Near Freezing Temps but More Returning Species

Today was Easter Sunday and after stuffing myself full of ham and other good stuff, the day was still long enough to get to the park again. But this time I decided that rather than walk all the way around, I would simply just sit along the banks of Shingle Creek. I did this once last year as well -probably around the same time I think- because all the early spring waterfowl are coming through now. It is really fun as you never quite know what you might see -proof positive by yesterday's Ring-billed Duck sighting! I parked on the northeast corner of the park and hiked immediately towards the foot bridge over the Shingle Creek. But before I got there I cut across the field making my way towards the water but staying behind the tall banks as much as possible. As I approached I could see many Ducks huddled along the shore -lots of them Wood Ducks. Unfortunately I didn't take 3 steps closer when some of them began to scare off, which in turn scared the others off. In just a few more steps there were NO ducks anywhere near me. But I found my favorite place to sit in the sun, leaning up against the big, tall Cottonwood and facing downstream. I realized I might have to wait quite a while for something to make it's way back upstream. But after just a few minutes, two Ducks flew in from above and landed quite close to me. I'd forgotten all about this possibility but was even more excited to see that the pair were Blue-winged Teals -the first ones I've spotted this season! The male and female made their way to the shoreline and cleaned and preened for about 10 minutes before leaving again. Much further downstream I counted approximately 15 Hooded Mergansers, male and female. They were all so far away but after patiently waiting quite a while, one pair did swim upstream again. It was fun to watch them dip under the water. Sometimes 6 or 7 would all go under within seconds of each other and it made me wonder if they ever bump into each other underwater. One male that was closer to me came up with a little fish that it dropped at first but then quickly grabbed again. These ducks are quick! As I watched them I couldn't help but notice a couple of small birds off to my right that would periodically seem to fly right down to the surface of the water and then back up again. As cold as it was today (I noticed I could see my breath), I would have thought it much too early for this bird, but indeed they were Easter Phoebes -another returning species. They would perch on little twigs over the water, swoop down to the surface and then right back to the exact same perch over and over. I know they eat insects near the water but I would think it was still much too cold for any insects to be out either -though you never know. As the waterfowl activity seemed to be slowing down for the evening, I made my way out the same way I came in through the field to my left. From a long distance I could see two Red-tailed Hawks flying to the south and watched them through my binoculars. Soon one landed and then surprisingly the other landed on top of the other. They were quite a ways away but I realized quickly that they were mating. Being the type of fierce hunters that they are with such sharp claws I am quite curious how they don't tear each other to shreds! It would have been awesome to see this sight closer but I thought it was worth mentioning on my blog here today.

Early Spring and TWO Brand New Species!!!

At this time last year Spring-like weather had been in full swing for nearly a month already. Last January felt more like February, February more like March and March more like April. But this year has been nearly the opposite -seeming like our weather is one month behind instead. But after today it feels like Spring has finally arrived after all. Very early in the morning we awoke to claps of thunder and lightning which led to a steady downpour of rain most of the early morning. I was itching to go for a bird hike so badly that I put on my full rain suit top and bottom and grabbed my old "pocket-sized" camera instead of my newer DSLR which is impossible to keep dry. By the time I arrived however it had completely stopped raining and I could just tell how much stuff was going to be out today. You could just feel it in the air -and hear it as well! I drove back home, ditched my rain pants and grabbed my newer camera -and boy was I glad that I did. Sometime during the week a LOT of other Red-winged Blackbirds have found their way back to the park and they could be heard abundantly today -though all males so far. If I were to define Spring with a "sound" it would be that of the RWB. I was very hopeful that today I might catch a glimpse of at least one returning species of bird -and it didn't take long until I did. The first were Tree Swallows that were zooming all over the cattails on the north side. There were maybe 4-5 of them and they just continuously flew back and forth, climbing and diving over and over again. I waited for a long while hoping to catch one perched for a bit but they never took a break. So to prove my first sighting for the season I had to attempt to catch one in flight which proved pretty difficult. Along the way I had already heard lots of Goldfinches chirping away but I was finally able to spot a group of them feeding on seeds from last year's plants. Though Goldfinches might not completely leave our state during the winter, they don't always stay around the park in the winter. In fact I'd say you are more likely to see a Robin versus a Goldfinch at PLP in the wintertime. I'd already spotted a Goldfinch last weekend that was quite yellow already but didn't get a shot of one until today. There were both males and females in various stages of "yellowing up" for the season -yet another sure sign of Spring. When I got to the bridge over Shingle Creek I could see lots of waterfowl way downstream through my binoculars. They were very far away but I thought I caught a glimpse of something interesting like a Goldeneye maybe. I also knew that Hooded Mergansers had been spotted a couple weeks ago already up at the Coon Rapids Dam area so I was hoping I might see some of them as well. I decided to hike downstream along the banks of the creek, attempting to avoid the loud, crunchy snow wherever I could. After making lots of noise and pushing all the waterfowl further downstream I finally made it to the last big Cottonwood and kind of crouched behind it for a while. From here I could tell that there were quite a few Hoodies and Wood Ducks on the water but I had to let them forget I was there and then hopefully they would move in closer to me. My plan worked when after a while a pair of male and female Hoodies decided to swim right past me. I just absolutely love seeing the males -especially when they lift their crown all the way up. This one didn't do so as they swam by but it was quite awesome to see them so closely. After I was satisfied I'd gotten a decent photo in there somewhere, I waited for another long while just in case more came back upstream. I was getting tired of waiting when I popped my head around the corner of the tree and was shocked to see a beautifully colored duck that I'd clearly never seen before! It had beautiful silver sides, a strangely patterned black and white bill, and very bright yellowy orange eyes. This was likely the same duck I'd seen from a distance and guessed was maybe a Goldeneye. Right when I saw it, the duck had just come up from underneath the water with a little fish of some kind in it's bill. Of course when it saw me it immediately turned the other way and kept getting further and further away. I wildly snapped as many photos as I could but of course I was not holding as steady as I should have in my excitement. I did not know at the time that what I was seeing was in fact a "Ring-necked Duck" per my new Stokes Field Guide. You can just barely make out the faint brown "ring" around this male's neck for which they are named. A completely brand new species for me! I was so happy after seeing this that the rest of my walk could have been in the dark for all I cared. BUT, as I was heading back to my vehicle I couldn't help but notice yet another interesting bird wading in an area flooded by melting snow and hopping from one clump of grass to the next. As the time of year seemed right, I assumed I was seeing my first Grackle of the season. Grackles are not quite all that interesting or uncommon but I do like their iridescent blue-purple heads so I went in for a closer look. I watched a pair of them turning over leaves and grasses but wasn't quite seeing that beautiful head I was looking for. Even upon coming home to show my wife my photos for the day, I still told her I'd seen my first Grackle. But upon picking my best photo to post I started to wonder if this was indeed a Grackle at all! I pulled out my field guides and pretty instantly realized that it's beak was not as big and thick as that of a Grackle, though it did bright yellow eyes telling me that it was NOT an immature Red-winged Blackbird. I had a hunch of what it might be but I decided to immediately post my photo into a new "discussion topic" on the Birdshare group of Flickr and ask others opinions. Sure enough, so far the general consensus is that I saw a Rusty Blackbird -a second brand new species to me! In total, I counted 24 species in just one day today which might also be a personal record for me so far at PLP!

Good Sights & First Red-winged Blackbird!

Well I suppose this makes sense but I always seem to see more wildlife when I'm walking alone versus with friends like yesterday. Kind of a bummer since I really wanted them to get some good photos but of course we were probably talking too much. It was slightly warmer out today at 28 degrees but the warm sun we had yesterday was masked by clouds, making it feel yet again like January or February instead of late March. The first thing I spotted today on the west side was a Northern Shrike looking out over the middle of the park. I decided to hike in closer for a better photo and luckily the snow was just soft enough to stay somewhat quiet. I found myself almost underneath him and snapped as many pics as I could before bumping him. He stayed put for quite a while and this is my favorite one, though not quite a typical view. Since I was already now on the edge of the field I decided to continue along a Deer path through some interesting groves of scrubby trees. Ahead of me I saw one single black bird in a clump of very thick Buckthorn Trees. I wondered if... and then sure enough it stretched out it's wing and showed me a dull colored Orangy-yellow patch. I thought maybe I saw one yesterday but now for sure I've seen my first Red-winged Blackbird of the season! Hardly a decent photo here but I wanted to document it for my own purposes. All along my hike today I was spotting Northern Cardinals everywhere. I must have seen 20 of them in the first 30 minutes I was out. This female was being pursued relentlessly by a bright red male and I watched the pair of them for some time before the female came out right in front of me and I couldn't help but take a few photos. Every time I watch Cardinals I'm always amazed at how big and thick their beaks are. It it almost equal in size to the rest of their head. On the north side I was cruising along but scanning the trees as I always do. Quite high up but in plain view was a Great Horned Owl looking straight out over the trail. I was pleasantly surprised to spot him so easily as they can be somewhat tough to locate without the help of a lot of squawking Crows. Though I was tempted to get in closer, I stayed on the trail since it's highly possible they could be nesting in the area and I didn't want to disturb them. Besides I had a fairly unobstructed view right from the trail. It is always neat to see Owls at the park and with Spring just around the corner they will be getting harder and harder to see very quickly. Towards the end of my walk I spotted a Hawk flying overhead and he darted outside the park behind an area of homes. There is a short connecting path here out to the neighborhood and I followed it just in case I could catch a glimpse of where the Hawk landed. Instead I ended up watching a group of Dark-eyed Juncos foraging on the edge of the woods. As they hopped around, I noticed one Junco that stood out very distinctively. It had rusty orange sides and at first I thought I was seeing a Towhee! But the size was not right at all. It was clearly the size and shape of the other Juncos and was definitely mixing in with the others. I only saw it for a few seconds and got three shots of it. I hung out for a while longer hoping to see it again but I never did. At the time I honestly did NOT know what I'd seen. So when I got home I immediately looked up Junco's in my new Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. To my surprise there was a perfect matching photo right there listed under Dark-eyed Juncos called an "Oregon Junco." This is apparently a subspecies of a Dark-eyed Junco and technically it is known as the "Oregon Group." I had know idea of such a bird before this so I was pleasantly surprised to realize I'd spotted something brand new at the park!

My Calendar Says Spring Darnit!

This morning I met some new friends of mine at the park for a 3 mile hike full of birding and photo talk. It was a bright sunny day at least but I still can't get over how cold it has remained this late into March. The temperature when I woke this morning was only 16 degrees and I'm still dressing in all my normal winter clothes including a layer of thermal underwear head to toe. The first "official day" of Spring came 3 days ago and it was the coldest first-day on record since 1965! Most anywhere off the trail you can still step in places with snow well above your shoe line. It's still just a bit early I guess for returning birds though and it was relatively quiet still at the park. We did get to see a Northern Shrike for a bit but I wasn't able to get a great photo. There were LOTS of Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Nuthatches and Cardinals. Many of the Cardinals were singing loudly adding to the "feel" of Spring. We caught this one plucking a Buckthhorn Berry on the North end of the park. Over on the duck pond we looked for Waldo the Wood Duck but he was not there today. But still with the other Mallards was the one lone Gadwall that I first spotted last weekend. Again I almost didn't notice him among the similarly colored female Mallards. At one point he came right up to us on the edge of the pond and took a ton of photos of him. Something I noticed this time that I hadn't last time was that he had kind of a soft white patch on the front of his breast. I don't know if this was part of his plumage or maybe it was just missing in this part. I was looking later at some photos of a female Gadwall and wondering if next time I go back I should be looking harder. They would appear extremely similar to a female Mallard but with more of a "square" shaped head. One of the last notable sights of the day was a large group of European Starlings that came in to land in a single tall tree. I've been thinking lately that I hadn't seen them in huge numbers -easily in the hundreds- yet like I did last year. Well today there was probably around 40 to 50 of them that came in and started making their noisy high pitched shrill. I don't think these guys ever completely leave for the winter as I've seen a handful here and there this season. But now it is obvious more and more are making their way back northwards.

A Sign of Things to Come

It's been a long while since my last post even though I've continued to visit the park frequently in February and March. I've just over-extended myself far too much lately and have been so busy I cannot find time to blog anymore. I have a backlog of posts so large it's becoming scary to look at my computer's desktop, but I still intend to add them at some point. Two days ago we had freezing rain and then last night we had about an inch and a half on top of that. I remember last year at this time we hadn't had snow on the ground for nearly a month and temps were in 60's! Today when I woke up it was only 15º with roads that were like a skating rink. What a huge difference from last year -but that's Minnesota for you. With this wintery weather refusing to give up, I wasn't expecting to see a lot today but fortunately I was wrong.Apparently the resident Northern Shrikes are still enjoying our weather quite a bit. I spotted this on the east side perched atop the tall trees directly across from the baseball diamonds. I waited for some clouds to pass and the bright blue sky to give me a better backdrop. I don't know if it's the time of year or maybe just the way he was perched but his breast feathers were all puffy and blowing in the breeze -giving him that "Fat Robin" kind of look. It remained completely quiet the whole time before moving along to another perch. Since it was so nice and sunny out today I decided I would walk past the duck pond on the southwest corner and try to get a nice photo of "Waldo" the Wood Duck. I located him quickly among the other Mallards and then decided to sit right down in the snow and wait for them to get comfortable with me and hopefully swim closer. As I snapped photos and watched him weave between the other Mallards, I almost didn't notice but there was another Duck that didn't look quite like the others. The difference from the other female Mallards was so slight and I might not have even realized if I had not been zoomed in on them so closely. My mind raced back to last year and recalled a Duck that took me a long time to identify when I first spotted one. Indeed this was a Gadwall! I couldn't believe it. The group I'd seen last year was so far away and my photos turned out terribly but here was one right in front of me. Once I realized this I forgot all about Waldo and focused on this second Duck that wasn't like the others. In fact I don't know how I didn't notice earlier that it's bill was completely dark instead of bright orange like the other Mallards. A few times though Waldo and the Gadwall would swim right up to one another and I realized that this might not be something I ever see again. Generally I would say that Gadwalls arrive back to our area waaaay before Wood Ducks would return. I wonder if the Gadwall thought he was running late when he ran into Waldo! As I continued to watch, periodically all three species would come together and this is probably the best shot I got of all three. Quite a neat trio I thought. I realized too that this Gadwall was the first "returning" species I've spotted at the park this year! So though it still very much feels like winter, the birds know that spring is just around the corner. Some other birds I spotted today were a Red-tailed Hawk, Pheasant (only heard), Hairy Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Crows, Robins, and a few Cardinals. This male Cardinal actually let me get close enough for a decent photo though I wish he had been fully in the sun and facing me. I've just not captured my "ideal" Cardinal photo yet but I came close today.

One Tough Duck

I was convinced that the Wood Duck I've affectionately named "Waldo" had not survived our Minnesota winter. It was over a month ago since I last saw him despite many stops over at the "Duck Pond" on the southwest corner to look for him. But a friend of mine recently told me that he'd been spotted again so I headed over there soon after arriving. Indeed Waldo was back! I don't know where he'd gone because all the rest of the Mallards had been there every time I checked -but who knows, maybe it was a different group of Mallards each time. For all that cold weather he's had to put up with, today at least Waldo was enjoying some warmer temperatures. He seemed to be in good health from what I can tell, and making quiet squeaking sounds as I watched. The warm temps today were even melting the snow still clinging to the shady side of branches high above. At certain parts along the trail it seemed to be almost raining as the snow melted. I even got wet feet by walking through some puddles that were deceptively deeper than they looked. I paused for a moment to snap some photos of bubbles that would pop up from the dripping water overhead. I didn't notice until I got home that I could see my own reflection in addition to the trees behind me! Later on I saw a Northern Shrike, Hairy Woopecker and a Blue Jay in addition to lots of Tree Sparrows. This one in particular let me get closer than usual and turned out pretty good. I'm still trying to learn my Sparrows better but at this time of year there is really only one you'll see and that is the American Tree Sparrow with the dark spot on it's breast. Sometimes that's not so easy to see, so for me it's easier to identify from the dark upper beak and yellow lower beak.

Searching the Park for Owls

It was Saturday March 2nd and I think everyone has "cabin fever" by now and wanting to get outside. So I was joined today by two friends as we scoured the park for Owls. We first hiked out to the very middle of the park, into the island of thick Buckthorn. Along the way we spotted a Downy Woodpecker busily hammering at a dried up weed stalk. Once among the Buckthorn we weaved around slowly and quietly through the tree clumps searching hard for anything that may be hiding there. In just a short time we did notice a Northern Shrike high atop a tree to the west. As I pointed him out, he decided to fly our way and actually landed in the Buckthorn much closer to us. Though I see Shrikes quite often at the park, it's not often that I get this close to them. I got excited and started taking photos in rapid succession while trying to move in even closer. But the loud crunching snow scared him off again. Later we were greeted by yet another hiker and his dog who had wandered out into the middle as well. The dog was barking loudly with his owner calling even louder after him. So at that point we began to think that if any Owls had been in the area they were gone now! We did some more searching along the northeast side of the park but still no Owls. After returning to our vehicles at 73rd Avenue and calling it a day, one of our group left while myself and my other friend continued chatting. As we did and the sky began to slowly dim, we spotted something large take roost in a tree over a house along 73rd. To our surprise it was a Barred Owl who turned his head around to look at us briefly. I found this quite amusing that we'd just spent 2+ hours scouring the park for an Owl and all we had to do was sit and talk near our cars to see one!