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!
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!
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