Same Places, New Faces

Except for one of my photos posted today, you probably wouldn't guess that there is still snow on the ground. All of the paved trails have a few inches and it's getting to be late enough in the season that it will just be left to melt versus taking the time to clear it. I've been wanting badly to see the newly born Owlet on the north end of the park. But I also haven't wanted to disturb them. I figured today I could be a little more quiet walking on top of the snow so I hiked quickly out to the tree and past it by just a little. The mother stayed perched only inches from the nest and indeed when I looked up I could see a little face peering over the leaves at me! This was my first good look at the Owlet. A friend of mine has told me that there are two of them but I could not see any signs of another one. Again time will tell. I only stood here long enough for 2 to 3 pics and then hiked back out another direction. On the north side of the park I could see many flocks of birds going over the park. One or two of those flocks looked different enough to have a look through my binoculars. This one was a group of Double-crested Cormorants –which is a fairly common bird around here but one I have not posted on the blog before. Probably the reason being is that I rarely see any on the ground or on the water here. I'm not sure why I've never seen any stop before. Maybe they are but not staying for very long. My guess is that they were heading for the river instead. If you look closely at the photo (click on it for a larger image) you will see their bright orange bills. There is already signs of new growth and greening up at the park, but I thought this photo about tells it all. Plants and grass here in Minnesota are hearty enough to poke right out through the snow in search of sunlight. On April 6th, I saw my first Blue-winged Teal of the season and I'm guessing that I will see much more of them. As the sun was setting this evening I spotted this male quite close to me on the drainage ditch on the north side. I read somewhere recently that the Blue-winged Teal is the waterfowl with the second highest population in our state –behind only the Mallard. But I've never seen any with ducklings before so I'm guessing that they move further north before nesting. I was really pushing the daylight near the end of my walk but I spotted one more bird I wanted a photo of. The Fox Sparrow is also one of those birds that straddle winter and spring here in Minnesota. They are much larger than your average Sparrow, though they have somewhat similar plumage. It is hard to tell from this particular photo, but they have a lot of grey coloring at the top of their head and neck, which besides their size, is the next best way to identify them. They also have a unique song that I think I mis-identify nearly every year. I think it sounds a little bit like a Goldfinch, and so I assume that is what I am hearing.