Spring is on the way

The park is starting to sprout up with both new foliage and new birds for the season. Here are some of my favorite photos from my hike around the lake today.

I also photographed my first-of-season (or FOS) Common Grackle. Their arrival is each Spring is usually not far away from the Red-winged Blackbirds which is generally around mid-March sometime. Later, I saw this Great Blue Heron flying over the lake which is another good sign that Spring it just around the corner! Also seen today but not pictured; Northern Cardinal, Mallard, Red-winged Blackbird and two Bald Eagles from across the lake.

41 Species!

As part of my "Big Month" of May, I wanted to set aside one day and basically bird all day at the park. So I arrived shortly after 8am today, took a lunch break at home and then went back for the afternoon. My other goal for the day was to see at least 40 species of birds, which on a nice day like today should be very do-able. One of my first sightings of the day was a Warbling Vireo, a bird that I've come to learn mostly by it's song, but rarely via sightings. Today that changed however and I got long looks at this fairly drab looking bird with the amazingly complicated song. I watched this bird longer than any other bird today and probably spent over an hour trying to catch an unobstructed view. In the end I would up with some photos I was pretty happy with including this one. Another bird I spent a fair amount of time with today was this beautiful and semi-cooperative American Redstart. This Warbler is known for being a tough one to photograph as they are normally hyperactive and blocked by foliage. This one however sat out in the open on a branch and just sung his heart out for a long time. I had ample photo opportunities and I kept telling myself what a rare occasion this was. He was still a challenge to capture well due to the black eye on top of black plumage, but I did my best and I have a few keepers that are better than most of my older attempts. The next bird pictured here is another Warbler, a male Common Yellowthroat that really stood out against the clear blue sky. He bounced around in a young Willow tree for quite some time but he kept moving ever upward, giving me the best looks from underneath. After lunch break I arrived back on the east side of the park to find a Green Heron posing nicely for me at the little pond just south of the parking lot. I knew it would be a short lived view so I took as many photos as I could before he left his perch. It turned out to be one of the nicer Green Heron photos I've taken! I saw a heck of a lot more birds –which I'll spell out at the end, but I spotted one species that until today I had never recorded in the park. It was quite a ways away but with my binoculars I deduced that it was an Olive-sided Flycatcher! And come to think about it, I remember seeing a similar shaped bird in the past in the same area that I couldn't identify –so maybe, just maybe I had seen one before. But at the time I likely didn't know what it was. But now I knew just enough to ID this bird and quite excited by the find! So here is my final list of species seen today, 41 species total! (listed in the order that I could remember them later)

1. Song Sparrow
2. Red-winged Blackbird
3. Common Grackle
4. White-breasted Nuthatch
5. Pileated Woodpecker (Saw 2 together, possibly juveniles)
6. Hairy Woodpecker
7. Tree Swallow
8. Barn Swallow
9. House Wren
10. Northern Cardinal
11. Blue Jay
12. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
13. Scarlet Tanager (2 adult males!)
14. Baltimore Oriole
15. American Goldfinch
16. Sandhill Crane (heard only)
17. Least Flycatcher
18. Great Crested Flycatcher
19. Mourning Dove
20. Indigo Bunting
21. Yellow Warbler
22. American Redstart
23. Common Yellowthroat
24. Tennessee Warbler
25. Northern Waterthrush
26. Magnolia Warbler
27. Swainson's Thrush
28. Canada Goose
29. Mallard
30. Wood Duck
31. Gray Catbird
32. White-crowned Sparrow
33. American Robin
34. Great Blue Heron
35. Green Heron
36. American Crow
37. Brown-headed Cowbird
38. Warbling Vireo
39. Olive-sided Flycatcher
40. Black-capped Chickadee
41. House Sparrow

Another Sunny Day in September

I arrived at the park around 8:30am this morning and spotted a single Doe right away but she was behind some brush and I could not get a good photo. After all the interesting birds I spotted yesterday I was hoping for another good day of birding but instead it was all quite common species instead. I saw Song Sparrows, Cardinals, Goldfinches and lots of Mallards and Wood Ducks. I only got a couple interesting (and clear) photos for the day. The first one was a female Common Yellowthroat in the cattails somewhere on the south side. When the cattails are thick and green like they are now, the Yellowthroats tend to "hide out" in them and once they enter it's tough to find them again. In the small pond on the east side I spotted this Green Heron perched over the water, soaking up some of the warm sun which showed off some of his colors. All Herons in my opinion are very "skittish" and will easily scare off when you get to close so I stayed back and tried to focus on him through some other branches.

Three Years of Birding and Blogging

Well this Spring has certainly been going by quickly. Earlier in the season I realized I'd be coming up on my 3rd year of (regular) walks at the park and blogging about what I'd seen. I'm amazed at everything I've learned in such a short time -and mostly on my own with the help of my camera and a lot of patience. I always tell people that I had to learn all the Minnesota birds in high school science class and that I'd long forgotten them. I can truthfully say know that I've re-learned them all and then some. There's even birds that I would now call common to the park area that are not included in my "Minnesota" specific field guide - a telling story that you need more than one good field guide to most subjects. Something I was happy to get a photo of early into my walk today was this Green Heron on the south side. Seems like they were more plentiful in the park in past seasons and this might be only my first or second photo of one this year. You rarely get to see their weird ugly feet as they are usually standing in water. Only a short while later I had the great opportunity to observe photograph an American Redstart at a closer distance than ever before. I've you every tried to photograph this flitty little Warbler before, you'll know why it is so hard. They are quite common at the park and becoming all the more familiar to me the more I see -and hear- them. I've come to recognize their very high pitches whistle now and get my camera ready before I even see them. I've quite proud of this photo here but realize that it took me exactly 3 years to get it! I won't quit after this though and I don't think I'll ever tire of the challenge in photographing these quick moving Warblers. Only a bit further on the south side I remembered the area where I'd watched the Least Flycatcher building a nest. I tracked down the particular branch and found a completed nest -and with the female sitting in it! What a find I thought as I snapped a few pics before moving on so as not to disturb her. I remember the male being overly cautious and not even approaching the nest area while I was watching so I didn't want to make it seem like I knew where it was and would be back often. The nest itself was unique in that it seemed to be made entirely of cottonwood seed and other soft material rather than sticks.

Nicer Day of the Weekend

When I started out for my walk this Sunday morning it wasn't really all that nice out. But after yesterday's wind, rain and temps in the lower 40's, it was quite nice. I spotted a wide variety of birds and waterfowl but the first thing I caught a photo of was this Great Blue Heron fishing along the shoreline where the creek flows back out of the lake. I noticed him just in time before walking right out into the open and scaring him off. You can also see here that the edges of the water are greening up while further in is still dead and dry. By the time I was on the east side I'd seen a lot of other birds but wasn't able to catch any good photos. There is a little tiny ditch here that usually has standing water in it and this hen Mallard came walking up out of it. She was so close I couldn't resist a photo. I was hoping she might have some ducklings with her as I've seen quite a few already but she did not. Shortly after I stopped to watch some Tree Swallows for a while, zooming out from a nest box, then coming back repeatedly. I think they were still building a nest inside. I've also been seeing a lot of Brown-headed Cowbirds recently -usually groups of 10 or more. Mostly I've noticed them on the ground out in the baseball fields on the east side. Each time I see them I can usually also hear their very high pitched squeaky call. After turning my attention of the quick moving Tree Swallows I noticed this female Cowbird sitting by herself across the trail in the willows. They're not a particularly pretty bird and I realize they are generally despised by birders for their behavior but you'd never guess it from this picture. I always think the female seems to have spots running down the side of her breast but I think it's just how the feathers lay. By the time I arrived at the bridge over the creek on the north side, the sun had popped out and it really turned a corner. I met up with a friend from the park and we watched the Barn Swallows, Mallards and Wood Ducks while we talked. A little bird came bouncing up the creek bank and came up almost right underneath my feet. I thought at first that it was a Chipping Sparrow or American Tree Sparrow -both of which I don't have photos of. But later I think it was just another Song Sparrow. Regardless he was within that range that I can never pass up so I took a few shots. Usually when I see them they are all puffed up and don't look like the slender bird this one does.

Kayaking Palmer Lake

Yes believe it, today I kayaked in Palmer Lake and up Shingle Creek! I've been considering it for years now but had put it off for some good reasons. The basin itself is shallow as hell. Also, being a swamp that's smack dab in the middle of a large city, it's not necessarily the cleanest water. I don't even want to imagine what diseases I could catch if I capsized. But with almost a week's worth of rain, the water was noticeable higher and I figured I'd go for it. I put in right by the main parking lot around 8am. Thankfully I was the first vehicle in the lot and I could avoid any embarrassment if I didn't succeed in launching. Surprisingly I made it in without getting too wet and I was off and paddling across the middle basin. I tooled around slowly, getting a feel for the depth as I really didn't want to get stuck and have to get out! I headed for the mouth of the creek and thankfully found the water to be much deeper there -maybe 5-6 feet? As I headed up the creek I came upon a large group of deer right on the banks. Seeing them there in the middle of the park in the early quiet was amazing. In addition I was so frickin' close, I could see steam coming off their warm bodies. They stared at me like it was something they'd never seen before -and that's probably true :) As I headed closer to the foot bridge on the north side I saw birds aplenty including an Owl, hawks and lots of Wood Ducks. The most amazing part of my trip is just how far I made it upstream. I got past the old Lazaroff's farm and even past Xerxes Avenue by way of a cement tunnel under the road. Shortly after I finally ran aground and could see I was in about 6 inches of water. Luckily, there was somewhat of a current here and it was easy to back up and turn around. On the way back I paused to snap a picture of the same tall cottonwood I remember from January when I first walked on the frozen creek. Just for fun, I've put both pictures together here. Also on the way back I paused to watch a female Red-winged Blackbird that darn near came right up to me as she was collecting twigs for a nest. Being this close I could even see the slight yellowish tint to the head that I've only seen before in photos. Upon coming back off the creek I veered right to explore the left basin which was even more shallow than the first. Everywhere around me the water errupted into a swirl from carp. I swear I could even feel them under the bow of my kayak. Here I snapped this pic of a Great Blue Heron before heading back to explore the eastern basin. This is the largest body of water in the park and there were actually small waves on it. I'd recently talked to a passing walker said someone told him there was a depth of 18 feet somewhere on the lake. I'm highly skeptical of this but I figured if it existed, it would be here on the east side. Though it was for sure deeper than the other basins, I could touch the bottom with my paddle everywhere I ventured. I decided upon the south side overlook for my point of exit and I performed a trepidatious full body roll-out onto the railroad ties. With a handful of new sights and no diseases, I'd actually call it a great paddle!

Dreary Thursday

It's been nice to be able to visit the park more frequently now that it's staying lighter all the time. There were no sunsets tonight though as it was very overcast and grey. I really hadn't seen much by the time I'd crossed the north side except for a lot of seeded out Dandelions. It's amazing how fast they cycle through from flower to seed. No wonder they spread so easily. I did see a few deer near the houses on the northeast side but I had a hard time capturing any decent photos. They'd only pop their heads up periodically to see what I was up to before looking for more food. When I got the south side I noticed the first Great Blue Heron of the season. In fact there was an Egret inching up on him slowly. It was an interesting site as I've rarely seen these two large birds close together like that.

Palmer Lake Cleanup Day!

This morning I finally accomplished my own little Lake Palmer Cleanup Day! Last year my workplace introduced a "Spirit Day" initiative that let's you take an extra day off to volunteer. This was the perfect fit to let me clean up all the trash I see everyday. It was a fantastic day to do so and I even got 3 personal "thank you's" from strangers out for a morning walk or a jog. It was a great feeling and went at least a little ways towards relieving my disgust about the grossness of my task. As I set out just after sunrise I encountered quite a few deer -eight in total. Here's one of 2 does seen not too long after setting out. I wanted to take at least one pic of my trash-grabber in action so here you go. Who in the heck ditches a bottle of lemon juice in the local park? Right as I was topping off my first 40 gallon trash bag, I heard a huffing noise coming from the other side of the trail. When I peaked out of the woods there were 2 does that must have been upset that I was standing on their trail. I quickly dropped my bag in favor of my camera and caught this video of the none-too happy doe. After that I got the heck out of there. As I was filling my second bag I came across two otherinteresting sites. The first were these odd, white berries and the second, a Great Blue Heron. Lastly is a picture of my two full bags of garbage hauled out of the park.