Late June and Blue Skies

Skies were blue this Sunday morning but the foliage was covered in rain drops from earlier. One of the first birds I encountered was this stately looking Tree Swallow perched over one of the small ponds. After rain subsides it always seems like bird activity picks up and so it was today. I saw a number of good species including a female Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, Gray Catbird, Baltimore Oriole, Black-capped Chickadee, Mallard, House Finch, American Redstart, American Goldfinch and American Robin. Most birds were busy feeding either themselves or bringing the food back to nests. I also saw large clumps of Common Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed and a pretty patch of these tiny white flowers called "Fleabane."

A Lot of Birds and Sun

I had this Friday off of work and it was a beautiful day to watch wildlife in the park. There are many dozens of Mallard chicks on the little ponds now and they are fun to watch scoot across the water after their parents. Near one of these little ponds I noticed a female Red-winged Blackbird straddling between two Cattail stems. Although she had her back to me she turned her head and I thought it made a nice picture! The females can actually be more fun and easy to photograph because they're not solid black like the males where you don't see many feather details. Near the northwest corner of the park I happened upon a vocal little bird that ended up coming closer to me when I "pished" (making a sound that sometimes draws curious birds closer). It ended up to be a Warbling Vireo and this is likely the best views I've had of this species so far. It came down to nearly eye level and posed well for me a number of times. I could see even with my naked eye that it had some feathers missing near the bottom of it's breast and so it's possible it escaped a larger bird of prey in recent times. As with all Vireo species, you can see a very thin "hook" at the end of it's bill but I'm not exactly sure why this is. There were also many Tree Swallows visible today. This species and other Swallows are almost always seen in flight and seeing one perched is always a treat. Their blueish feathering is highly reflective but this one also had a lot of brown visible so it could have been a first Spring bird. Later I stumbled upon a nice big Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant which is a native Minnesota wildflower. Other birds seen today included; Baltimore Oriole, American Goldfinch, Wood Duck, Common Grackle, Killdeer, Yellow Warbler, American Redstart (male and female), Least Flycatcher, Hairy Woodpecker, Mourning Dove, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and an Eastern Kingbird –a species I rarely see here for some reason!

A Beautiful Morning and a New Species!

I arrived at the park around 9:30am today and had decided on taking my portable stool with me in the hopes I might find another hotspot for bird watching. Looking back at my blog, it has been almost a year to the day since I had seen the Scarlet Tanager on the ground along the wood chip trail on the southwest side. So I headed to this area just in case he decided to show up again. But before I got there I did a lap around both of the baseball fields on the west side in hopes of maybe seeing a Savannah Sparrow that another birder had spotted yesterday. No such luck there but I did run into a very brave little Tree Swallow who stayed put despite me coming up to within just feet of him. Tree Swallows have been around for some time now but this is my first good photo of one this season. Also perched on the chain link fencing were a pair of Eastern Bluebirds. I can almost count on seeing Bluebirds near these baseball fields for the past few years at least. I tried to get close to the male but he quickly scared off and flew to cover in the edge of the woods just beyond the outfield. Here he didn't mind me as much. It was the exact same tree where I'd photographed the male last year –and for all I know it might even be the very same bird! Later while scouring the wood chip trail for any possible signs of a Tanager, I could hear two different Great Crested Flycatchers calling to each other. They sounded very close so I was hoping I might get a photo but when I finally found one, I was directly underneath it and facing into the sun. This is a particularly interesting and colorful bird so I'm hoping I get more opportunities to see them this season. I finally parked on my stool here, far enough back into the woods where nobody on the trail might see me. I thought about how it wont be long before mosquitoes make it much harder to just sit in one place for a while. I really wasn't seeing anything here so I ended up moving further down the trail and sitting along the water way that connects the two western most bodies of water. Here I saw a Great Blue Heron but it scared off quickly before I got a photo. But in the Buckthorn ahead to my left I caught a glimpse of a small bird moving around quickly like a Warbler. I couldn't tell quite what it was but suspected that maybe it was a Tennessee Warbler. It had somewhat drab coloring the way Tennessee's do but when it finally presented itself in a clearing, I appeared more like a Vireo. But again it didn't quite look like a Vireo that I am familiar with. I wondered if it was maybe a female or juvenile until I got home and looked in my Stokes field guide. The bird that looked most similar was a Warbling Vireo –something I've not positively identified before. I went one extra step in confirming my suspicion, by posting my photo on the Minnesota Birding facebook page, where a couple of other birders agreed. This was kind of exciting as it's been some time now since I've come across a new species at the park! Indeed with bird watching, there is always more to learn. Later I went to the very end of the wood chip trail specifically to photograph the Marsh Marigold that I noticed flowering yesterday. I don't know a whole lot about this plant, other than the habitat and time of year to find it. I did learn though today from the Minnesota Wildflowers website, that the plant is also known as "cowslip."

Early Spring and TWO Brand New Species!!!

At this time last year Spring-like weather had been in full swing for nearly a month already. Last January felt more like February, February more like March and March more like April. But this year has been nearly the opposite -seeming like our weather is one month behind instead. But after today it feels like Spring has finally arrived after all. Very early in the morning we awoke to claps of thunder and lightning which led to a steady downpour of rain most of the early morning. I was itching to go for a bird hike so badly that I put on my full rain suit top and bottom and grabbed my old "pocket-sized" camera instead of my newer DSLR which is impossible to keep dry. By the time I arrived however it had completely stopped raining and I could just tell how much stuff was going to be out today. You could just feel it in the air -and hear it as well! I drove back home, ditched my rain pants and grabbed my newer camera -and boy was I glad that I did. Sometime during the week a LOT of other Red-winged Blackbirds have found their way back to the park and they could be heard abundantly today -though all males so far. If I were to define Spring with a "sound" it would be that of the RWB. I was very hopeful that today I might catch a glimpse of at least one returning species of bird -and it didn't take long until I did. The first were Tree Swallows that were zooming all over the cattails on the north side. There were maybe 4-5 of them and they just continuously flew back and forth, climbing and diving over and over again. I waited for a long while hoping to catch one perched for a bit but they never took a break. So to prove my first sighting for the season I had to attempt to catch one in flight which proved pretty difficult. Along the way I had already heard lots of Goldfinches chirping away but I was finally able to spot a group of them feeding on seeds from last year's plants. Though Goldfinches might not completely leave our state during the winter, they don't always stay around the park in the winter. In fact I'd say you are more likely to see a Robin versus a Goldfinch at PLP in the wintertime. I'd already spotted a Goldfinch last weekend that was quite yellow already but didn't get a shot of one until today. There were both males and females in various stages of "yellowing up" for the season -yet another sure sign of Spring. When I got to the bridge over Shingle Creek I could see lots of waterfowl way downstream through my binoculars. They were very far away but I thought I caught a glimpse of something interesting like a Goldeneye maybe. I also knew that Hooded Mergansers had been spotted a couple weeks ago already up at the Coon Rapids Dam area so I was hoping I might see some of them as well. I decided to hike downstream along the banks of the creek, attempting to avoid the loud, crunchy snow wherever I could. After making lots of noise and pushing all the waterfowl further downstream I finally made it to the last big Cottonwood and kind of crouched behind it for a while. From here I could tell that there were quite a few Hoodies and Wood Ducks on the water but I had to let them forget I was there and then hopefully they would move in closer to me. My plan worked when after a while a pair of male and female Hoodies decided to swim right past me. I just absolutely love seeing the males -especially when they lift their crown all the way up. This one didn't do so as they swam by but it was quite awesome to see them so closely. After I was satisfied I'd gotten a decent photo in there somewhere, I waited for another long while just in case more came back upstream. I was getting tired of waiting when I popped my head around the corner of the tree and was shocked to see a beautifully colored duck that I'd clearly never seen before! It had beautiful silver sides, a strangely patterned black and white bill, and very bright yellowy orange eyes. This was likely the same duck I'd seen from a distance and guessed was maybe a Goldeneye. Right when I saw it, the duck had just come up from underneath the water with a little fish of some kind in it's bill. Of course when it saw me it immediately turned the other way and kept getting further and further away. I wildly snapped as many photos as I could but of course I was not holding as steady as I should have in my excitement. I did not know at the time that what I was seeing was in fact a "Ring-necked Duck" per my new Stokes Field Guide. You can just barely make out the faint brown "ring" around this male's neck for which they are named. A completely brand new species for me! I was so happy after seeing this that the rest of my walk could have been in the dark for all I cared. BUT, as I was heading back to my vehicle I couldn't help but notice yet another interesting bird wading in an area flooded by melting snow and hopping from one clump of grass to the next. As the time of year seemed right, I assumed I was seeing my first Grackle of the season. Grackles are not quite all that interesting or uncommon but I do like their iridescent blue-purple heads so I went in for a closer look. I watched a pair of them turning over leaves and grasses but wasn't quite seeing that beautiful head I was looking for. Even upon coming home to show my wife my photos for the day, I still told her I'd seen my first Grackle. But upon picking my best photo to post I started to wonder if this was indeed a Grackle at all! I pulled out my field guides and pretty instantly realized that it's beak was not as big and thick as that of a Grackle, though it did bright yellow eyes telling me that it was NOT an immature Red-winged Blackbird. I had a hunch of what it might be but I decided to immediately post my photo into a new "discussion topic" on the Birdshare group of Flickr and ask others opinions. Sure enough, so far the general consensus is that I saw a Rusty Blackbird -a second brand new species to me! In total, I counted 24 species in just one day today which might also be a personal record for me so far at PLP!

A New Wednesday

By mid-week I was really itching to get outside and to the park -especially seeing as how we're still in a trend of crummy weekends and nice week-days. With help from a friend, I'd recently installed a Bluebird box onto the east side of park. Today I planned to go off road a bit just to check on it and see if there was any activity yet. It's been a while since I've spotted a Bluebird and I was hoping I might stir one up on my way. I watched the favored dead tree for a bit and noticed a pair of mating Tree Swallows. It was easy to tell which one was the Male this time as he would fly in and hover around the female. In the past few weeks I've seen dozens of Swallows but no Bluebirds. There was also no activity at my new Bluebird house which makes me wonder where they've all gone. There were a fair amount of interesting birds noticeable tonight despite my attempts to make it around the park quickly. Parts of the park are deafening with the sounds of birds -mainly warblers with their high pitched, rapid songs. I was lucky enough to look up at the right time to catch this American Redstart -a bird which I doubt I will ever capture a satisfactory photo of. They are elusive, move fast and prefer dense tree-tops, making them quite a challenge to capture. I think nearly every one of my (handful of) pictures of them are taken from directly underneath versus straight on. Seeing and photographing this one actually reminded me of an encounter with one last year in which I was able to see one closer to eye-level. So when I came to that part of the park again later on the west side, I made my way through the small Willow trees up to the water's edge hoping I might recreate that sighting. As before, I picked a spot with a better view and just stood there waiting to see what might stop by. I saw a few Cowbirds, Red-wings, Grackles and even Orioles before an unusual bird came into view. It was mostly drab in color and from the size I quickly mistook it for an Eastern Phoebe. There was one obvious marking however that I don't associate with Phoebe's and that was a white eye-ring. Being still the novice birder that I am, my thoughts immediately jumped to some type of new warbler. However, after showing the photo to more experienced birders, they suggested a "Least Flycatcher." This is a bird I'm not that familiar with -being not included in my Birds of Minnesota Field Guide from Stan Tekiela. My photo is a near-perfect match with the illustration in my more comprehensive Peterson Field Guide, so I am pretty sure that this is what I saw. This adds additional species to my list of birds at PLP so it was a good visit indeed!

Last Day of April

I had this Monday off of work today and it was one more chance to walk at the park. In keeping with our weather pattern, this first day of the work week was by far nicer than either Saturday or Sunday. The first thing I spotted was on the south east side was this Grackle that I was able to catch through a break in the cattails. I'm always fascinated with capturing any birds with iridescent coloring as they can appear so brilliantly colored in certain light, then nearly black if you take one extra step in either direction. Later I spotted a Blue-winged Teal together with pair of Wood Ducks but my photos turned out pretty crummy. On the north east side I spotted one Bluebird perched out in some dead trees so of course I just had to walk out into the area. From a distance I could see the brightest yellow Goldfinch I think I've ever seen. The light was just right and he was perched against a background of newly greening trees. I never thought I'd get too close but figured I would try anyway. He stayed put until I was almost right up on him at which point I was able to get better photos than I'd every gotten before. My feet were getting a bit wet out here in the swampy areas so I headed back to the paved trail. Later on though I veered off trail again just to see what I might see. Again from quite a distance I spotted a Tree Swallow and wondered if I might be able to get in closer for a better shot. Every time I would gain 5 feet or so I would take a new series of photos as you never know when a bird is going to just take off. But I found myself doing this over and over and over with the Swallow never moving as I got closer. Even with the crunching dead grass under my feet he stayed put on the same branch looking out over the middle of the park. Eventually I found myself nearly right underneath him yet he stayed put. I actually had to back away a bit to get a better shot! Only after I was satisfied with the quantity of photos I'd taken and I moved quickly in the opposite direction did the Swallow finally move on from his perch. It was a good day for getting close to birds!

Three Firsts on April 1st

Today was colder still than yesterday and with a brisk wind to boot. I almost opted for my winter hat but figured I could tough it out with just my baseball cap. I was hoping to see a Bluebird today and spent a lot of time just standing around and watching a small scrubby patch of woods near the east side baseball diamonds. The only thing I saw there was a Downy woodpecker. Shortly after though, I did spot my first Tree Swallow of the year. He was perched out on a dead tree with a nice round hole in the side. More than once the Swallow flew up to the opening and peered inside, checking out whether it would make a good home or not. I wanted to get a better photo and I decided to walk in towards the tree. The ground is very low and wet here so I was careful where to step. I'd only gone roughly 15 feet off of the paved trail when there lying at my feet was a very large Deer Antler! It was lying with the tines sticking upward and I could barely believe my eyes. I half thought that maybe somebody was playing a prank on me and I peered over both shoulders behind me to see if anyone else was around but there wasn't. I've looked and looked and looked for antler sheds at the park with no luck whatsoever and here today a little bird led me right to one! I always told myself that if I ever found one I would take a picture of it before I picked it up. I did so but only had my zoom lens with and wasn't able to get a very wide shot showing the surroundings. It does show however how easily it probably blended into the background against the dead cattails and grasses of the same color. It was the first shed I've ever found and it couldn't have been a nicer one! As I carried it with me around the rest of the park, lots of people came up to me to see it and ask questions. One couple walking past said "I bet you didn't find that today" to which I replied "I DID actually!" I think most people assume that Deer shed their antlers much earlier in the year. I'm no expert, but around here in the city -and Palmer Lake Park specifically, I've seen Deer with full antlers pretty late in the season. Last year I remember quite well spotting a Buck with antlers on March 28th. Maybe further north in the state, they drop them earlier? I don't know for sure. Regardless, I now firmly believe that my previous shed-hunting efforts have been much to early. Towards the northern end of the park I walked off the trail again, heading towards the sound of a bunch of Crows that had obviously found a raptor of some kind to bother. Eventually I flushed out the Raptor but it flew directly away from me and I couldn't tell exactly what it was. When I popped back out on the trail, another park goer was looking at my camera and asked me if I wanted to see an Owls nest. I followed him back out of the park to a tree just barely inside the park. About half way up, he pointed out what looked like a rather small, old Squirrel's nest and there sitting on it was a Great Horned Owl! I felt a bit bad being this close and I certainly didn't want to spook it, as it was obviously sitting on either eggs, or possibly even newly hatched chicks! I took just a couple of photos and then headed back. It was the first nesting Owl I've ever seen.

Spring on steroids

Spring-like weather seems to have taken forever to arrive this year, but today it felt like we skipped spring altogether and went right into summer! The temp was unusually high at 73º and on top of that it was extremely humid -quite strange for early April! It made for a great visit though as I spent nearly 2 hours making my way around and taking just under 100 photos. I had a hard time choosing what to post because I saw so much. First were a pair of Tree Swallows that were zooming around one of the wooden bird houses on the north side. It's an exciting sign of more colorful birds starting to come back to the park. Just a short time later I was stunned to see a 3 foot Garter Snake on the path. It seemed a bit early to see a snake but I was just now checking my older posts and saw that my first snake sighting last year was Sunday, April 11th -so exactly one year ago to the day. What are the odds of that? Surprisingly, snakes weren't the only reptile out today. I later saw a few painted turtles sunning themselves in the small body of water by the east side baseball fields. I shot a couple pics but as I walked further I ran into 2 more just sitting on the ground right off the trail. This side of the park was quite flooded by snow melt and there's still water everywhere hence the turtles. I've seen Great Blue Herons flying overhead since late March but I've not seen many stop in the park until recently. I swear they are 10 times more skittish than any Deer in the park so I often have to stalk them for a while to get a decent photo. They are an interesting bird as they can look quite different in every photo. I had an easier time locating this one against the backdrop of cattails by looking for his reflection in the water so I decided to include that in my photo. As I was making my way back to the parking lot I could see Bald Eagle seemingly sitting right on top of the water. As I got closer I could see that he was perched on a small portion of a branch barely jutting above the surface. It was funny because Canada Geese would swim right by him and he would tip his head as if he thought they were strange looking birds or something. He put his wings up once to balance himself as he turned to face the other way but I missed that picture moment.

Still no deer

I the last two weeks I've not seen a single deer. This is pretty unusual as up until then I was seeing plenty of them. Earlier this spring I estimate that I'd seen 8-10 on every visit. In fact I'm going to remove my Deer Sightings Map as I've just not been able to keep up. In exchange for deer I've been seeing plenty of birds, and lately a lot of Wood Ducks. This female had 6 or more babies with her but they wouldn't stay still for a photo. Later on I spotted this white breasted bird with a shiny blue head and feathers. I think it is a Tree Swallow as Barn Swallows have an orange belly.