Sandhill Sighting

After going to bed early last night I found myself up and wide awake around 6:00 am this morning which is unusual for me. I figured I'd go to the park first thing and so I arrived around 6:30 to find most of the park covered in a thick morning fog. It was quite peaceful and quiet. As I pulled into the parking lot on the west side, I could see a very large bird out in the middle of the baseball field. With the fog it was hard to tell and I figured it was a Turkey at first but to my surprise it was a Sandhill Crane! Then I noticed a second one! I'm guessing this is the same pair that I'd been seeing in the park earlier this spring and it was the first time I've seen them again since late April. Fellow birder friends of mine have suggested that they likely attempted to nest in the park but were unsuccessful. Seeing them again today makes me think that this theory is right. I did manage a photo with both of them in it but opted to post this better closeup of just the one. You can see some of the fog hanging in the background. Overall it was a spectacular day for birding –it seems to be picking up again, or maybe it was because I was there so early. In addition to this nice Cedar Waxwing I spotted on the north end, I also saw a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak, many different Gray Catbirds, Song Sparrows, House Sparrow, Flicker, American Redstart, American Goldfinch, Indigo Bunting, Great Blue Heron, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Northern Cardinal, European Starling, Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, American Robin and Ring-billed Gull. I spent quite a bit of time watching and trying to photograph both the Redstart and Indigo Bunting but both of these birds like to hop around quickly in the treetops making them very difficult to photograph well. Later near the end of my walk I almost bumped into this male Cardinal who had just landed on top of a sign post to feast on something. At first it looked like he was eating dark berries of some kind but the Buckthorn berries aren't ripe yet. After closer examination of my photos it appeared that he was instead eating an insect of some kind. It is great fun to see Cardinal so closely and this is one of the better shots I've gotten of one at the park.

Neat Little Birds

I've been slacking about getting out to the park in the morning like I used to and this Saturday it was after 10am by the time I arrived. But the late start didn't impede my success in locating some very interesting birds today. Over the wood chip trail on the southwest side I spotted a small little bird hopping about in the treetops very high above me. You could tell that it was gleaning insects off of the leaves and this helped me realize that it was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. In addition it was in almost the exact same area I'd first spotted one earlier this year. These are quite beautiful birds that have quite an intense blue coloring on their top but the problem is that it's difficult to see them low enough to the ground. Like before this one was so high up that most of my photos were practically from underneath him. Another bird I've not seen for some time presented itself to me on the north side just long enough to realize that it was a Wren. It quickly darted back into the thick Buckthorn but after waiting just a few minutes he made another appearance. By this time I'd gone in much closer to where I'd hoped I might get a better photo and as luck would have it, he popped out right in front of my camera. I love seeing Wrens as they can be a bit secretive. When I am able to see them I'm always amazed at how detailed their wings and tail are, with banding so tight together that they almost look speckled. I guess I was on a roll today with smaller birds as I again spotted a male Indigo Bunting later. He was in the very same area as before and again flying back and forth over the paved trail. These brilliantly blue colored birds are also tough to photograph as they prefer the treetops and never seem to come down to meet you. I followed him back and forth for a long while hoping he might at some point choose a lower perch. To my surprise he later landed right near me only about 8 feet up but when I raised my camera he took off a little higher. This was my best chance at a photo and though it is quite cropped in, at least you can see how bright blue he is.

A Beautiful Sunny Sunday in August

This Sunday afternoon was a beautiful day to spend nearly 2 hours making my way around the park. I took close to 100 photos today of everything from insects and fish and birds and even to plants! There are a LOT of neat plants and flowers out this time of year and I thought it would be good to document some things photographically and then try to figure them out later. I'll get to those here in a bit but I wanted to first share a couple other interesting photos –of which I have more than usual to post today! First on the south side of the park, I again spotted a Raccoon curled up inside the Wood Duck house. This time his head was about half out of the box and I could tell that he was trying to take a nap. As I stepped in just a bit closer for a photo, one eyed opened and seemed to express his annoyance at me for waking him up! Critters have obviously chewed up the entry hole in this particular box, making it large enough for them to get inside. Though I saw a host of beautiful birds today including Common Yellowthroat, Indigo Bunting, Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker, House Finch and Robin, the one bird I wanted to post was this Chipping Sparrow. I rarely get close to this bird but today this one walked right up to me on the paved trail. At this distance I could really see the features distinguishing it from other sparrows; a smooth gray breast (without the dark spot of an American Tree Sparrow), and a bright rusty brown crown. Harder to see in this photo but both the upper and lower bill are the same dark color, also unlike the American Tree Sparrow. OK, so now for some plants! Plants are definitely NOT my specialty, but I am slowly learning things here and there. From posting to this blog for close to 5 years now, I've learned that I can take a few photos of something and then learn what it is later on my own time. This method of "shoot first and ask questions later" has become my mantra and is the same way I've come to learn my birds and mammals. So I have 3 plants here that at the time of photographing, I did not know the species. And now that I do I can share here and hopefully remember in the future! This first is actually one I should've guessed myself as I'm familiar with it's "spikey watermelon" fruit seen later in the year. It is indeed Wild Cucumber which is kind of a creeping vine. In parts of the park I've seen it grow up the sides of other trees to nearly 30 feet tall! This plant was just beginning to flower and thus I did not recognize it yet. This next plant I found interesting because of it's many miniature white flowers with 5 petal. In between each petal is a stamen –I think. Even the stalk of this plant is unique and reminds me of a fireworks bursting in the sky. I had to have a friend identify this one for me and it is called Water Parsnip. There are a number of other plants that look very similar and can be differentiated by the number of leaves that grow at the base of where it branches off near the top. This one here with yellow flowers took me a LOT longer to identify. I actually posted it to the Minnesota Wildflowers facebook page to ask for their help and they wrote me back within only hours! As far as they can tell (without good photos of the leaves) it appears to be something called Tall Hedge Mustard. Near the bottom of the photo where it is blurry you can barely make out what look like "flower-less" stems which would be the seed pod and a way to identify the plant. Something I've learned now about plant ID is that it's hard to do solely by just one part of the plant. To conclusively ID it you would want to look at the flowers, the stems and especially the leaves as they can vary greatly even between two seemingly identical plants! OK I have just one more plant photo to share today and it is one that I actually know and can identify easily on my own. It is called Bittersweet Nightshade and is mostly known for it's bright, tiny purple flowers. This is a very common plant and can even be found in your yard or garden. It is also a creeping vine and will produce small brightly colored red berries. I've seen these berries stay bright red into mid-winter season even. In this photo it is in the early stages of producing the berries and most are green or in some stage of turning red. In this sense they remind me of tiny little Tomatoes, though you would NOT want to eat them. Bittersweet Nightshade is known for being toxic to some degree. Though you would not likely die from eating, it could make you sick. I have heard of young children and pets becoming ill after ingesting them. P.S. if you are more experienced with these particular plants I more than welcome any corrections or clarification on my facts here. Again I am still learning but having lots of fun doing so!

Friends of Palmer Lake Park Nature Hike 2013

This Saturday morning the Friends of Palmer Lake Park (or FPLP) led another "nature hike" around the west side of the park. The event was again free to anyone and there was a decent turnout of about 15+ people. Last year we hiked all the way around the park which with a group of people can take quite a while. So this year it was decided to keep it a bit shorter and thus we hiked mainly the west side and also visited some of the wood chip trails for a change. It is always such a fun group of people who attend –people who really appreciate the outdoors and everything it has to offer. Usually, most of these people are quite knowledgeable about nature and boy can a person learn things from them. In our small group we had people skilled in bird, mammal, insect, plant and tree identification. Someone from the group had brought a few nets so we could again try to catch a few dragonflies. At this time of year they are plentiful and one even landed on Jean's head. We all laughed as she quickly became the focus of our attention and cameras. As far as birds go, we actually did not see a lot in our short hike. A couple we did see were Gray Catbird, and Cedar Waxwing. For whatever reason this hike ended up focusing on more on plants which is not my strong point, but definitely something I have enjoyed learning more about. One little tid-bit I picked up today is what Garlic Mustard (an invasive plant) looks like when it goes to seed. I actually didn't get a photo of that unfortunately but the image is engrained in my mind now and I think I will be able to point it out to others in the future. One more insect that we all spotted was this Yellow Butterfly on the wood chip trail. It was clinging to some leaves right at eye level and so all of us got a great look at it. I have always called these "Yellow Swallowtails" but in fact I believe now the correct name is an "Eastern Tiger Swallowtail." Something I learned later from someone else in our group is that the caterpillar of this species prefers to eat Dill plant. It is something you can plant in your own yard and possibly even attract this type of Butterfly to!