Nearing Thanksgiving

My visit to the park this Sunday morning included a stop at the "duck pond" on the southwest corner of the park. Mallards have already started to congregate and it makes me think of the hundreds of ducks that may be huddled here in the winter. It's always fun to stop and look through the Mallards in hopes of finding anything other than a Mallard. Kind of like "Where's Waldo." I couldn't find anything of interest but took a few photos of the green heads that I like so much. Later on the north side when I came to the bridge, I noticed the faint amber sun reflecting on the open water of Shingle Creek. It was a very pretty sight, and later when I bumped into a friend, he lamented about it as well. Interestingly I took this photo at 10:30 in the morning. Looking at it later it looks like it could near sunset. The sun is so low this time of year in Minnesota, that it never really gets overhead. My friend and I then hiked together for a while, looking around to see what we could find. To our surprise we stumbled upon a pair of Great Horned Owls, perched somewhat near other and likely a mated pair. One of the Owls flew from it's perch in no time at all. Conditions were quite dark by this time but I took some photos anyway of the other Owl. It was fun to see Great Horned's again and I'm hoping they will find a place to nest somewhere in the park this winter.

May 9th, 2016

Birds seen today: Northern Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, Baltimore Oriole, Warbling Vireo, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Female Red-winged Blackbird with nesting material, and a male Northern Flicker on the ground possibly looking for ants.

 

My "Big Month" of May Day 8

I arrived at the park just before 8:00am this Sunday and spent the next 3 hours trying to add new birds to my monthly list. Though I only managed poor shots, I saw the following species in the first 45 minutes or so; Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Wood Duck, Mourning Dove, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow Warbler and Baltimore Oriole. Then things started getting interesting as I spotted not just one but two different migratory Sparrows that gave me the best looks I've ever had at both species. The first was a curious little Lincoln's Sparrow and if I'm not mistaken, this is the first positive ID I've made on this bird on my own! This drab looking Sparrow is easy to confuse with other Sparrows, but it was so close to me that I could see the gray patch on the head along with the fine streaks on it's tan (buffy) colored breast and a noticeable "eye ring." I tried repositioning myself for better light and ended up catching a photo with some green in the background that I really like. This bird didn't stick around as long as I'd hoped so I turned my attention toward a bright male Yellow Warbler. Mostly this bird stayed out in a clump of Pussy Willow where it really stood out against a nice green background of spring. But after a while it did come in a bit closer for better looks. In comparison to a Goldfinch, the Yellow Warbler is much more of an "orangey" yellow. Say like a School Bus color. The male of the species also sports orangey-red streaking on his breast making him look even more "deep yellow." After stopping to admire and photograph some wildflowers including various colors of Violets, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and some beautiful Marsh Marigold, I heard an enthusiastic bird singing from the cattails. It was perched near the top of the cattails and I could tell it was a Sparrow, but which one? It did not sound familiar to me so I inched closer while lowering my profile to keep lower than the height of the plants. To my surprise it was a Swamp Sparrow, a species I've seen from distances before but have never gotten very close to. Today was my lucky day as this particular bird allowed me great looks while it sang it's heart out. Sparrows can be tricky to tell apart from one another but to me the Swamp Sparrow is one that kind of sticks out due to it's warm red/rusty wings (without wing bars or stripes) combined with a lot of gray on the head, neck and breast. I felt very lucky to have spent as much time observing this colorful little character for as long as I did today! Other species seen today included; Brown-headed Cowbird, Canada Goose, Black-capped Chickadee, Great Egret, Gray Catbird and Common Grackle. I also was nearly run over by a 12 year old kid zooming up and down the wood chip trails on a miniature dirt bike! I yelled loudly at him that motorized vehicles weren't allowed in the park and he apologized as he motored away. Sadly I've seen adults riding motorcycles on these trails as well.

Birds, Butterflies and Flowers

Wow I saw a lot of great stuff this Saturday at the park! I spent roughly 3 hours casually strolling around the outer trails but got distracted by some spring wildflowers off the trail. I usually find these Violets in the same area behind the baseball diamonds on the west side where it is typically very wet and sometimes floods. As for Butterflies, I saw a few Cabbage Whites and Red Admirals which is typical for this time of year. There are also Dandelions out already which this Cabbage White Butterfly found attractive. I saw oodles of birds including numerous bright yellow American Goldfinch, Northern Cardinal, Green-winged Teal, Blue-winged Teal, Wood Duck, Canada Goose, lots of Mallard Chicks, American Robin, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker and probably some others I'm forgetting. But possibly the most interesting bird I watched today were Black-capped Chickadees who were busy excavating a nest cavity in a dead tree. I watched both the male and female take turns going into the hole and coming out with a mouthful of wood chips. They timed it perfectly so that as soon as one would come to the entrance of the hole, the other would be ready to fly in. Their teamwork is pretty amazing and fun to watch. If you ever notice a Chickadee with wood chips on it's face, it's fairly safe to assume they've been hard at work! Oh right, I forgot to mention but the Marsh Marigold is also in bloom now near the southwest corner of the park. I just love seeing this native MN wildflower each spring as they are so colorful and short lived. I also saw numerous Painted Turtles today and also two Groundhogs as well. All in all, I took over 700 photos in total today and it was a beautiful day to observe nature :)