A New Month and the Start of Fall

If you haven't realized it yet, I came up with a method of splitting up our 4 seasons into specific months for the purpose of this blog. It's not always perfectly in sync with the weather but I think it works pretty well to say what general season I spotted something in. I use December, January and February for Winter. Then March, April and May for Spring. Summer is June, July and August and Fall is September, October and November. Thus today, September 1st is the kick off of the "Fall" bird-watching season for me. And I was lucky enough to spot a Warbler in Fall plumage this evening after work. On the north side of the park I found a couple of Magnolia Warblers hopping around on some fallen branches very low to the ground. I didn't quite get a good shot but enough to positively ID the bird anyway. In fact this was the only bird I photographed tonight in the dwindling light. In the lighter areas I did notice a few different Dragonflies that were interesting. There's only a few species that I can identify but these were ones I do not know. With the day's getting shorter and cooler, they all seemed to be staying rather still and let me get right up close to them. I thought this one had a lot of color to it!

Summer Solstice 2014

Today is June 21st and the first day of Summer which is also the longest day of the entire year. I made a trip to St. Cloud in the morning with a very brief visit to Munsinger and Clemens Gardens near the river. But by 3:20 in the afternoon I arrived back in the Twin Cities for a nice and long 2+ hour hike at the park. The flurry of spring migrant birds has been over for some time now, but there are a lot of other interesting things to see this time of year. After parking at the culdesac on 73rd Avenue and heading south, I ran into flooded trails that were just too deep to walk through. In 5+ years of hiking around the park, I think this is maybe only the 2nd time I've ever had to detour down Oliver Avenue and all the way down to 69th Avenue just to be able to make my way around the entire loop. But when I got back on the trail, I noticed this big Dragonfly just waiting for me to take it's picture against a nice green background. I had learned in the past year or so to count the number of spots or patches on the wings. This one has 3 dark patches on each of it's 4 wings, making it a Twelve-spotted Skimmer. But what I didn't know is that you can tell it is a female. A male would also have white patches in between the dark patches. I think that is pretty neat! Shortly afterward I'd spotted a brief glimpse of a Green Heron who was perched quite low near the tiny little pond along 69th Avenue. I was bummed because he flew up from his spot right along the trail as I approached. But I saw where he landed and I decided to see if I could close again. He was hanging in the taller trees now on the other side of the pond and I was then able to kind of sneak up on him a little just because there were so many other trees and leaves in the way. Green Herons are a quite beautiful bird and can look slightly different each time I see them. This photo was taken right before he flew off again, but I really like that I caught his bright yellow eye in the sunlight! Probably the single most interesting sighting of my walk today came next as I spotted what first looked like a small snake in the bushes! It was mostly dark and with green stripes giving me the initial impression of a Garter Snake. But upon closer inspection it was quite a large Caterpillar. It was about 4 inches long with a bright orange head and also a sizeable orange spike on it's rear! I have never seen anything like it before. While it chowed down on a plant, I took quite a few photos hoping to ID it later on. And after someone pointed me in the right direction, I was able to narrow it down to a "White-lined Sphinx Moth" Caterpillar. There have been a lot of baby birds or "fledgelings" around the park lately. Some of these can be really tough to identify which species they are as they don't quite show the color or behavior that you're used to seeing in the adults. I saw quite a few young birds that I think were Common Grackles because they were surrounding an adult Grackle in a tree and begging for food. Then shortly later I spotted this one having a bath in the flooded trails on the west side. Adult Grackles have yellow eyes but this ones were grey. However you can kind of see hints of the iridescent purple/blue plumage already developing on it's head. The last item I want to share here today is actually a video, which I don't post that often. To my surprise, I again saw bird activity at the little tree stump on the south end of the park along one of the wood chip trails. I first noticed Black-capped Chickadees appearing to excavate an already existing hole in the very middle of this stump that was cut off at an angle. That was well over a month ago on May 5th! Today I could clearly hear young birds chirping inside the hole so I waited here for a bit. Sure enough a Chickadee came in with a mouthful of food and hopped down into the hole. So I tried my best here to capture a quick video. For whatever reason, the adult appears to leave again with the food still in it's bill, making me wonder if the young ones rejected it for some reason. Still this is pretty neat and is the first confirmed Chickadee nest I have found in the park.

Friends of Palmer Lake Park Nature Hike 2013

This Saturday morning the Friends of Palmer Lake Park (or FPLP) led another "nature hike" around the west side of the park. The event was again free to anyone and there was a decent turnout of about 15+ people. Last year we hiked all the way around the park which with a group of people can take quite a while. So this year it was decided to keep it a bit shorter and thus we hiked mainly the west side and also visited some of the wood chip trails for a change. It is always such a fun group of people who attend –people who really appreciate the outdoors and everything it has to offer. Usually, most of these people are quite knowledgeable about nature and boy can a person learn things from them. In our small group we had people skilled in bird, mammal, insect, plant and tree identification. Someone from the group had brought a few nets so we could again try to catch a few dragonflies. At this time of year they are plentiful and one even landed on Jean's head. We all laughed as she quickly became the focus of our attention and cameras. As far as birds go, we actually did not see a lot in our short hike. A couple we did see were Gray Catbird, and Cedar Waxwing. For whatever reason this hike ended up focusing on more on plants which is not my strong point, but definitely something I have enjoyed learning more about. One little tid-bit I picked up today is what Garlic Mustard (an invasive plant) looks like when it goes to seed. I actually didn't get a photo of that unfortunately but the image is engrained in my mind now and I think I will be able to point it out to others in the future. One more insect that we all spotted was this Yellow Butterfly on the wood chip trail. It was clinging to some leaves right at eye level and so all of us got a great look at it. I have always called these "Yellow Swallowtails" but in fact I believe now the correct name is an "Eastern Tiger Swallowtail." Something I learned later from someone else in our group is that the caterpillar of this species prefers to eat Dill plant. It is something you can plant in your own yard and possibly even attract this type of Butterfly to!

Join us for a Nature Hike!

Friends of Palmer Lake Park has scheduled a Nature Hike on Saturday, August 11, at 8 AM until 10:30 AM. Come for fun and learning as we identify various birds, mammals, plants and even dragonflies that inhabit this gem of a city park. Bring a pair of binoculars if you have them. We will be meeting at the East Palmer Lake Parking Lot at 8:00 am. From 694 exit on Shingle Creek Parkway about a mile North, to 69th Ave. N make a Right to go East. Make a left onto Oliver Ave and go 2 blocks to the parking lot on your left. Or, from 252 go west onto 70th Ave N keep following it past a stop sign to Oliver Ave. where you will make a left and go two blocks to the parking lot on you left, as above.

It is FREE and it is FUN! For more info call 763-228-3383 or email palmerlakeguy@gmail.com

For an online map click here: http://goo.gl/maps/dEUw

Milder start to August

We've finally caught a break from our hot and humid weather. Both the temps and dew points have dropped considerably making it actually comfortable to be outside again. Also we've had no rain for more than 4 or 5 days, so I was able to take the wood chip trails again. As I got onto the first one from the south side, I quickly realized how overgrown things had become. The trail was almost grown shut from both sides with tall Thistle and other weeds. It was somewhere in here I think that I noticed this Dragonfly with a nice bright red tail. I couldn't get a photo of him from the other side but was happy with the detail in the wings. It was right about then that I was getting seriously bit-up by mosquitoes so I had to keep moving. When I got to the north side, I stopped near the flowering bushes where I'd seen Hummingbirds before. I quickly noticed a flash of orange and realized I'd just seen an American Redstart dart off into the taller trees. I waited for a bit with my camera ready and he came back again for just a few seconds. I snapped this quickly and the focus wasn't quite ready but I'm happy just to have captured one again! I noticed later too that he actually has something in his beak. Not sure if it was food or something to build a nest with. Later in the shadier part of the northeast side I spotted the pair of Fawns again. They seem to be in this area a lot and don't even seem to mind the people watching them. One of the two looked right at me before deciding to lay down for a while. I could just barely still see his gigantic ears through the weeds. The other lazily munched on some green leaves with his back to me. I waited for a while for a better angle but the Fawn was more interested in leaves than it was with me.

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.

End of August

I got to the park about the same time as I did yesterday. Our days are still warm but the mornings are now noticeably cooler. I ended up taking about 1/3 as many photos as I did yesterday and struggled to get 3 blog-worthy ones for this post. This first is my favorite and my best attempt so far at a closeup of the giant green Dragonflies that are common this time of year. On the opposite side of the park I f0und myself trudging through some tall weeds in search of a photo of a Blue Jay of all things. He took off before I was even ready but in my view now was a Wood Duck with bright red eyes. I'm actually quite confused to whether this is a male or female. At first glance it appears to be a male but it really lacks the bright coloring on the head and chest. But there's also no visible white ring around the eyes that the females have. So maybe it is just a younger male. Something I see pretty regularly at the park in the summer time are Barn Swallows. But they're rarely sitting still and fluttering around much too quickly for a photo. I often see them just barely skimming the grass on the ball fields -probably catching insects. There were fairly large bunches of them high up in the tree tops on the south east side today and the only really photo opportunity I've ever had of them.

Colorful Monday

It's funny just how long cattails last before they finally seed out, die and sprout new new cattails. I'd say the process takes almost an entire year. I'm just now starting to notice new ones taking shape in the form of tender green stalks. At the top is a weird looking gold outer shell that is seemingly shed somehow. I'm really not sure to be honest but I thought it was a sight you might not see to often. Closer to the north side I came upon a field of flowering thistle plants that were attracting butterflies by the hundreds. There were so many you could see about one butterfly for every 2 or 3 purple flowers. They were all the same species -of which I have no idea so I will need to look up. It's an extremely common one for sure as I see these all the time -just not in the vast quantities I saw today. Just a while later I noticed one lone doe just on the inside of the trail. She was busily munching from the tree tops and it was kind a funny sight. She'd stretch as far upwards as possible to reach the green foliage. I was so hoping I might witness her stand up on her hind legs. I just witnessed a deer do this for the first time ever this spring in a different park near the Mississippi River Valley and boy was that neat. You'd never think they could that but they'll stand right up on two legs and reach leaves nearly 6 feet up! This one apparently had no need to perform such a feat however. Later on the south side I tried taking a few pics of these tiny, blue dragonflies that were latched on everywhere in the tall weeds. I was amazed at how bright blue they were and it was easy to spot them because of their color.

Colorful Morning

Lots and lots of Butterflies and insects out this morning. Almost all of them in the same area on the south side where wildflowers seem to be taking over the field. Spotted this Tiger Swallowtail right away on some flowers of his own color. The "touch-me-not" plants are attracting just about every kind of insects with their small orange flowers. Bumble bees actually crawl right inside them but I couldn't get a photo as they are too quick.







Near the ball fields on the east side I spotted a face in the woods. This was the same place where I saw the Doe and Fawns pop out from.

Back on the south side the turtles were sunning themselves in the creek.
Later, I got a better opportunity for a Bumble Bee pic.