I could hardly believe when I looked at my last post date that it's been a full 20 days since I last visited the park! And if you aren't from Minnesota, you wouldn't
believe the weather that we've had since then! On that last visit on March 31st, I was convinced (as well as most other Minnesotan's) that Spring was finally here. That seems like ages ago because since then we've had 2 (or 3?) significant snowfalls, freezing rain and temps well below freezing again! Pretty much the first 3/4ths of April has felt more like January! The weather didn't stop me from birding however, but I've been visiting other places such as the Coon Rapids Dam in Brooklyn Park to see some fantastic new species of waterfowl I'd never seen before. Palmer Lake Park attracts quite a variety of species but there are just certain things you would never likely see there. Anyway, after receiving another 6-8" of wet, heavy snow only 2 days ago (OMG enough already), the sun came out today and tipped the temps into the upper 40's!
It was nearly 5:30 by the time I got to the park -with my wife today- and we hiked the paved trails only. One thing I spotted on the north side was a bird I'd actually seen at my office in NE Minneapolis the day before. I recognized it was the same bird by it's bright, rusty-red tail feathers and the way it preferred the ground versus the trees. I really had no idea what it was -only that I knew it was not something I see often. For whatever reason I was too lazy to thumb through my new
Stokes Field Guide and opted instead to ask for ID assistance on the
Birdshare group on flickr. Wouldn't you know it, 2 of my closest flickr contacts quickly ID's the bird for me as a Hermit Thrush. This is a bird I'd only seen and photographed just one time before -last April at PLP. Later as we looked out over the cattails, we noticed a big mature Bald Eagle flying fairly low and slow.
He seemed to be letting his feet dangle downward which looked a little odd and we wondered if he was about to grab something. He continued circling slowly over the middle almost hovering in midair when finally he dove down into the weeds. He quickly came up with something long and thin, and the only thing I can think is that it was a snake. He was too far away for a decent photo so we really couldn't tell, but it was a neat thing to see. On the west side near the baseball diamonds we noticed 1, then 2 then 3 deer standing just inside the trail. They were fairly close already but as we stopped to watch them, the one in the back became so curious that it inched closer to us even as we talked. I bent down on my knee like I often do when encountering Deer at the park.
It helps me stabilize my photo but I've also found that the Deer seem to find you more approachable when you make yourself smaller than them. Sure enough this younger looking one nearly walked right up to us. I didn't notice at first but as it put it's head down to the ground to smell, I saw two very tiny little gray bumps telling me it was a very young Buck. I shot quite a few photos and actually backed away from him in order to get better photos as he was now too close! It was nice to see one so closely again and was a nice end to our walk today!
It was nearly 5:30 by the time I got to the park -with my wife today- and we hiked the paved trails only. One thing I spotted on the north side was a bird I'd actually seen at my office in NE Minneapolis the day before. I recognized it was the same bird by it's bright, rusty-red tail feathers and the way it preferred the ground versus the trees. I really had no idea what it was -only that I knew it was not something I see often. For whatever reason I was too lazy to thumb through my new Stokes Field Guide and opted instead to ask for ID assistance on the Birdshare group on flickr. Wouldn't you know it, 2 of my closest flickr contacts quickly ID's the bird for me as a Hermit Thrush. This is a bird I'd only seen and photographed just one time before -last April at PLP. Later as we looked out over the cattails, we noticed a big mature Bald Eagle flying fairly low and slow. 
He seemed to be letting his feet dangle downward which looked a little odd and we wondered if he was about to grab something. He continued circling slowly over the middle almost hovering in midair when finally he dove down into the weeds. He quickly came up with something long and thin, and the only thing I can think is that it was a snake. He was too far away for a decent photo so we really couldn't tell, but it was a neat thing to see. On the west side near the baseball diamonds we noticed 1, then 2 then 3 deer standing just inside the trail. They were fairly close already but as we stopped to watch them, the one in the back became so curious that it inched closer to us even as we talked. I bent down on my knee like I often do when encountering Deer at the park. 
It helps me stabilize my photo but I've also found that the Deer seem to find you more approachable when you make yourself smaller than them. Sure enough this younger looking one nearly walked right up to us. I didn't notice at first but as it put it's head down to the ground to smell, I saw two very tiny little gray bumps telling me it was a very young Buck. I shot quite a few photos and actually backed away from him in order to get better photos as he was now too close! It was nice to see one so closely again and was a nice end to our walk today!
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