A Brief Winter Warm-up

Yesterday's temp hit 40 degrees! And today was another extremely nice day to be outside. At the time of writing this the high temp for the day has likely not been recorded yet but I'm guessing it was just a few degrees above 40 today! When I arrived at the park this morning around 10am there was still just a little bit of hoarfrost left on lower lying and shaded vegetation. There wasn't much left and by the time I was done with my walk there was none. Near the foot bridge over Shingle Creek on the north end, I ran into a fellow birder friend of mine and we decided to go in search of Owls. I picked an area where I'd last seen one and we started in. In not too much time we did locate a Great Horned Owl but he was up in some thick trees right in front of the sun. I took a few pics before he flew off and this was the best photo I got. I sure enjoy seeing them but it's been a long time since I've had a decent photo opportunity. Today was again not one of those! Oh well, it is nice to know they are still around the park. I'm guessing they will be getting ready to mate in about a week or two. Besides the Owl today, I saw the following birds: Black-capped Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, House Finch, Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch, Hairy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, American Robin, Mallard and I heard but didn't see American Goldfinch. In addition, another birder friend of mine later pointed out a Northern Shrike to me! I only got one very crummy photo not even worth posting here. But I'll count it on my "Northern Shrike Sightings" list on the right hand column of my blog. There was one last bird for me to see today and that was another Raptor –a Red-tailed Hawk. He was perched high above the Duck Pond on the southwest corner of the park. This is a fairly common place for me to see them. I don't know if they are watching the Mallards or what. Although I'm sure a Red-tailed is capable of taking a Mallard, I think it take a bit more energy than they are willing to expend on any given day. I snapped only 1 photo of the Hawk perched before it looked directly at me and moved on.

A Few More Birds than Normal

I'm not even supposed to be in town today but due to a major change in holiday plans, I was at the park again today –the day after Christmas. It was just a tad warmer than it's been lately, and with my back brace still helping, I was eager for another walk around the entire park today. For whatever reason I was on a mission today to note and remember every bird species I saw and my total list ended up a bit longer than usual by at least 2 species anyway. One of these was a White-throated Sparrow that I spotted on the south side of the park. He (or she) was busy feeding on a dried plant along with a bunch of Junco's. I've not seen a White-throated in quite some and I typically don't see them at the park in the winter time at all. According to the range map in my "Birds of Minnesota" field guide by Stan Tekiela, it looks like the Twin Cities Metro area might be just on the very edge of their winter range. I wasn't able to get a decent photo but good enough to confirm the sighting anyway. This particular area was a great spot to watch birds all Summer and Fall. There were many different varieties of plants and even now the dried and withered vegetation continues to attract birds. It is testament to just how important it is to leave vegetation to nature's own course versus cutting it all down in the fall. I've only recently learned to do this in my own back yard –leaving dried seed pods as natural sources of food for wintering birds. The area provided me more than one good shot of a Junco today! I've come to really enjoy these hearty little winter birds and the variation of color in their plumage. This one in particular reminds me of fur on a dog. Another common but not-seen-lately bird for me today were Goldfinches. I could hear them plainly near the north end of the park, and after calling back to them with some pre-recorded calls, a group of 6 to 8 appeared in the trees above me. They never really came down to eye level but it was fun to see the hints of bright yellow around their face. I think this one is probably a female as there were slightly more yellow-colored birds off to the side. I've made up my own mnemonic to remember their call. They make one in particular that I imagine them to be saying "Look-at-Meee!" I'll try to remember now my entire bird list for today: White-throated Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, American Goldfinch, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch, White-breasted Nuthatch and Mourning Dove. I was surprised to not have seen any Robins. Near the end of my walk I ran into some good friends of mine and one reported to me that he'd seen both a Red-tailed Hawk as well as a Red-shouldered Hawk!

A Few Days Before Christmas

It's only a few days now until Christmas. Our colder-than normal December has continued on as such and it seems like it snows every other day or so. One good thing is that my back has been giving me less pain than usual and I am thankful to have found some treatment that seems to be helping. Though I took multiple breaks where I sat for 10 - 20 minutes, I was able to get all the way around the park today without too much pain. There air today was saturated with snowflakes and I had to blow off my camera every few minutes to keep it from building up. I did some off-the-trail hiking today in hopes of seeing an Owl but no such luck. I did however see a Red-tailed Hawk who was screeching loudly over and over. I wondered if maybe HE saw an Owl somewhere but I couldn't confirm so. Other than the Hawk I spotted only the regulars today; Downy, Hairy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Black-capped Chickadees, Juncos, Blue Jays and Cardinals. I've hardly even spotted such other common birds such as a Crow or even European Starlings lately. From the north side I stopped to look over the park and it just looked so wintery and devoid of any life. I thought to myself it's amazing that this place can be appear so dark and desolate now but be teeming with life come spring. I took this photo with just the smallest of intention of seeing if I could make it look even more "dreary" later using Photoshop. This is the end result and I feel like it kind of captured the way I felt about something today. Near the northern most end of the park I came across a bright red Cardinal who was singing up in a tree so I decided to hike in closer. I'm still amazed at how bright they can look on a day like today and seeing one on a dull wintery day is always a plus. I hiked off the trail through some pretty deep snow but had a tough time getting a clear shot through the the trees. He was picking at Buckthorn berries like I see so many other birds doing throughout the winter.

Close Encounter with a Mink

Our temperatures have been seriously cold for December –much more like it usually is in January or February. On Thursday of this week, we finally reached a high of 13 or 14º and it was the warmest day in 8 days! This warming trend (if you can call it that) continued into this weekend and this Saturday was fairly tolerable –especially when the sun even came out. I bundled up and went first for a walk at MAC park over in Crystal behind the airport. It's kind of a small park but similar habitat to PLP. However I didn't see hardly anything there save for maybe a Nuthatch, a couple of Woodpeckers, and a Red-tailed Hawk from a long ways away. I was still hungry for seeing some wildlife and so after my short hike there I ended up at PLP anyways. I decided to hike right through the snow along the tree line along the northeast side from 73rd Avenue. I'd hardly walked in 50 feet or so when I saw something small and brown scurry away not to far ahead to my right. I stopped immediately in my tracks as to not make any more noise. At first I thought it was a weasel because it was so small. But then I saw it again briefly and realized it was yet another Mink! This was quite a ways from the creek so I was quite surprised to see him way out here. On my last glimpse he'd darted behind a mound of snow supported by tall weeds underneath. I decided to go down on haunches and wait a while since he was SO very close. After 5 or more minutes I couldn't hold that position and stood up. Shortly after I saw a pink nose slowly rise up over a snowbank. Then a pair of eyes that looked directly at me. He was no more than 10 feet away. I stood there motionless taking a few photos but my camera was focusing on small weeds that were in between us. The mink eventually went back down as did I again. I tried moving to my left just a tad in order to clear the weeds that were blocking my view. Right after I did I saw him pop his head up again, this time even closer to me now at about 8 feet away. I was ready for him this time and clicked away on continuous mode. He fully stood up, arms dangling at his side and stared directly at me. I couldn't believe it. Though I didn't move I guarantee he knew I was there but didn't seem too threatened. For a moment he turned to look to the side but never really took one eye off me. After just a short while he disappeared again. I knew I'd gotten some decent shots but decided to wait another while just in case. But after staying as still as I had for this long, I was about frozen by this time and had to get up and move. I decided to walk in towards where he disappeared and found only a small opening in the grass. I couldn't even locate his tracks which stumped me for a while. Then I realized something –he was likely traveling underneath the snow all along, only popping up here and there for a look. I imagined the Mink might have had quite an elaborate system of roads underneath the snow and I hoped I hadn't crushed any of them. Though I've actually been even closer in proximity to them before, this was the first time we both knew how close we were!

Snowy and Silent Sunday

This past Wednesday, December 4th we had our first significant snowfall at about 6 inches. And as per usual, after the snow fell our temps plummeted dramatically. At first we hit single digits but then it continued to drop into the double digits below zero. Yesterday December 7th our morning temperature was -14 degrees! So I opted not to venture outside for a walk yesterday at all. Today was a bit more tolerable, climbing back to roughly 10 above but with a slow and continuous dusting of snow. At a particular part of the trail today I remembered taking a photo not that long ago, thinking I would do a comparison after it snowed. So I stood in approximately the same spot for a photo today and combined them here. The top photo was taken 15 day earlier. Because of my hurting back I'm not supposed to be walking more than roughly 30 minutes at a time. But as I took in the quiet and peaceful surroundings of the park I just kept going. In fact I went all the way around and then some –going off the paved path hoping to see something more interesting. Having hiked only a short distance through the snow on the far northeast corner, I spotted something large take flight from a stand of thick trees to my right. I realized quickly it was an Owl and I pulled up my camera to try and catch him in flight. He was quite a long ways out in front of me so the photo's not great. The Owl then perched again shortly after this and I could just barely make out the shape of a Great-horned Owl even through my binoculars. I trudged closer but he took off once more and flew even further away. On my way back down the paved trail I watched this Gray Squirrel doing some pretty spectacular acrobatics in order to reach some dried up seeds. He was knocking some of the seeds off and they spiraled down landing right on me as I snapped pictures of him above. This was my favorite one of the bunch. After hiking through the snow I figured I'd give my back a break. So I dusted off the metal park bench where the trails meet and just sat there for a good 20 minutes or more. As I sat I saw Cardinals, Juncos, Blue Jays, Chickadees and various Woodpeckers –all doing there best to collect some food for the day. Then right in my viewshed a huge bird came flying straight towards me. I spotted him even before he'd passed the tree line and got my camera ready quickly. It appeared to be a young Bald Eagle and he passed quite silently straight above me. It was still snowing and after sitting for a time, myself and my camera were quite covered in snow. I only saw about 4 other park-goers today.