One More In September

After a successful day of cleaning up the park, I was eager for another visit this weekend. I did a quick check on the collected trash bags and thankfully nobody had messed with them overnight. Like yesterday the evening temps were only in the 30's but by noon time it was warming up into the 60's or higher. I don't know how certain things survive such cold evening temps and then seem to wake up and be as active as any mid-summer day. Blue Jays have been extremely active this month it seems like there's more around than last year. By the time I got to the bridge on the north side, I'd seen Painted Turtles, a Great Blue Heron, Dragonflies, a female Red-breasted Grosbeak and an unlikely Brown Thrasher. It was such a nice sunny day that I decided to walk along the creek starting from the bridge. I found a nice log to just sit and watch the creek, hoping to see some Wood Ducks or something. I was a ways from the water but I could see large Carp and an occasional Turtle float by. A short time later I saw this Green Heron and realized how few of them I'd seen at the park this year. At the rate I've been seeing them, this could be the last one I see for a while. The last thing I stopped to take a photo of today was actually the sky. It was like a post card with perfectly placed billowy white clouds against a rich blue sky. I thought about how many more days like this we might have this season and to really appreciate them.

Friends of Palmer Lake Park - Fall Cleanup

This Saturday I saw the realization of what had previously been just a daydream of mine -an actual organized park clean-up day! Though I'd been tossing the idea around in my head for quite some time, I credit a couple of other park-goers for giving me the motivation to finally act on the idea and see it through. So by just a few conversations, emails and by word-of-mouth, a small group of citizens came together on Saturday morning to help clean up Palmer Lake Park! We started bright and early at 8:00am -with the temperature only around 35 degrees and thus a few winter hats coming out of storage early. Prior to the clean up day, I'd contacted the City of Brooklyn Center, simply just to inquire about picking up the collected trash afterward. Not only did I learn they were more than happy to do so, but they would also even loan us garbage-grabbers, as well as supply bags, gloves and vests if needed. The people with the City were all around great to deal with; extremely helpful and informative, making our goal that much easier to accomplish. I checked out a total of ten garbage grabbers which ended up to be just about right -as my own personal grabber completely broke apart only 1/4th of the way around! As I hiked back to our starting point to switch out my grabber, I ran into another member of our group who was focusing on a particularly problematic area of the park, the south western corner. I was so happy to see this amount of effort and care taking place. Others in our group continued around the entire perimeter of the park all the way back to the south side parking lot. Upon returning and meeting up with the rest of the group here is when it really hit me just how big of an impact our small group had made on the park. Accounting for a few bags that were left in receptacles on the opposite side of the park, I counted a total of 14 bags full of trash that were collected in just 4 hours! In my opinion this was a huge success -especially given that it was really a "first attempt." I can't thank enough the people who volunteered their time this Saturday morning. Our collective efforts have helped beautify and preserve a much under-appreciated natural area. Spread the word -there will be more cleaning efforts to come!!!

Last Sunday of the Summer

It hadn't dawned on me until afterward but my visit today would be my last this "summer" with Autumn less than a week away. This September has seemed unusually colder than in previous years. We've had the crisp, cool temperatures of Fall while everything is still mostly green. It even froze -hard already, dipping below 32º long enough to shrivel up people's gardens. The deer have been pretty scarce lately but today I spotted 5 or 6 of them. Two were definitely fawns with a Doe, but I couldn't tell the age of the others. This last one gave me some close photo opps as I watched it voraciously eating all sorts of greenery. I don't want to think about the fact that a lot of this green could be covered by snow in just over a month. On the north side I saw something that made me kind of laugh. Two snails were heading in the exact same direction across the path, side by side -only one was trailing behind about 12 inches or so. It looked like a race that would take a few hours. I tried getting a photo with both of them in it, but the one that was 12 inches behind looked like he was a full mile behind and just showed up as a blurry spot. It also won't be too much longer before these little Gastropods disappear too. The one sure sign I did see of things to come was an overturned Maple leaf with some nice dewdrops on it. There aren't really that many Maples in the park -only on the outskirts of the trail. Many of them have prematurely started to turn colors already due to the colder than usual temperatures.

PALMER LAKE PARK CLEANUP DAY!

It's official, I am organizing the first "Palmer Lake Park Cleanup Day" this September 24th. Any and all volunteers are welcome to take part in beautifying and preserving our neighborhood park.

WHEN: Saturday, September 24th 8am - Noon (Rain or Shine)

WHERE: We will meet at the south parking lot off of 69th Ave. at 8:00 am.

WHAT: We will be collecting all garbage from plastic bottles to paper wrappers. Large items can be left alongside the bags. The City of Brooklyn Center has been notified and will collect our trash afterward.

HOW: I will have a number of "garbage grabbers" and trash bags available to you. However, since the number of participants is yet unknown, you are encouraged to bring your own grabber, bags and gloves to ensure we have enough supplies. We will attempt to bring all of the collected trash back to the south parking lot for a centralized pickup location for the city. Anyone owning a wagon or lawn cart would greatly aid in this goal. If not possible, the city will be notified of the various trash bag locations. If you have any questions or want to notify me of your participation, please email palmerlakeguy@gmail.com

Second Sunday in September

Today was Sunday, September 11th and the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attack. I honestly can't believe it's been that long. In retrospect I think about all the time that's gone by and all the outdoor activities I've enjoyed since -hiking, biking, kayaking, snowshoeing etc and I'm thankful for every minute of it. Today you could feel the pending seasonal change in the air, even though it was a bright, sunny day. Small hints of autumn such as an occasional discolored tree or a Woolly-bear caterpillar could be found if you were on the lookout for them. As I passed along the north corner, I noticed a huge hoard of nymph Boxelder Bugs on -you guessed it- a Boxelder tree. I've seen these every year, around the same time, on the very same tree in fact, and I'm always amazed at the swarming mass of bugs. Only just a few hundred feet later I came upon what I call "Hummingbird Heaven," where the trail begins a long, straight shot north. There I was lucky enough to catch another few -possibly last- glimpses of Hummingbirds this season. They are likely "fueling up" now for their long, long migratory trip back to Central America. I'm amazed that these little birds, weighing 2-3 grams can travel such long distances. My later sights included some Mallards on the creek, a Hawk, Cardinal and some unknown, large beetle crossing the paved path. I tried to get photos of this large beetle but he was moving at a pace faster than the average Wal-mart shopper and my camera couldn't focus in time. I did spot a Bald Eagle not too much later but my final photo-pick of the day was luckily not moving at all. This colorful leaf -from I don't know what kind of plant- was sporting some amazingly contrasting color with stripes of solid white in between it's blended veins of yellow and green. I though it was a perfect summary of what out season is like right now, with balanced signs of summer and autumn.

Sights of September

After trying and trying to catch a photo of a Hummingbird last week, I finally succeeded this Sunday morning. Again, they were in the same place on the north west side of the park -right before the long, straight stretch of the path. Here there are plenty of flowering shrubs including Jewelweed (or touch-me-nots) which I got to watch them feeding on. With the temps having dropped considerably over the week, I was kind of surprised to see them still around. The previous latest date I've recorded seeing one at the park was August 18th. Despite the cooler temps, I'd never before seen so many Hummingbirds and so much activity. I think there were at least 3 pairs of them that I could see at the same time. Once in a while two would hover close together and make a kind of "chatter" noise before flying off chasing each other. Some even came up very close to me but despite my best efforts I just couldn't snap a picture before they buzzed away. I must have watched them for close to 30 minutes, in which time my best chances for photos were when they would perch for only a second or two before flying off again. I was almost all the way back around again before I spotted something of interest. This time it was a bird I'd never noticed before at the park. This long-legged bird was actually walking right on top of some "pond-scum" that had built up along Shingle Creek where it empties back out of Palmer Lake. It bobbed it's tail up and down constantly making for quite a comical display as it poked it's bill here and there among the mucky water. I'm not too familiar with "shore birds" but I guessed correctly that it was a Spotted Sandpiper -the first new species I've identified in quite a while.