Raptors and Spring

Yesterday morning I saw an adult Bald Eagle at the park. It was sitting calmly in one of the large Cottonwoods on the south side of the lake. Somebody on the Powderhorn email list reported that it was still around that evening, so it must have stayed around all day long. A bald eagle at the park isn't all that unusual, but they don't often stay very long, so I thought maybe it would still be there this morning when I went out. Soon after I arrived at the park this morning I noticed a rather large commotion from the northwest end of the lake. A group of crows was especially raucous and animated. I initially thought that perhaps they were mobbing the Bald Eagle. I was still a ways off when I saw the whole group move to another nearby tree: a large-ish bird followed by a group of angry crows. Even from that distance, it was obvious that it wasn't a Bald Eagle: it was a bit smaller, fairly evenly-colored and a lighter brown than a bald eagle. My initial thought was Red-tailed Hawk, which is even more common in the park than a Bald Eagle. As I made my way around the lake toward the tree, the bird took off again, and it became obvious that this wasn't a Red-tailed Hawk. It had very broad wings, a large head, slow and powerful wingbeats. A Great Horned Owl. The first one I've seen at the park. Unforunately the crows made sure that it didn't stay in the park very long, and it was escorted out of the park to the west before I could get a really good view of it.

More signs of spring this morning: the resident Cooper's Hawks are definitely building this year's nest in the south part of the park. I saw 9 Flickers in a tree at one time this morning. A pair of Bluebirds have returned, and the year's first flycatcher, an Eastern Phoebe, showed up a few days ago.

Leap Day Merlin

In a nice departure from the routine, I was able to spend about 5 minutes watching a Merlin eat its (unlucky) lunch in a tall Cottonwood north of the lake over the lunch hour. After finishing the meal, it perched at the very tip of the massive tree for several minutes, looking a bit bedraggled in the light drizzle. Afterwards, it sped north out of the park.

Apparently, somebody from the park has installed a new Wood Duck nest box along the west bank of the lake.

This is the first box that I've seen that is not mounted 10+ feet up on a tree trunk. Aside from potential disturbance from people and dogs, it looks like a nice location for a Wood Duck box.

I'd still love to see some Purple Martin houses put up at the park. There are some new Purple Martin houses that were recently installed at nearby Lake Hiawatha, so it'll be interesting to see whether they're successful at attracting Purple Martins in the next year or two. This is most definitely a song I'd be happy to hear regularly around the park during the summertime.

Optimistic Geese

Two pairs of geese came down for a landing on the ice rink this morning. No doubt they're just wanderers from a flock that has overwintered in the metro area somewhere. But the sight of paired-off geese honking and waddling across the lake ice certainly put me in a spring frame of mind. In a normal year, it would probably be almost another month before geese are regulars in the park again, but this year, who knows?

Birdsong Returns

Although we can hardly say that we've had a winter so far this year, it's still exciting to see signs of spring. This morning on my walk around the park I heard at least 2 (possibly 3) counter-singing cardinals. It wasn't the first cardinal song I've heard this spring (I heard a very soft song from a male cardinal a few weeks back, and I've heard chickadee songs on-and-off since soon after the equinox), but it was the first full-throated, multiple-bird singing performance I've heard this spring. It feels good. It never ceases to amaze me how well-attuned animals are to the lengthening of days.

The ice on the lake has deteriorated drastically compared to just a few days ago. The skating area is closed (for the year?) and there are pools of water everywhere on top of the ice. This seems to be just the thing needed to draw larger numbers of crows back to the park. I noted at least 50 crows at the park this morning, when I'd been seeing less than 5 on most previous days.

Red Fox

This morning, I startled a Red Fox from along the shore of the lake. It was hidden in the vegetation along the north shore of the lake when I walked by. I got a bit too close without realizing it was there, and it quickly padded away across the frozen edge of the lake for a more secluded area.

This is another good example of why I get frustrated by all of the people who let their dogs off-leash in the park every morning. We do have native wildlife around here other than squirrels. They're generally more wary, however, and they don't often show up in areas where large domestic dogs are running free and crashing through the shoreline vegetation.

Brown Creepers continue to hang around the park; I saw 4 of them this morning. I wonder if they're more numerous this winter than years past or if I've just gotten better at noticing them...

Brown Creepers

Although the park is pretty deserted by now, a few hardy souls remain. Crows and Starlings are the most numerous. Interestingly, November, December, and January are about the only time of the year that I see Starlings in the park even though they're around the area year round. Juncos are still around, though not in the numbers they were a few weeks ago. And of course the regular Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, and Nuthatches remain.

Every now and then, a Brown Creeper or two shows itself. This morning, a pair of them were foraging on the cottonwoods on the north shore of the lake. They're difficult to see because they're so well camouflaged, but if you keep your ears pricked for this high-pitched noise, you may be able to catch a glimpse of one as it probes the trunk of a tree:

Direct link to mp3

Redpoll

A welcome visitor from up north showed up this morning at the north end of the lake: the first Common Redpoll I've seen in the Twin Cities area in at least 3 years.

These little northern finches are relatively common in the wintertime in northern Minnesota, but they don't show up this far south every year. They tend to come south in big numbers only in years when there's less food for them to eat up north. I hope this means that we'll see more of these guys throughout the winter.

This solitary female Redpoll was feeding in the shoreline vegetation on the north side of the lake with a mixed flock of House Finches, American Goldfinches, and a couple of late Song Sparrows. She was not bothered by me in the least (as you can probably tell by how close she let me get for the pictures above).

Shoreline Burn

The park board was doing a controlled burn of some of the shoreline vegation around the lake this afternoon.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a bufferfly still around, even if it is a common one. I believe this is a Clouded Sulfur, though it could be another type of sulfur.

The lonely American Coot that's been on the lake for the last 2 weeks or more hasn't left yet.

Coots certainly aren't rare around here, but they don't often show up in the park. In fall, we generally get a couple of single birds that seem to have lost their way. In larger lakes nearby, you'll often see large rafts of coots numbering in the hundreds or thousands at this time of year.

Backyard Waxwings

Speaking of Cedar Waxwings, here's a shot of my backyard bird bath from over the lunch hour today:

Migration wind-down

The bulk of migration has passed by now. There are probably a few ducks and geese that may come through yet, but by-and-large the warblers are gone, and even the sparrows are mostly gone for the year. From here on, it'll be mostly the year-round residents (Chickadees, Crows, Downy Woodpeckers, etc), and possibly a few northern species that come down to our latitude for the winter.

Female Purple Finch
by Syd Phillips (CC BY-SA)

In the last category, I spotted 4 female (or juvenile) Purple Finches this morning. The similar House Finch is regular year-round, but this is the first time I've seen Purple Finches in the park. Hopefully a rose-colored male or two will show up to join the brown females; perhaps they'll even stick around through the winter.

This past week has also been a good one for migrating Cedar Waxwings. There have been roving gangs of 30 or more waxwings hanging around the juniper trees in the southeast corner of the park (and in other spots as well). Also of note: An American Coot has been hanging out near the dock behind the park building, and there are still a couple of Double-crested Cormorants hanging out on the island.

Turtle Hatch

Over lunch hour, I was walking around the park, as usual. On the upper level near the tennis courts, a man approached me and excitedly showed me a baby snapping turtle he had discovered on or near the sidewalk. It was probably about 3 inches long, half of which was tail and looked just like this:

baby snapping turtle by Elizabeth Weller - BY-NC-ND

The man was afraid that the baby snapper would get trampled (not by turtles), so he scooped him up for a free ride to the lake. Apparently the turtle had been found very close to the spot where I met him, so there may be more baby snappers emerging from a nearby nest over the next little while. If you're walking or biking on the upper level of the park near the tennis courts, keep your eyes open.

Fall is officially here. Both according to the calendar and according to the birds. White-throated Sparrows (my official herald of fall) have begun to pass through the park, as have decent numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Large flocks of Chipping Sparrows this morning also signal southern sparrow movement. I'd have been lucky to see one or two of them a week ago. Herons have become scarce in the last a couple of weeks, and a Pied-billed Grebe has been on the lake occasionally.

125

After a few more new birds spotted this fall, the park list is up to 125 different species. That's not bad for a park in the middle of the city that's not exactly managed to be a natural area. It shows that there can be a lot of wildlife around even when people don't realize it. On the other hand, on any given trip to the park, you're not likely to see very much variety; it's only over repeated trips that you're likely to see anything other than the most common birds.

The number of individual birds migrating through the park this fall has seemed a bit low, but the variety has not been too bad. Thus far this fall, I've seen 17 different kinds of warbler at the park. Ring-billed Gulls are increasing, and this morning I watched a Mallard steal a meal from a gull. I'm not entirely sure why the Mallard wanted the tiny bullhead; it didn't seem to eat the fish, which is unsurprising. I had expected the gull to put up more of a fight, but it just walked away.

I also watched a Cooper's Hawk make a couple of unsuccessful passes at a squirrel that didn't seem overly bothered by the encounter. In the past week, I've seen up to 5 Cooper's Hawks in the park at a time; small groups of juveniles getting ready to head south for the winter.

In addition, a female Northern Shoveler has been hanging out among the mallards for the last couple of days, and I saw my first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the season a few days ago. I'm still waiting for the first migratory sparrows to show up. Here's to hoping that the fall doesn't pass too quickly.

Fall Warblers

As far as I'm concerned, today marks the start of fall. Sure, there have been signs that summer has been coming to a close for the past week or two (reports of a sandpiper at the lake, Eastern Phoebes showing up after being MIA for the entire breeding season, an Empidonax flycatcher or two, a probable Ruby-throated Hummingbird that buzzed me last week, etc). But this morning I saw my first migratory warblers of the season.

Canada Warbler (male) by Jeremy Meyer, on Flickr

A single Canada Warbler (which is a new bird for me at Powderhorn Park) and a single Black-and-white Warbler were foraging in the trees on the hillside next to the tennis courts this morning. Hopefully more will join them over the next couple of days.

The Merlin

The heat, humidity, and mosquitoes have cut down a bit on my walks through the park lately. Not to mention the fact that I've mostly seen the same 10-15 species every time I've gone out for the past month or so. But this morning there was a new visitor hanging out in the southeast corner of the park. High up on a dead snag at the top of a spruce tree next to the playground was a small falcon with a strongly banded tail: the first Merlin I've seen at Powderhorn Park. It didn't stick around for long after I had spotted it; it soon flew out of the park to the southwest.

Random Barn Swallow

A cheery Barn Swallow down at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Bloomington this weekend:

Direct link to mp3 file.

Cooper's Hawk Down

While walking around the park today, I happened upon a couple of guys with a cardboard box.  As I passed, I noticed a very young Cooper's Hawk sitting on the ground next to the trunk of one of the large Cottonwood trees.  It just sat there looking stunned.  Most of the flight feathers had grown in, but it still had a few tufts of down in various spots.  The bird had clearly fallen out of the nest a bit before it was ready to fly.

I stopped to chat a bit.  They had called the Rapter Center at the U of M and were apparently advised to try to bring the hawk in so the vet could check it out to see if it was injured or not.  I have mixed feelings about intervening in a case like this, and separating the bird from its parent.  I personally felt that the bird probably wasn't badly injured and was probably just stunned from the shock its world suddenly turned upside down.  If it had been possible to put it back up near its nest, perhaps that would have been the best option, but considering the height of the lowest branches on the Cottonwood, and the number of off-leash dogs that roam the park, taking the little guy to the raptor center was probably the best option.  And besides, maybe it was actually injured, who knows?

Another passer-by offered to scoop up the hawk, so he donned some gloves and placed the little guy into the box, and off they drove.

I think there are still a couple of young in the nest (at least I did see the mother still standing vigil near the nest), so the mother should still have plenty to keep her occupied for the next little while.  But the young hawks are clearly about to fledge.  Keep your eyes open and you might notice some awkward little hawks around the park learning to hunt (and doing so rather poorly for a while).

Chipping Sparrows Emerge

There have been quite a few chipping sparrow fledglings around the park lately. I'm hearing the little guys begging everywhere. I found a Chipping Sparrow nest a couple of days ago with at least 4 young birds in it. It was in one of the small evergreen trees at the top of the tall stairs (NE of lake), but as of today it's empty.

Since my last update, I've also gotten better views of the Cooper's Hawk nest, and I've seen up to 3 juveniles in the nest with the mother.

Cooper's Hawk Nest Update

This morning I caught sight of at least one young Cooper's Hawk in the nest just south of the lake. It was still wearing its downy white plumage, so it'll be a little while before it leaves the nest.

The Bluebirds Emerge

I saw at least four Eastern Bluebird fledglings (accompanied by both parents) on my walk around the park this morning.

Two of the newly-fledged Eastern Bluebirds

A Black-crowned Night-heron was also present.

Random Chipping Sparrow

I nearly stepped on this little guy this morning. Love that rusty crown.

Chipping Sparrow