Awesome End to August

I think it was about 94º this Saturday afternoon when I arrived at the park. Due to the heat I decided to really take my time going around, not exert too much energy and spend as much time in the shade as possible. As a result my hike lasted nearly 3 hours but it was nice to spend the extra time looking around. I saw quite a variety of birds but one of the first things I spotted and took photos of was this Frog near the parking lot on the south side. I scared it away at first but then I slowed down and got close enough for a good closeup photo. I know nothing about Frogs so I have no idea what kind it is but it was about 3 inches long. It's always nice to have a subject that will hold still for you –unlike birds. I was seeing –and hearing– lots of birds today including Chickadees, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Common Yellowthroats, Wood Ducks and even a Hummingbird! Under the canopy of trees over the woodchip trail on the southwest side was quite active with birds and I stopped here to look and listen a bit more than I normally do. Another bird that caught my eye was a female American Redstart. I'd estimate that I see only 1 female for every 15-20 male Redstarts and I forget how colorful they are in their own right. As I watched this female move quickly from tree to tree, it led my eyes upwards and soon I was noticing another smaller bird with bright orange. But this orange was much more deep than the more yellowish-orange on the Redstart's shoulders. Because it was another very small bird I quickly realized it was another Warbler of some kind. It was VERY high up in the treetops and I struggled to even catch a short glimpse of it through my binoculars. Then a second one showed up and they spun in a circle falling downward for a few feet before flying off to new trees. One came downward a little closer to me and I could now make out black striping on the breast, wing and face. There was only one thing it could be and that was a Blackburnian Warbler! I'd never seen a mature adult before and I was absolutely thrilled to be seeing –and photographing– one at Palmer Lake Park! At one point one of them came down and perched for a brief second nearer the trunk of the tree and I fumbled about to focus quickly and take the shot. Unfortunately it was facing away from me so at the closest proximity I really only caught it's side and underside. When it was not hidden behind leaves I took every shot I could, knowing it would just be a spec in the frame of the entire shot. At one point while I watched through my binoculars I could see that it had a rather large insect in it's bill. In watching them I could tell that they were busily picking insects off of the trees. It was absolutely awesome to end this month by adding a new species to my list –and to know that fall migration is once again bringing some interesting birds through the park.

Swealtering Summer Returns

In late July and early August our temperatures had become quite mild –almost below normal I think for that time of year. They stayed there so long that weather reporters had begun saying that we might not see any more 90º days for the rest of Summer. My wife and I joked that somehow all of a sudden, meteorologists could now predict the weather not just weeks, but even months out! Even we knew that was ridiculous to say at the time, and sure enough we are back into the mid-to-upper 90's again. In fact is is just darn right HOT because the dew points are also again very high. I had to get to the park earlier in the day if I wanted to go at all but didn't make it there until about 9:30 am. I was surprised with the high heat to see as many birds as I did today. My total list included; Red-bellied Woodpecker, Gray Catbird, House Wren, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Blue Jay, American Crow, American Goldfinch, Least Flycatcher, Hummingbird, Great Blue Heron, Great Crested Flycatcher, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Wood Duck, and my favorite bird of the day –a Belted Kingfisher! Some of the first birds I noticed on the south side were both male and female Common Yellowthroat. They were busy picking about in the mucky shoreline of a little swampy area and calling back and forth. It took me a while to get close enough for a photo or two and this male looks like he was working up a sweat trying to catch that little bug. My second photo to post for the day is also a Warbler –the American Redstart. These birds seem to have been quiet for a while but I'm starting to hear and see them again lately. I believe they are early to leave in the fall so it's possible they are becoming active again, gearing up for migration. This one was busy singing loudly above me just outside the paved trail on the north side. The last bird I wanted to share today is a bird I just don't see too often at the park. They're not so uncommon in our area and in fact you could probably see one just about any day up at the Coon Rapids Dam, but it is rare for me to see them at Palmer Lake Park for some reason. I first noticed him while standing on the footbridge over Shingle Creek on the north side. From a perch on the creek bank, he dove right into the water, came up and flopped around a bit before gaining flight again. I'm assuming that whatever fish he was after he may have missed because he came back to another perch and just sat there for a bit. I've always wanted to get a better photo of one of these birds so I hiked along the creek, wading waist deep in sticky and prickly weeds, getting bitten by all sorts of bugs in the process. I sat and waited along the shoreline for a while but never saw him again.

More Summer Plants

As if I would ever run out of birds to learn about by walking around the park, there's always plants. And where I'm at right now, plant identification makes bird identification seem easy. But you've gotta start somewhere –and I remember feeling the same way about birds just a few year back. In the past year or so I've picked up a lot of tidbits from other, more experienced people and now I have at least a dozen or so plants that I can remember –be they native or invasive. The first plant pictured here is one I've been fascinated with for a while actually. The reason is that in the dead of winter time, I would often find it's dried up, spikey seed pods still hanging from trees. I always thought they looked kind of "alien" because of the spikes I guess. I wondered for a long time why I never noticed them growing in other seasons. I guess the answer is simply that I wasn't looking hard enough. The plant is called Wild Cucumber and grows as a vine that can crawl and sprawl quite a distance over other shrubs and trees. Now that I know to look for it's little creamy-white flowers I've finally spotted the spikey fruits as they are growing. They tend to look like a tiny little watermelon with spikes and this one was about an inch in diameter. Another plant that I've become more familiar with recently is considered an "invasive" called Purple Loosestrife. This can be found in a lot of areas of the park but I see it most often in wetter areas where cattails are also growing. In fact it more often than not seems to be situated just behind the cattails, versus along the edges of the trails for some reason. You can spot it by it's brightly colored purple flower shoots. I don't know a lot about this plant other than despite how attractive it is, it spreads like crazy and can be nearly impossible to eradicate. In Minnesota it is listed as a "prohibited noxious weed" which means it cannot be cultivated or sold at any nursery. The last plant pictured here is something that I thought I was more familiar with, but now I'm not sure. I'm believe this is a type of Thistle but I've never seen one quite so "swirled" in this pattern before. I reached out to touch it and sure enough I got poked pretty good so I would assume it's a thistle of some kind. There were a couple more around it in the same swirly pattern so I wonder if maybe it's a specific type. I will have to keep my eye out for more and do some comparing.

Sandhill Sighting

After going to bed early last night I found myself up and wide awake around 6:00 am this morning which is unusual for me. I figured I'd go to the park first thing and so I arrived around 6:30 to find most of the park covered in a thick morning fog. It was quite peaceful and quiet. As I pulled into the parking lot on the west side, I could see a very large bird out in the middle of the baseball field. With the fog it was hard to tell and I figured it was a Turkey at first but to my surprise it was a Sandhill Crane! Then I noticed a second one! I'm guessing this is the same pair that I'd been seeing in the park earlier this spring and it was the first time I've seen them again since late April. Fellow birder friends of mine have suggested that they likely attempted to nest in the park but were unsuccessful. Seeing them again today makes me think that this theory is right. I did manage a photo with both of them in it but opted to post this better closeup of just the one. You can see some of the fog hanging in the background. Overall it was a spectacular day for birding –it seems to be picking up again, or maybe it was because I was there so early. In addition to this nice Cedar Waxwing I spotted on the north end, I also saw a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak, many different Gray Catbirds, Song Sparrows, House Sparrow, Flicker, American Redstart, American Goldfinch, Indigo Bunting, Great Blue Heron, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Northern Cardinal, European Starling, Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, American Robin and Ring-billed Gull. I spent quite a bit of time watching and trying to photograph both the Redstart and Indigo Bunting but both of these birds like to hop around quickly in the treetops making them very difficult to photograph well. Later near the end of my walk I almost bumped into this male Cardinal who had just landed on top of a sign post to feast on something. At first it looked like he was eating dark berries of some kind but the Buckthorn berries aren't ripe yet. After closer examination of my photos it appeared that he was instead eating an insect of some kind. It is great fun to see Cardinal so closely and this is one of the better shots I've gotten of one at the park.

Neat Little Birds

I've been slacking about getting out to the park in the morning like I used to and this Saturday it was after 10am by the time I arrived. But the late start didn't impede my success in locating some very interesting birds today. Over the wood chip trail on the southwest side I spotted a small little bird hopping about in the treetops very high above me. You could tell that it was gleaning insects off of the leaves and this helped me realize that it was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. In addition it was in almost the exact same area I'd first spotted one earlier this year. These are quite beautiful birds that have quite an intense blue coloring on their top but the problem is that it's difficult to see them low enough to the ground. Like before this one was so high up that most of my photos were practically from underneath him. Another bird I've not seen for some time presented itself to me on the north side just long enough to realize that it was a Wren. It quickly darted back into the thick Buckthorn but after waiting just a few minutes he made another appearance. By this time I'd gone in much closer to where I'd hoped I might get a better photo and as luck would have it, he popped out right in front of my camera. I love seeing Wrens as they can be a bit secretive. When I am able to see them I'm always amazed at how detailed their wings and tail are, with banding so tight together that they almost look speckled. I guess I was on a roll today with smaller birds as I again spotted a male Indigo Bunting later. He was in the very same area as before and again flying back and forth over the paved trail. These brilliantly blue colored birds are also tough to photograph as they prefer the treetops and never seem to come down to meet you. I followed him back and forth for a long while hoping he might at some point choose a lower perch. To my surprise he later landed right near me only about 8 feet up but when I raised my camera he took off a little higher. This was my best chance at a photo and though it is quite cropped in, at least you can see how bright blue he is.

A Beautiful Sunny Sunday in August

This Sunday afternoon was a beautiful day to spend nearly 2 hours making my way around the park. I took close to 100 photos today of everything from insects and fish and birds and even to plants! There are a LOT of neat plants and flowers out this time of year and I thought it would be good to document some things photographically and then try to figure them out later. I'll get to those here in a bit but I wanted to first share a couple other interesting photos –of which I have more than usual to post today! First on the south side of the park, I again spotted a Raccoon curled up inside the Wood Duck house. This time his head was about half out of the box and I could tell that he was trying to take a nap. As I stepped in just a bit closer for a photo, one eyed opened and seemed to express his annoyance at me for waking him up! Critters have obviously chewed up the entry hole in this particular box, making it large enough for them to get inside. Though I saw a host of beautiful birds today including Common Yellowthroat, Indigo Bunting, Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker, House Finch and Robin, the one bird I wanted to post was this Chipping Sparrow. I rarely get close to this bird but today this one walked right up to me on the paved trail. At this distance I could really see the features distinguishing it from other sparrows; a smooth gray breast (without the dark spot of an American Tree Sparrow), and a bright rusty brown crown. Harder to see in this photo but both the upper and lower bill are the same dark color, also unlike the American Tree Sparrow. OK, so now for some plants! Plants are definitely NOT my specialty, but I am slowly learning things here and there. From posting to this blog for close to 5 years now, I've learned that I can take a few photos of something and then learn what it is later on my own time. This method of "shoot first and ask questions later" has become my mantra and is the same way I've come to learn my birds and mammals. So I have 3 plants here that at the time of photographing, I did not know the species. And now that I do I can share here and hopefully remember in the future! This first is actually one I should've guessed myself as I'm familiar with it's "spikey watermelon" fruit seen later in the year. It is indeed Wild Cucumber which is kind of a creeping vine. In parts of the park I've seen it grow up the sides of other trees to nearly 30 feet tall! This plant was just beginning to flower and thus I did not recognize it yet. This next plant I found interesting because of it's many miniature white flowers with 5 petal. In between each petal is a stamen –I think. Even the stalk of this plant is unique and reminds me of a fireworks bursting in the sky. I had to have a friend identify this one for me and it is called Water Parsnip. There are a number of other plants that look very similar and can be differentiated by the number of leaves that grow at the base of where it branches off near the top. This one here with yellow flowers took me a LOT longer to identify. I actually posted it to the Minnesota Wildflowers facebook page to ask for their help and they wrote me back within only hours! As far as they can tell (without good photos of the leaves) it appears to be something called Tall Hedge Mustard. Near the bottom of the photo where it is blurry you can barely make out what look like "flower-less" stems which would be the seed pod and a way to identify the plant. Something I've learned now about plant ID is that it's hard to do solely by just one part of the plant. To conclusively ID it you would want to look at the flowers, the stems and especially the leaves as they can vary greatly even between two seemingly identical plants! OK I have just one more plant photo to share today and it is one that I actually know and can identify easily on my own. It is called Bittersweet Nightshade and is mostly known for it's bright, tiny purple flowers. This is a very common plant and can even be found in your yard or garden. It is also a creeping vine and will produce small brightly colored red berries. I've seen these berries stay bright red into mid-winter season even. In this photo it is in the early stages of producing the berries and most are green or in some stage of turning red. In this sense they remind me of tiny little Tomatoes, though you would NOT want to eat them. Bittersweet Nightshade is known for being toxic to some degree. Though you would not likely die from eating, it could make you sick. I have heard of young children and pets becoming ill after ingesting them. P.S. if you are more experienced with these particular plants I more than welcome any corrections or clarification on my facts here. Again I am still learning but having lots of fun doing so!

Friends of Palmer Lake Park Nature Hike 2013

This Saturday morning the Friends of Palmer Lake Park (or FPLP) led another "nature hike" around the west side of the park. The event was again free to anyone and there was a decent turnout of about 15+ people. Last year we hiked all the way around the park which with a group of people can take quite a while. So this year it was decided to keep it a bit shorter and thus we hiked mainly the west side and also visited some of the wood chip trails for a change. It is always such a fun group of people who attend –people who really appreciate the outdoors and everything it has to offer. Usually, most of these people are quite knowledgeable about nature and boy can a person learn things from them. In our small group we had people skilled in bird, mammal, insect, plant and tree identification. Someone from the group had brought a few nets so we could again try to catch a few dragonflies. At this time of year they are plentiful and one even landed on Jean's head. We all laughed as she quickly became the focus of our attention and cameras. As far as birds go, we actually did not see a lot in our short hike. A couple we did see were Gray Catbird, and Cedar Waxwing. For whatever reason this hike ended up focusing on more on plants which is not my strong point, but definitely something I have enjoyed learning more about. One little tid-bit I picked up today is what Garlic Mustard (an invasive plant) looks like when it goes to seed. I actually didn't get a photo of that unfortunately but the image is engrained in my mind now and I think I will be able to point it out to others in the future. One more insect that we all spotted was this Yellow Butterfly on the wood chip trail. It was clinging to some leaves right at eye level and so all of us got a great look at it. I have always called these "Yellow Swallowtails" but in fact I believe now the correct name is an "Eastern Tiger Swallowtail." Something I learned later from someone else in our group is that the caterpillar of this species prefers to eat Dill plant. It is something you can plant in your own yard and possibly even attract this type of Butterfly to!