Little Birds and Big Deer

When I arrived at the park this Saturday morning I parked on the south side just to be different. I started my usual clockwise route but noticed a very small little bird hoping around near the ground by the small pond just off the parking lot. The lighting wasn't that great and so all I could make out at first was the silhouette. Though I'm not yet that familiar with them I began to recognize it as a Wren. Wrens don't seem like a common species in this park -to me anyway- as I'd only captured my first photo of one earlier this summer. Surprisingly I was able to inch my way closer and bend on one knee to get a better view without scaring it off. It scurried around quickly from one small log to the next, picking at various things near the surface of the water. I thought I'd never get this close to one again and so I snapped a vast amount of photos, hoping I'd eventually get something worthwhile. It was awesome to watch one this close up and get to see some of the tiny intricate patterning that makes them almost invisible against tree bark and natural textures. I'm not very sure but I would assume the species is a common House Wren. On the north side I was focusing on some more birds when something much bigger caught my eye. Against the tall cattails stood an enormous Buck with an 8-point rack. I'd barely noticed him and I'm sure he noticed me first. Even when it was clear to him that I'd spotted him, he stood as still as a statue not moving an inch. I took a few photos of him with different settings and he still never moved. I didn't noticed any Does around and so it looked as though he was alone. Looks like there will be another set of antlers to be on the lookout for come next spring! Earlier in my walk I'd spotted a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets but was unable to get a decent photo. This species is probably THE toughest to get good photos of as they seriously are changing positions approximately every one second. Most times about all you can do is to point and click wildly over and over trying to keep up with them and then hope somehow you managed to get one in the frame! Kinglets are becoming quite familiar to me now and I know a few things to look for -aside from their characteristically energetic behavior. They can be strikingly olive-green in color, have very obvious wing bars and eye-rings, but most of all it's the time of year that helps me realize what I'm seeing is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. They are active and easy to see in early spring but disappear for most of the summer and now again are quite common in the fall. I would say there are more of them at the park in the fall than in spring but that's just my observation. I was pleased to realize after looking at this photo closer that I'd captured a male -as evident by the tiny bright red patch on the very top of his head.

Mid-September Sights

This Sunday I had an afternoon walk at the park, arriving just after 2:00pm. It was another beautiful day to be outside and I saw just about everything from birds and deer to turtles and butterflies. The first thing I spotted was this young spike Buck on the southeast side of the park. He was foraging around the little drainage pond there right off the paved trail. I snapped a few quick photos and got a good look at his akward little mis-matched antlers. I figured there would be more deer around but he seemed to be by himself and then trotted away after just a minute or so of me watching him. After this I spotted a Bald Eagle, a Grey Catbird and then lastly this interesting bird perched just above water on the southwest side where the little creek connects to the Duck Pond. At first glance it seemed too large and skinny to for an Eastern Phoebe. I was also seeing it only from behind and there seemed to be an almost bluish-grey coloring that i don't typically associate with Phoebes. I started doing some research, thinking maybe it could be some kind of Pewee or Flycatcher. After reading and looking at quite a few photos I can honestly say it would take a more experienced birder to quickly pick up on the subtle differences between Phoebe's, Pewees and Flycatchers. That being said, here are my findings. Eastern Wood Pewees look extremely similar with little-to-no eye ring, yet they differ with a typically orange lower beak or "mandible." Most Flycatchers (with a few exceptions) also have an orange lower mandible AND tend to have a more prominent white eye-ring too boot. Based on this photo showing no eye-ring and a black upper and lower mandible, I would still say it is an Eastern Phoebe. I hope my ID is correct because I just can't say for sure. Later on I had the opportunity to spot and more easily identify a sparrow that is a lot less common than your average House or Song Sparrow. This is a White-throated Sparrow and I believe the very first one I've ever captured a photo of at the park! I've heard their very memorable song before but not had the opportunity to actually see one until now. Their song is worth hearing if you've never heard one before. Click here to listen to one!

Wild Turkeys on Friday Evening

This Friday after work I convinced my wife to come out for a walk with me around the park. She hardly enjoys visiting the same park twice whereas I could go to PLP every day! It was a beautiful evening with the sun beginning to set and it cast a warm, orange glow on the park. We walked all the way back by the old Lazaroff's farm and there, right on the other side of a chain link fence were a group of Wild Turkeys. I guess they must have felt more safe with the fence separating us and it afforded me an opportunity to get very close without spooking them. This was taken through the fence and I love how it turned out!

A Truly Great Day of Birding!

This Sunday I arrived at the park around 8:00am and right off the bat I was seeing some fun birds. This first one I caught quite a few good glimpses of and even a decent photo, though I really didn't know what it was at the time. It looked and behaved like a Warbler, sitting high up in the tree tops and moving around quite a bit. One interesting bit that I noticed right away though was that it's bright yellow coloring on the head and neck made quite an abrupt change to white on it's lower breast. This was not a pattern I was familiar with at all but since there are so many different types of Warblers I assumed I would locate soon. It took me a heck of a lot longer to positively ID this bird and the way I did was to stumble upon a photo taken by a fellow birder friend of mine Ron Taube. When I saw his photo of a bird with similar coloring and patterning I realized why I'd not yet identified my bird -I was looking in the wrong section of my field guides! The bird is in fact a Yellow-throated Vireo, not a Warlber at all! About the only thing I know about Vireos is that they are often mistaken for Warblers as they are similar in size and color. One thing I noticed only in my photographs later was that this bird almost seemed to be wearing bright yellow "spectacles" which is a distinguishing characteristic. So my very first photo of the day was of an entirely brand new species for me! After this I spotted some more regular late-summer birds including Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets and some Canada Geese, but soon I again spotted something with a bit more color. Deep in side a Buckthorn Tree I could see a bright flash of orange now and again and focused in on this American Redstart. This one I know for a fact to be a Warbler though they have quite a bit more black plumage than your average Warbler. Even if you are lucky enough to spot one and follow it until it sits still for just a millisecond, it's even harder (for me at least) to capture any details of their head, face and eyes. Much like it is with other perfectly black birds including Red-wings and Crows. I got a bit luckier in that respect with this one, though I sure wish that one Buckthorn leaf hadn't been in front of his beak. I could be quite happy trying to photograph only Redstarts all summer long as they are just that challenging. Well, my day had one last surprise for me later as just minutes later I spotted a Magnolia Warbler! This was only the second time I've ever seen one and I was in much closer proximity this time than last. Like the Redstart, it was also deep inside the Buckthorn and I had to take advantage of any and every unobstructed view I got. I watched this one for quite some time and took quite a few photos and I got to see it from just about every angle. The bird even looked inquisitively right at me, cocking it's head to the side as if to wonder what the heck I was. I believe it was foraging for insects as many other Warblers do and I had a great time seeing a photographing this wonderful Warbler. At the end of the day I'd taken only 32 photos total. It's amazing on some days how you can see so many interesting birds in such a short time span -and then on other days take nearly a hundred photos of nothingness. I will have to note and remember this particular week of September as an opportune time to visit Palmer Lake Park!

Another Sunny Day in September

I arrived at the park around 8:30am this morning and spotted a single Doe right away but she was behind some brush and I could not get a good photo. After all the interesting birds I spotted yesterday I was hoping for another good day of birding but instead it was all quite common species instead. I saw Song Sparrows, Cardinals, Goldfinches and lots of Mallards and Wood Ducks. I only got a couple interesting (and clear) photos for the day. The first one was a female Common Yellowthroat in the cattails somewhere on the south side. When the cattails are thick and green like they are now, the Yellowthroats tend to "hide out" in them and once they enter it's tough to find them again. In the small pond on the east side I spotted this Green Heron perched over the water, soaking up some of the warm sun which showed off some of his colors. All Herons in my opinion are very "skittish" and will easily scare off when you get to close so I stayed back and tried to focus on him through some other branches.

Here Goes September

September is definitely one of the best months to be outside in Minnesota. The weather is (typically) starting to cool off and the hours of daylight each day is hardly getting shorter -at least not noticeably yet. I started off the month with an early morning visit to the park arriving about 7am. Right off the bat I noticed a very interesting bird -that at the time I had no clue of what it could be, only that it was likely some Warbler I'm not yet familiar with. I caught a decent picture of it hoping around in a grapevine and decided I would try to ID it later on. Well, about this time I started getting too busy at work and even at home and started letting all my park photos pile up quickly on my desktop. I am actually writing this post much later and as it so happens I would see this species one more time -making me really wonder what the heck it was. After coming back to it periodically, I've determined that it is in fact a Magnolia Warbler! And more precisely, it is an immature in "Non-breeding Plumage" which was yet another aspect making it more difficult to identify. The great thing about the internet as it relates to birding, is that once you get an idea of what something "might be," you can just look up hundreds of other images for comparison to yours. And funny enough when I did, that the photo that resembled mine the most came from a fellow birder in my same area: Ecobirder. The next thing I saw I was really not expecting, and it only was there for a split second, making it seem all that more unique. As I was rounding the west side of the park near the outfields of the baseball diamonds. I caught a larger bird out of the corner of my eye land in a tall dead tree high up above me. I instinctively swung around to snap a photo and realized it was an American Kestral! I've not positively ID'd one at the park since April of 2011 so it was quite a nice sighting. Then as soon as he had landed, he took off and I was unable to follow where he went. I didn't even have a chance for a better photo but still very cool to have seen one again! Later on the north end of the park, a Doe had wandered out onto the trail and was lazily grazing along the edges. She was far up ahead of me and I just had a feeling that maybe some Fawns were with her. Sure enough they too popped out onto the trail and this is when I decided to try and get in closer. Both mom and the kids were just curious enough about me to let me approach fairly close and let me and even other people coming by just watch them for a while. I ended up taking a whole lot of photos of just one or the other Fawn as they munched on everything green, but this was my favorite photo of the day.