Finally here are a few photos to share from today; young goslings making their way through the new cattails watched over by their parents, 
A Hairy Woodpecker feeding preparing to feeds it's young inside a Boxelder tree, and a Great-crested Flycatcher spotted on the north end of the park.
These Warblers are abundant in the park, easy to identify by sound, but super hard to photograph. Like other Warblers they don't sit still for more than a second or two before changing direction. The one thing though that gives you a fighting chance at photographing one is that they tend to be feeding near the ground or just above it. You're way more likely to catch a Common Yellowthroat at eye-level versus say a Yellow Warbler or American Redstart who are often high up above in the tree tops. 
Tonight I was lucky enough not only to catch the male -with the familiar black face mask, but also a less-obvious female in an Oak tree. Lately I've been attempting to lure them in by imitating their call "wickety-whickety-whickety" and have found it a slightly easier sound to whistle versus some of the other more high-pitched Warblers. I gotta admit though that I had some help with recorded sounds from Stan Tekiela's "Birds of Minnesota" audio cd that I have downloaded to my iphone. I'm sure birders with more experience will hate me when I say this but I often pull it out after hearing a bird call to confirm what I've heard. Though I have found that all the variations of songs & calls aren't included -such as some completely new songs I heard today from a Baltimore Oriole. 
Later I was able to see some other good sights such as an American Redstart, Cardinals, Golfinches, Catbirds, a Flycatcher and a pair of Deer. On the west side near the baseball diamonds I noticed an oddly speckled little bird running through the grass and realized it was an immature Robin. He had only just the faintest hints of orange on the breast and I thought it was kind of neat to see.
It was easy to tell which one was the Male this time as he would fly in and hover around the female. In the past few weeks I've seen dozens of Swallows but no Bluebirds. There was also no activity at my new Bluebird house which makes me wonder where they've all gone. There were a fair amount of interesting birds noticeable tonight despite my attempts to make it around the park quickly. Parts of the park are deafening with the sounds of birds -mainly warblers with their high pitched, rapid songs. I was lucky enough to look up at the right time to catch this American Redstart -a bird which I doubt I will ever capture a satisfactory photo of. 
They are elusive, move fast and prefer dense tree-tops, making them quite a challenge to capture. I think nearly every one of my (handful of) pictures of them are taken from directly underneath versus straight on. Seeing and photographing this one actually reminded me of an encounter with one last year in which I was able to see one closer to eye-level. So when I came to that part of the park again later on the west side, I made my way through the small Willow trees up to the water's edge hoping I might recreate that sighting. As before, I picked a spot with a better view and just stood there waiting to see what might stop by. I saw a few Cowbirds, Red-wings, Grackles and even Orioles before an unusual bird came into view. It was mostly drab in color and from the size I quickly mistook it for an Eastern Phoebe. 
There was one obvious marking however that I don't associate with Phoebe's and that was a white eye-ring. Being still the novice birder that I am, my thoughts immediately jumped to some type of new warbler. However, after showing the photo to more experienced birders, they suggested a "Least Flycatcher." This is a bird I'm not that familiar with -being not included in my Birds of Minnesota Field Guide from Stan Tekiela. My photo is a near-perfect match with the illustration in my more comprehensive Peterson Field Guide, so I am pretty sure that this is what I saw. This adds additional species to my list of birds at PLP so it was a good visit indeed!
Sunday morning was another cold day and I took just a handful of pictures. Surprisingly enough, after reviewing my field guide, 2 of the 3 bird's I'd photographed were new species (as per listed on the right hand side of my blog). This first one high up in a tree I took for another Downy Woodpecker. Fortunately for me, another Woodpecker was hammering away down below at the bases of some cattails. Only because I'd photographed both of them within minutes of each other did I notice the subtle difference later. 
The larger one up in the tree clearly had a much longer bill, tipping me off that he was in fact a Hairy Woodpecker. Later, I spotted an odd looking bird sitting right alongside a Robin up in a tree. Though almost the exact same size, he was dark and spotted on the breast. Based on the photo in my field guide from Stan Tekiela, I believe it might be a European Starling. 
There was not a whole lot more to see other than this lone Crow who was cackling loudly up ahead on the trail. Though one of the most common birds I see, I rarely get a decent photo of one as they tend to stay far away. I will have to get a better photo soon.
After the bridge I hung a sharp right onto the trail that follows the creek up stream and walked quietly just in case it wasn't just a Mallard I'd seen. At the end of the trail out near the railroad ties, I noticed something moving out on the ice. As I followed it back behind the thicket behind me, another similar shape came into view across the other side of the creek. It walked right out onto the thin ice, slinked into and under the water, popped out on my side of the creek and scurried into the same thick brush. 
At the time I really had no idea as to what they were and my first thought is that they were Otters. I really didn't want to scare them off so I was zooming in as far as my camera would go. You can tell from this second and subsequent photos that it was taken just before he dipped into the water to swim across. I wondered what in the world could so easily plunge into -and under- this freezing water. After losing track of the one who'd gone under the water, I spotted some movement in that thick brush behind me and decided to scope it out. I loudly crunched my way into the area, thinking I'd scared off everything and just crouched there for a few minutes. 
Sure enough, one popped out of a burrow right in front of me and scurried toward the creek. I could see exactly where their path was and how they were crossing the creek to the other side. I admit, I'm not all that familiar with Mammals but my field guide from Stan Tekiela was helpful in verifying them as Minks versus Otters or Weasels. Some of the more distinctive characteristics matching up nearly perfectly with the field guide are; white patch on the chin, short round ears, larger size and darker tail near the tip. Also the description of it's thick, oily, waterproof fur allowing it to swim in near freezing water pretty much convinced me I had the right animal. 
This last picture is of the burrow I saw them coming in an out of. Too bad, their burrows are described as temporary as Minks are always on the move looking for their next meal. A male Mink is also said to maintain a territory of 40 acres -which is 1/5th of the whole Palmer Lake area. Hopefully I will see them again. Be sure to click on the photos for larger images!
