Sunny end to April

This has been nicest, warmest April in a long long time and it feels like Summer is just around the corner. I saw four deer on the north side but they all eluded my camera lens. I did notice that a few families of Mallards have just had their babies. They are funny to watch as they almost run across the water trying to keep up. The warm sun made for some nice views on the south side and when I got to the mouth of the lake the Carp were jumping out of the water like crazy. One or two would leap out, flop around and splash back in about every minute or so. I unintentionally managed to catch one in the left hand side of this photo. Shortly after a Muskrat came swimming by and I snapped this pic right before he headed into the cattails. It's kind of neat to see their long rat-like tail. The sun continued with a nice orange sunset.

Earth Day

It was fitting that my record fifth daily visit to the park fell on Earth Day. Even better was that I saw a record 19 deer in one visit! Of course, the last eight or nine could have easily been the same ones I'd seen earlier as the park is just not that big :) The first group I saw on the west side was large but I estimated on the low side at eight. I think then I saw two more, then four more near the bird feeders on the north side, then three more, then two more. They were just everywhere I looked which was pretty fun. Out of all those groups though, I only captured 2 pics worthy of posting and they're of individual deer. I don't remember but I think both of these were from the large group of eight on the west side. After crossing the bridge on the north side I got a surprise as an owl darted out right in front of me and perched in a tree looking over the middle of the park. It was exciting because I just don't see owls here outside of winter time. I figure they must be there in other seasons but seriously, you'd think they're flying south in the springtime because it's rare I see them otherwise. It was getting dark by this time but I was even more excited to see it was a Barred Owl as they are even a bit more uncommon here. Birds of all sizes and colors were out at dusk and it's hard to tell for sure but I think some of them were Brown-headed cowbirds.

Nature's Jackhammer

Today marks my fourth consecutive visit to the park this week. I'm glad I set a goal for more frequent visits as you just never know what you might see. Tonight was certainly no exception as I came across two Pileated Woodpeckers together on the north side. My previous encounters with these birds have been much further away but this evening I was finally able to view them VERY close up! It started as I noticed just one at ground level hammering away at a fallen tree. I found it tough to get a photo of him (or her) as it was so interested in the log that it would crawl towards the underside and disappear beneath the underbrush. I must have taken 50+ photos before I caught one decent one. In addition, this bird hammers away at dead wood like nothing I've ever seen before. After the second bird hopped up onto the same log I had the rare opportunity to see both a male and female at the same time. Together, they made short work of the log and I even saw one of them prying large chunks of bark off with their beak. I tried hard for a shot with both of them together but they never really got close enough. During the long time I watched them, I krept closer ever so slowly and quietly as not to scare the away. I did hear their call a couple times and it immediately made me think of Woody Woodpecker as it was kind of a crazy kind of "laugh." As close as I was, I took close to 100 shots before catching just a few of these blog-worthy pics. While they weren't hammering away, they would pause and pitch their head in about 2-3 different directions within about two seconds. So these photos were no easy task with my $200 point and shoot camera! Note the female has only a partial red "cap" versus the male's complete red cap. The male also had a red "moustache" behind the beak compared to black behind the beak on the female. Quite the subtle difference!

Deer in the same spot

Though this blog is nearing it's one year anniversary, I've actually been visiting Palmer Lake somewhat regularly for closer to three years now. In that time I've noticed that I'll rarely see deer in the same spot twice. If indeed I do spot them in the same area twice, I'll never see them there a third time. Maybe that has more to do with how often I visit, but it does seem consistent. Tonight I again saw a couple deer foraging underneath the Buckthorn bushes on the west side. This is the same place where a group of eight were feeding on April 7th. I think there must be something growing here that is attracting them. My friend and I ended up spotting seven or eight deer tonight especially near sunset. This is obviously the best time to see deer but the worst time to photograph them. Here's the only one that turned out later this evening.

Lots of visits planned

After kind of slacking and visiting the park only once each weekend lately, I've set a new goal for myself to visit every day this week. Tonight was somewhat uneventful though I did see a couple of deer right on the first woodchip trail. They are all looking rather scrawny lately. You can see their ribs and their fur is kind of matted and clumpy -almost like they've been swimming or something. I don't know if it's from just coming off the long winter or what but they definitely all have this appearance since of the beginning of April. Later down the same trail I spotted a large Hawk but didn't get any blog-worthy pictures. Not much else to note until coming back to the south side where there are still Canada Geese at the mouth of Shingle Creek. I assume some of them are nesting in the area based on their back and forth "patrolling" behaviour.

Spring of firsts

With all the Red-winged Blackbirds around it's tough not to keep trying for better photos of them. After watching this one in the cattails, I could tell he was talking to another one closer to me. Now that I know what female Red-wings look like, I looked around and spotted my first in a tree right above me. I took some pics but they didn't turn out very well. Later on I also spotted the first painted turtle of the season in a small slough by the ball fields on the east side. Hoping I'll see some more hatchlings again this summer. When I finally got back to the parking lot there was a lot of activity going on out on the water. A combination of Canada Geese, Mallards and spawning Carp were making quite the noise and prompted me to walk up to the water's edge. The first thing that caught my eye was a Great Blue Heron, also the first I'd seen this year. But as I started snapping pics of him, a strange looking duck swimming right behind caught my eye. He was a way's out there but obviously not a Mallard as his breast was mostly white. In addition he had an almost blue looking head. I watched him for a long time and it was tough to get a shot of him without his head buried in the water. When I finally caught glimpses of him with his head out of the water I could see he had an unusually large bill. Thinking hard back to my bird book I remembered some kind of "Shoveler" duck. Indeed it was a male Northern Shoveler. They apparently eat by filtering aquatic insects and plants with their bill and in this last photo you can kind of see the water draining from his bill. Definitely another first I've seen at Palmer Lake!

Mid-April

The park right now seems to have a perfectly equal measure of green and brown. New green grass creates such a contrast against the dead, greyish brown vegetation of last year. It makes whatever is green seem even more intense. I only saw one deer tonight versus twelve last week.Now that I look at the photo more closely, the bumps on this one's head seem pretty pronounced and I wonder if they might be antler nubs. On the east side I took this photo across a small slough. I thought it would be tough to tell if it were taken in the fall or the spring -the look was so similar. On the south side water overlook, I noticed a lot of activity in the water. Every so often something large would come up barely to the water's surface and plunge back down again, making the water swirl and spin. I'm thinking it had to be carp although I did see a few turtle heads poking out too. This photo is crummy but is obviously the snout of a Snapping Turtle.

Greening up

The small buds I'd noticed a couple of weeks ago are now turning into leaves and the park is slowly becoming green again. I've noticed that birch trees seem to be the first ones although I think this one might be a Boxelder because of the weird reddish colored hanging fruit. Red-winged Blackbirds seem to be taking over the park at this point, but I guess it wouldn't be a swamp without their familiar "chirping." I hadn't thought of it before but I guess only the males have the recognizable red and yellow shoulder patches. According to my bird book, the males return from migration before the females so it makes sense why I've been seeing so many. On the east side I caught a quick glimpse of a Garter Snake getting some sun just off the paved trail. It was between 2 and 3 feet long, and was an unusual sight for so early in the year I thought.

Herd of Deer

It was darn near hot outside this Wednesday evening and I'm still trying to adjust to this early, warm spring. I keep overdressing and finding myself having to tie my sweatshirt around my waist. Lots of people out tonight which made it even stranger to see a large group of deer right off the trail on the west side. Not sure what was attracting them so close to the trail but even when they got spooked by people on the trail, they would come back within a few minutes to munch on something at ground level. They were spread out so much that it took me a while to count them all and determine the total number at eight. This may have been the second largest group I've seen in the park. I never got all of them in one photo but I got close with seven in this one. Occasionally some moved into smaller groups that made for better photos. They all looked like Doe's but at this time of year there would be no antlers to help tell the difference.

Trumpeter Swans

Funny how just a few days ago I spotted the first Swan I've ever seen at Palmer Lake and mistook it for a Trumpeter Swan. Now I'm positive it was a Mute Swan as this morning I saw two Trumpeter Swans and the Mute Swan together -sort of. The pair of black-billed Trumpeter Swans had claimed a tall mound of grass and were busy grooming while the other swan with an orange bill swam behind them. I tried to get a photo of all three together but it didn't turn out. The mound of grass they were on looked like it could have been a nest but I don't know. In the same place I'd photographed the pussy willows last weekend I noticed they've now morphed into green prickly looking things. About this time I was thinking I should have worn my winter hat as the strong wind and 40º temps were actually making my ears cold. It was amazing to think that we hit 80º just two days ago on Thursday! On this blustery morning the last thing I expected to see was a snail crossing the path -especially this early in the year. I get the feeling even nature is confused from our mild March.