper's Hawk. He quickly flew off before I could definitively ID him although I still struggle with Hawks in general. As I made my way around I was able to positively ID a fairly long list of other birds including a Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker, Brown-headed Cowbird, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Song Sparrow, Crow, Common Grackle, Northern Flicker, Cardinal, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Osprey and even a Blue Jay. The best bird sighting of the day however was the first Hummingbird of the season. On top of that it was smack dab in the place where I've been expecting one to be. I've been scanning the tops of these 4 or 5 dead trees on the northeast side for weeks hoping to see one and finally got lucky today. I got off one shot and as I was taking the 2nd, I could see him take off already. Luckily the camera went off not a moment too soon. Hopefully I will start to see them more often now. Another slightly interesting sighting was at the end of my walk right before I was about to head to my vehicle. This bird had a slightly larger and fuzzier head than most which is what caught my eye. It perched on a small branch and then would dart out for just a second before returning. I'm assuming it was catching insects and this behavior matches up with the description for an Eastern Phoebe.

First Saturday in July

Summer is in full swing now and our temps have easily been reaching highs of 80 to 90º. It's something I just don't feel very used to anymore especially after our long winter and slow, drawn-out spring. It would have been better to arrive earlier in the day to avoid the heat but unfortunately I got a late start around 11:30 today. There wasn't much of interest until I'd gone more than half way around the park. On the east side I glanced up and noticed this Great Egret in a dead tree above a little pond. Maybe the warm weather will start to attract some more of them as their numbers seem to be down in comparison to previous years. In this very same area, I noticed an odd looking bird on the ground in the grass with his head cocked towards the sky. It wasn't easily recognizable so I looked closer and grabbed a few pictures. He kept his head at this funny angle for quite a while before taking off. I only noticed after I got home that there were markings on his head that very much reminded me of an American Kestral. Could it have been a young one possibly? It is my best guess at this point. Almost the entire way around I'd been catching periodic glimpses of what I'd suspected was an Osprey. It was circling around the park over the water and when it finally perched in a tall, dead tree I was able to confirm with my binoculars. When I got to the railroad ties overlooking the water, he was just overhead and I got to see him quite close up. This was the first positive ID I'd made of an Osprey at the park, although others have told me they've seen them before. They are quite fun to watch as they will hover for a few seconds before diving straight down into the water to grab a fish. My camera is not really meant to be capturing birds in flight but I tried anyway. That is the reason this photo is cropped so strangely.