Another Sunny Day

I arrived at the park in the afternoon today sometime after 2:30pm. By now it had warmed up quite a bit and it was yet another gorgeous day to be outside. Now that November is here, every day like this is all the more precious. With all the hiking I've been doing around the park this Spring, Summer and Fall, I need to really start keeping my posts shorter and more manageable. Right now I have over a dozen folders from previous visits that I've not posted yet. Because my goal with this blog is to document every single visit, I sometimes find myself in the situation of having to write about a walk I took months ago. Oh well, usually my photos are pretty good reminders of each and every day. The first good photo I got on today's visit was this Hairy Woodpecker. The light was really nice and I like that the background showed up darker than the bird. It's that time of year now when sadly, I start to get excited about Woodpeckers. The thing is, they really start to be the only interesting birds around on a regular basis. Excluding Owls I mean, which can be way tougher to find. I caught another Woodpecker today –a Red-bellied– in the act of probing a tree for insects. This is a male with the red crown coming at least over the top of the head. My last bird I was really happy to see and photograph today was a Fox Sparrow. I'd been seeing one here and there but struggling to get a shot. This one posed for me along the wood chip trail on the southwest side. He was kind of half in the sun and half in the shade but at least I got close to it. From it's bill, it appeared to have been eating some dark berries. I'm guessing probably Buckthorn berries. Other birds spotted today included; Dark-eyed Junco, American Robin (oodles of them), Blue Jay, Cedar Waxwing (juveniles), Northern Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadees, and the Muscovy Duck was still there too! Oh, I also found a dead, pure white mouse way out in the field while hiking off trail. I thought that kind of odd and don't know what to make of it. I guess it's just an albino.

Same Places, New Faces

Except for one of my photos posted today, you probably wouldn't guess that there is still snow on the ground. All of the paved trails have a few inches and it's getting to be late enough in the season that it will just be left to melt versus taking the time to clear it. I've been wanting badly to see the newly born Owlet on the north end of the park. But I also haven't wanted to disturb them. I figured today I could be a little more quiet walking on top of the snow so I hiked quickly out to the tree and past it by just a little. The mother stayed perched only inches from the nest and indeed when I looked up I could see a little face peering over the leaves at me! This was my first good look at the Owlet. A friend of mine has told me that there are two of them but I could not see any signs of another one. Again time will tell. I only stood here long enough for 2 to 3 pics and then hiked back out another direction. On the north side of the park I could see many flocks of birds going over the park. One or two of those flocks looked different enough to have a look through my binoculars. This one was a group of Double-crested Cormorants –which is a fairly common bird around here but one I have not posted on the blog before. Probably the reason being is that I rarely see any on the ground or on the water here. I'm not sure why I've never seen any stop before. Maybe they are but not staying for very long. My guess is that they were heading for the river instead. If you look closely at the photo (click on it for a larger image) you will see their bright orange bills. There is already signs of new growth and greening up at the park, but I thought this photo about tells it all. Plants and grass here in Minnesota are hearty enough to poke right out through the snow in search of sunlight. On April 6th, I saw my first Blue-winged Teal of the season and I'm guessing that I will see much more of them. As the sun was setting this evening I spotted this male quite close to me on the drainage ditch on the north side. I read somewhere recently that the Blue-winged Teal is the waterfowl with the second highest population in our state –behind only the Mallard. But I've never seen any with ducklings before so I'm guessing that they move further north before nesting. I was really pushing the daylight near the end of my walk but I spotted one more bird I wanted a photo of. The Fox Sparrow is also one of those birds that straddle winter and spring here in Minnesota. They are much larger than your average Sparrow, though they have somewhat similar plumage. It is hard to tell from this particular photo, but they have a lot of grey coloring at the top of their head and neck, which besides their size, is the next best way to identify them. They also have a unique song that I think I mis-identify nearly every year. I think it sounds a little bit like a Goldfinch, and so I assume that is what I am hearing.

Golden-crowned Kinglets!

Just 10 days earlier, I happened upon a little bird that I'd never seen before. This was at Hillside Cemetery in Northeast Minneapolis over my lunch break. It was a very tiny bird that moved incredibly quickly and often but it didn't look like anything I'd ever seen. It had a mostly white breast but I was catching glimpses of bright yellow on it's head. I assumed it was a Warbler of some kind. After several dozens of shots that came up with an empty branch, I began thinking to myself "what is the only other bird I know that moves this quickly?" A Ruby-crowned Kinglet was my answer. Then it hit me –there was another type of Kinglet! I looked him up on my phone right then and there and realized I was seeing a Golden-crowned Kinglet! I was so excited to have stumbled upon something new but my photos weren't too great. I even went back to the cemetery that evening after work, attempting to locate them again but no such luck. I never considered that I might see them at PLP but today I did. And even more exciting was that I ran into them several times today in different parts of the park! In the end I was able to get at least 2 post-able shots to share here, but this was 2 out of probably 50 shots I took. In the very brief instances that I've been able to see this new bird, I've decided that one clue you could go by to identify one is that they almost appear to have no neck. Their head seems to be almost part of their round little body, giving them a "chubby" appearance much more than any other bird I know. I've also learned that while both male and female have a bright yellow crown atop the head, only the male has an additional tiny little orange-red patch at the back of his crown, making his crown appear more of a rich orange all around. I was able to see that in at least 2 of the birds I saw today and you can just barely make it out in my first photo here. I was quite excited to get to see this bird for only the 2nd time ever –and especially excited to see it at PLP!
One more bird that is coming through now with the change in weather, is the Fox Sparrow. I became familiar with these only over the last couple of years but now I can pick them out easier than before. First and foremost they are noticeably larger than other sparrows. And since they often are among other Sparrow species, you can see the difference in size quite easily. They are also often colored a rich, rusty red, contrasting a lot against their bright white but speckled breast. This one was posing in the bright sun for me, making him appear even more distinctive than I would have previously thought. I've not heard this bird make too many sounds but upon looking it up I found they have quite a unique and beautiful voice. As I neared my vehicle back on the east side I caught a quick glimpse of a small bird land in some weeds just below me. I got off just one shot before he flew away and I ended up getting a pretty neat shot of a Song Sparrow. Though I definitely notice the return of Song Sparrows in the early spring, I've not paid particularly close attention to when they might leave. After just looking now at their range map, it seems both their summer and winter territory almost converge in southern Minnesota.

A Short Walk, Some Hard Work and a New Species

This Sunday the Friends of Palmer Lake Park were doing a small-scale Buckthorn removal project at the park. The only problem was that the weather was downright terrible. After a string of relatively nice warm weather for November, it took a turn for the worse. I arrived a bit early, just enough to walk from the west parking lot to Shingle Creek and back again. There wasn't a whole lot to see in this short distance; some Juncos, Tree Sparrows, Chickadees, Canada Geese and Mallards in the creek. But I did see one interesting bird along the way that I don't see too often but am becoming more familiar with now. This Fox Sparrow was moving around in the lower parts of the dried up cattails. If you ever see what looks to be a common looking Sparrow but seems too large then it is probably a Fox Sparrow. The other clue is large patches of solid grey coloring around the head and neck with other common sparrows like Tree Sparrows and Song Sparrows wont have. I just read that Fox Sparrows nest in Canada and are only ever migrating through Minnesota -which would probably make this the last still-migrating bird I will have seen this season! After my very short walk I returned to the west side to get working on some Buckthorn removal as planned. The weather turned out to keep everyone else away save for just 3 of us, brave enough (or dumb) enough to want to work for a couple hours in this crummy weather. We made fantastic progress on a small area which you can see here on the FPLP facebook page. One of our "friends" for the day had said that he'd seen what he thought was a Snow Goose on the other side of the park before we started working. Afterwards we decided just for the heck of it to drive over to the other side and sure enough he was still there! This one, lone Snow Goose had tagged along with a small group of 10-15 Canada Geese who were moving slowly across the baseball field. As we watched we could tell that the Geese weren't exactly keen on this new, and different looking member of the group. When he would get too close, different Geese would nip at him and chase him away. It made me wonder why -or how- he got separated from his own group and ended up here. I'm pretty sure I've seen Snow Geese flying over the park before but this marks the first time I've positively identified one actually in the park. So another new species documented today!

Another Good Day of Birding

Well this Sunday ended up to be a lot warmer, though when I arrived at the park it was only 30 degrees! This time I was a bit more prepared with gloves and warmer clothes but the sun that was mostly hidden yesterday was out in full force to help things out. Upon arriving at the park I ran into a fellow friend and birder who gave me a tip on where I might catch a glimpse of the supposed Sora that had been reported in the park. He actually had photos of it to show me and after I explained my brief encounter with it yesterday, we determined that I must have seen something else such as a Woodcock or Snipe -but not a Sora. So after much talk about a lot of birds, I found myself nosing around the purported area. Sure enough it was right where my friend said it would be and I quickly realized that indeed this was NOT what I'd seen yesterday! At first it was standing upright in the water facing me, but not exactly the way I would have expected. It's posture was more of with a bent leg -though I'm not sure if this is typical or not. Regardless, it was quite a colorful bird with grey and brown streaking across the head, a distinctly sharp mottled back side and bright yellow bill that more resembled a chicken than anything else. It stayed very closely in and around the cattails but once or twice appeared to swim -though it's possible it was just standing in deeper water. It appeared to be eating the Duckweed off the surface of the water. It was quite an interesting sighting for me and I've read that they are one of those species that are rarely seen versus heard. Again I saw and heard more White-throated Sparrows today but I also spotted a slightly larger looking sparrow that caught my attention. I've only seen a Fox Sparrow just once before but I was lucky enough to see it so closely the first time that I was able to recognize it again the second time. They look a lot like other Sparrows, only their head is mostly solid grey versus patterned like the rest of their body. They're also noticeably larger than say a Song Sparrow or Tree Sparrow. The last bird pictured here is a Yellow-rumped Warbler; something I've been seeing a lot of lately. You might wonder "where is the yellow rump?" and the answer is that it's actually on the top side, not the bottom and is hidden in this particular view from below. I've seen so many of these recently -not all at Palmer Lake Park- but enough to recognized that they are females in "fall plumage." The size, faint hint of a yellow shoulder and the distinct wing bars still give it away even without seeing the yellow rump from behind or above.

A Great Day of Birding on Easter Morning

Today was Easter morning and I arrived at the park just before 7:30am. The temperature was still on the cooler side but with no clouds it started warming up quickly. I counted roughly 20 species of birds today in my short visit and that is a stellar day of birding in my book. Especially when for a few of these birds, it was the first time I'd either spotted or photographed them at the park! The first birds I spotted were a small group of Brown-headed Cowbirds who are now returning to the park. I thought I saw one the other day but he was against the sun and I couldn't say for sure but it made a very high pitched sound that I didn't recognize. Today I could hear that same sound coming from these guys way up in the tree. They reminded me of "class clowns" as they would fluff up, flap their wings and shriek noisily. In the duck pond on the southwest side I was very surprised to see a Blue-winged Teal float right by. I've seen them at the park before but have never been able to catch a photo of one as they are quite easily scared away. I only saw the male and no female but I didn't look very hard for her as I didn't want to scare this one off. I'm happy to see some new waterfowl returning to the park now as well. On the northeast side I spotted more than one Bluebird flitting from tree to tree just inside the paved trail. They were very active and I was determined to get a better photo than I'd gotten before so I walked in a ways trying to get closer. Bluebirds don't seem quite as skittish as other birds and will allow you to get fairly close, but it still wasn't close enough. I watched for a while and picked out a few of the trees or bushes they seemed to perch in most often and then looked for a good place to sit. I found a nice, wild old brushy tree with a good spot to sit right in the middle. I cleared a few dead branches for a better view and just waited. It paid off almost immediately as both a female and Male landed on the big dead tree about 50 feet from me. It was a lot easier to ID the female when right next to the male as she appears pretty much the same only duller. I could see the female with a small twig in her beak and assumed they must be building a nest somewhere nearby. Then a short time later the male landed even closer to me -about 30 feet away on a dead branch. I thought to myself I ought to have tried this method before! On my way back on the north side, I noticed what I thought was a Song Sparrow bouncing around on the paved trail in front of me. It was already pretty close so I took some photos and then walked ahead. Surprisingly it stayed put, only moving ahead or to the side just slightly. I wondered if it was sick or injured as I was able to get within just a few feet of it. That is when I noticed it had a noticeable patch of light grey coloring on it's head and shoulders which didn't look like a Song Sparrow. I took some more photos at this close distance, not really knowing what it was at the time. Eventually the bird did move along more quickly and even flew for a bit, staying near the ground. Later, using this and other photos of it's backside, I was able to identify it as a Fox Sparrow -another new ID for me! The name comes from it's rusty red-brown coloring on its tail and wings. Shortly after when I was nearly back to my vehicle, I noticed a very large bird soaring overhead and assumed it was an Eagle. It was very high up and I was having trouble finding its white head. Then as it turned I caught a glimpse of pink on its head and realized it was not an Eagle but a Turkey Vulture. I've never seen these anywhere near the park so I thought it was a pretty interesting sighting.