Great Blue Heron, Mink and the Grey Ghost

Our weather for the end of March has been unseasonably nice. I decided this afternoon to sit along the edge of Shingle Creek and hopefully see a Wood Duck or Northern Shoveler. Technically some of the migrating ducks have returned, but it's still probably a bit early for them to be congregating on the creek. Regardless, the weather was so nice that I decided to try anyway. On my hike from 73rd Avenue out to the bridge on the north side, I spied my first Great Blue Heron for the park this year! Myself and some others had seen our first one of the year just yesterday at the Coon Rapids Dam. This one today at Palmer was standing in the drainage ditch on the north side that was re-dredged out a couple of years ago. It spooked and flew off shortly after taking this photo. Within minutes of finding a decent spot to plant myself along the creek, I noticed a mink hop up onto the creek bank opposite me. He hopped a little ways, paused and turned to look downstream. It was a perfect picture moment, and my camera failed to turn on! Once in a while I have problems with the contacts or something and I have to turn it off and on once or twice to get it to power up. The mink hopped further downstream and out of view as I swore at my camera. But sure enough a second mink came out of the grass and walked along the edge of the water. This time I was ready for him and was able to snag just one focused image. They are interesting and curious critters and always fun to watch. There were no waterfowl on the water yet, not even downstream and I was getting discouraged. I heard one or two Wood Ducks fly overhead but none stopped on the creek at all. After waiting for probably over an hour, I noticed something else flying very low over the cattails. A friend told me just yesterday that he'd seen FOUR Northern Harriers at the park on Friday in the rain. Indeed this is what I was seeing as Northern Harriers (also known as Marsh Hawks) hunt their prey by gliding very low to the ground, and or hovering in one place while they look downward. This hunting habit is probably the most reliable method of identifying a Harrier, however they also will show an obvious, white "rump patch" when they turn their backside toward you. Both of these signs were visible to me right away, but what I didn't realize at the time is that the male Northern Harrier is very grey in color compared to the female who is more brown in color. Because of this, the male is nicknamed "The Grey Ghost." He was a long ways away and my photos here are very cropped but there is still some detail. If you ever get the chance to see one close up, like at the Raptor Center of Minnesota, you'll see that Harriers have a roundish "face disc" sort of like Owls do. They are fascinating raptors and it has been some time since I've seen them at the park so I was quite happy to forgo any waterfowl for this sighting! Later I ended up hiking the rest of the way around the park and spotted; American Robin, Song Sparrow, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal and lots of Red-winged Blackbirds. Near sunset I ran into the same aforementioned friend and we hiked out into the field near 73rd Avenue. We didn't really see anything else but enjoyed a nice sunset.

Northern Harriers

I visited the park again this Tuesday after work and realized it was my 4th visit in 4 days. It was even colder today at just 43 degrees but at least the wind had died down a little and it was bright and sunny. I walked the opposite direction tonight, heading first to where I'd seen the Ruby-crowned Kinglets on the north side. They were definitely not around this evening but I did spot a lot of activity out near the middle of the park. There were at least 2, maybe 3 large raptors swooping back and forth just above the cattails. When they would pull up and turn I could see an obvious white patch on their rump which told me they were Northern Harriers. I've only seen one maybe once before and was never able to catch a good photo. They were quite far away and I've zoomed in quite a bit on this one but it was easy to see how white they were from underneath. There was also a mature Bald Eagle perched in the tall dead tree overlooking the park and periodically the Harriers would appear to be interacting with him, zooming right past him. Their active behavior continued out in the middle of the park during my entire walk. Shortly after moving on I spotted another Bluebird in the same area I've been spotting them lately. It is just too hard to resist taking photos of them as they are so brightly colored. I had to stalk this one for a bit in order to get closer and in better light. On a nicer day I still may go back to the 'blind" and take some more pictures because they are just so fun to see. Upon heading south on the wood chip trail, I stopped and looked again for Kinglets as this was where I'd seen them last year. But again there were none to be found. Instead I spotted another Blue Winged Teal, this time both the male and female. It was getting dark by now and they were mostly only shadows but I could see the bright white half-moon shape in front of his eyes. Glad to see that they are still around but I doubt it will be for much longer.

Autumn Hanging On Strong

It's been almost 2 weeks since my last visit and I am surprised that the warm and mild weather is sill hanging on. Not only that but there are parts of the park that are just now displaying their best Fall colors. As I've said before, Palmer Lake Park is not a good place to see Fall foliage -being it mostly a swamp, overgrown with invasive Buckthorn trees. Even so, it had it's moments today against the rich, blue Autumn sky. This particular view on the north side was one that stuck in my memory from earlier in the year, on a day with lots of frost. How different it looked now. A few other things caught my attention around the park today including busy Squirrels, Chickadees, Deer, Wood Ducks and more Starlings. I am just now learning to recognize and remember the Starling's unique "slide-whistle" sounding call. When I came back around to the south side I spotted a large number of Coots out in the water. Other than maybe Canada Geese, I think this is probably the largest number of one species I've ever seen together at the park. I didn't even try to count them all, and this photo only shows a small section of them. Not much later I was making my way back to the parking lot and ran into another acquaintance I know only from the park. As we stood talking about what we'd seen today, he pointed out a "Marsh Hawk" over the water near the center of the park. I'd never seen one before -or at least knew how to identify one. It didn't take too long before we could see the tell tale white "rump patch" as it swooped upwards. A Marsh Hawk is properly known as a Northern Harrier and a new bird species I can add to my list. As we both watched the clear blue sky, more birds of prey came into view, including a Red-tailed Hawk and also a juvenile Bald Eagle. To our delight, the young Bald Eagle and the Harrier decided to play a friendly game of dogfight in which the two would both show off their aerial skills by playfully attacking each other. It was pretty fun to watch -especially through binoculars. While this was going on, the Red-tailed Hawk glided along much higher up in the sky, almost an invisible speck. Also, here is the first photo from today combined with the photo I remember taking in early February. If you think the top photo was in black and white you would be mistaken. But I can sure see why one might assume that when you compare it to the bottom photo. Click on the photo for a larger view.