The official first day of Spring was this past Thursday. And since my last post on the blog here we have had some very nice days with temps in the upper 40's. But last night another cold front moved in and temperatures were in the single digits when I woke up this morning! By the time I arrived at PLP it had warmed up to somewhere around 12 to 15 degrees. And with a very strong wind, I had to wear all my warmest clothes –some of which I have put away and had to take back out multiple times already. In fact the duck pond was even frozen over today!
It seems that all the Mallards that usually hang out here must have moved on to other open water. Here there were two Canada Geese walking on top of the ice and the ice was so thin that you could hear it squeezing and cracking under their weight. For my visit to the park today I was joined by 2 friends of mine who are very experienced birders. Despite the frigid temps we enjoyed spotting various sights at the park. One sight I really wanted to see today was a
second Great Horned Owl nest that yet another birder had recently shared with me. When we found it I was overjoyed to learn that this was the very same nest I had played a part in restoring! You can read the full story
here but in July of 2012 a Cooper's Hawk was using the same portion of this tree to nest in. I was walking underneath it that July and spotted two Hawk chicks whom had fallen out of the nest. On a friends suggestion we reached out the Raptor Center at the University of MN and a experienced tree climber came out and rebuilt the nest. He essentially cleared away what was left of the tattered nest and installed a wire mesh which he fashioned into a bowl shape before adding twigs and grasses back.
Now nearly 2 years later the work that was done that day is helping provide a completely different species of bird with a suitable place to nest and rear young! How cool is that? I made me think about how our interactions with nature –be it positive or negative– can have effects that last for many years later. Not too much later, Ron from our group thought he saw a Great Blue Heron up ahead behind some thick bushes. I honestly didn't believe him and thought it was another Goose. But as we got closer, we all saw that indeed there were a pair of Great Blue Herons!
Apparently it is common for them to arrive back in March but until now I can't say that I've spotted them this early in the year. I usually use Red-winged Blackbirds as my "natural calendar" for the start of Spring but a GBH is even better! Here and there I was also noticing Pussy Willow catkins poking out which is also another good sign of Spring. Later in our walk we stopped to check out the other Great Horned Owl nest –the one I had found on my own on the first day of this March. The mother was quite obvious in the nest this time and just below and to the right, we thought we could see a little white fluff that could be an Owlet. This particular nest has us a little worried because there are no good branches jutting out horizontally from the nest.
If the Owlets survive to leave the nest it could a bit perilous for them to not have any branches available to perch on and learn to use their wings. I'm hoping for the best but time will tell.
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