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Sunday, May 11, 2008
12:25:09 PM EDT
Hearing The song of a Baltimore Oriole in our back yard
Bird Banding at Eastman Nature Center
Hi Blog readers! Yesterday Carolyn wanted to get some yard work done so I headed to the Eastman Nature Center , which is part of Elm Creek park to witness one of the bird bandings.
The first thing I noticed was that one of the volunteers who gathers the birds from the nets was using my same camera. It was nice to see that others are concluding that this camera is ideal for bird lovers.
The naturalist doing the bird banding is a very experienced man named Ron who is exceptionally patient with answering the same questions over and over from the girl scouts and other children that came that morning. The process as I've written in here before goes like this. Birds are gathered from nets in various locations and placed in little cloth bags held shut by clothes pins and hung up on a line like the morning wash as they await banding. Ron removes one of the bags and carefully removes one of the birds, not knowing what he will find till he opens it. Then he looks to see if the bird was banded and if it was he reads the number to his assistant Janine (don't know if I spelled her name right) She then checks it's history on her sheets to find out what they know about the bird. Next he checks the bird for age and sex and weighs it in a little bag and deducts the weight of the bag which Janine then records for future records. While he is doing all this he speaks to us, his audience, and tells us little stories about birds and banding and bird behavior. It is really quite interesting. I found out for instance why we have seen so many yellow rumped warblers and so few other warblers. The season is late and the yellow rumped and the yellow palm warblers are usually ahead in the migration department.
The first bird I saw as I came in was a female cardinal. After it was weighed and discussed Paul took it out for release.  usually Paul likes to have children do this but this bird could hurt one of them so he did the release himself.  He must have tough fingers by now.
I went back in watched as Ron went through a variety of birds including Palm and Yellow Rumped Warblers, chicadees, goldfinch, Rose breasted grossbeak and several others.
This is what you see at the bandings as he examines the birds under the light from all sides including wing measurements. Janine records it all. 
So that was the bird banding. Now this morning I will finish up by showing our new found Baltimore Oriole who sings in the yard all day now. I have some video too but I'll put that up at a later date. If you want them in your back yard put out Grape Jelly but put it out often because he's not the only one in your yard with a sweet tooth.
Enjoy the day my friends.
Ron
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Friday, May 9, 2008
11:17:09 PM EDT
Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge
Hi spring lovers!!
We took a three and one half hour hike this morning up to Sherburne County to the National wildlife refuge. We were last there back in September of last year with Gary from Anoka county.
We wanted to see what it was like in the spring. We stopped at the refuge main building first and asked the naturalist there what to look for. She told us of various ducks and other birds recently spotted. We asked if there were any Osprey nesting and she said that they had a platform there but it had not had a nest in years. She told us of a huge eagles nest that could be seen with the telescopes provided by the park. We thanked her and headed for the seven mile drive through. You can drive very slow, one way and stop when you want. We did see the eagles nest from several locations. We also saw our first Eastern Meadowlark. I could have wished for better pictures but they are at least recognizable. 
We also caught a glimpse of a wild turkey running in front of the car across the road.  A pair of Sandhill cranes romped around the prairie not far from us for several minutes and we saw many teals and ring necked ducks like these Now I may get corrected on this and if I'm wrong I hope to be but I believe this to be a Swainsons thrush.  We found the hike/ride very exhilarating and for that three plus hours barely saw another human being. The sounds of the prairie and the sight of many colorful birds will leave a nice memory for both of us.
Picture 17 in the box above will show you how much Carolyn loved it.
I recommend a visit to this huge wildlife refuge to anyone in the area. It is located fourteen miles north of Zimmerman Minnesota and west about five miles. Tomorrow, weather permitting we hope to get outon ahike or maybe even a bird banding.
Happy Trails to you
Ron
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Thursday, May 8, 2008
8:51:45 AM EDT
Carolyn's first hike since her accident
Hi friends. This will be a short entry but I just wanted to let everyone know that Carolyn and I went out on a two hour hike yesterday and she did just fine. I only took a few pictures but I wanted all of you who showed interest in her health to see that she is nearly fully recovered. Only a slight headache at this time and only at certain times.
The day was just beautiful. It was windy but the meadows around the dam never looked more majestic. We saw our first rose breasted grossbeak  of the season and many turtles. When we got back I took this picture from our garden .  Thats all for now. Will add more soon.
Ron
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Tuesday, May 6, 2008
4:28:08 PM EDT
Walks in Early May
Hello Nature lovers!
Just because I haven't posted here lately doesn't mean that we haven't been active. First of all I should tell you that two days ago Carolyn fell and hit her head at the dam walkway. She is fine right now but we had to have her checked out at the hospital overnight first. She of course has a headache but is up and around and clear headed.
Also we went to a birthday party for our young friend Tallen. He is six now and a close personal friend to chuck e cheese.
Back to nature. We got out to springbrook nature center last week on a nice day and saw at least five egrets and many many yellow rumped warblers. We had a nice walk and stopped at the building afterward to see the birds at the feeder. Carolyn has her new Panasonic Dmc Lz7 camera. It has a six power optical zoom but like so many point and shoots these days it has no optical viewfinder. It is basically an indoor camera then because I find it very hard to see the lcd screens in the sun light but nevertheless she has gotten some pretty good pictures with it outdoors.
Later that day was my friend Danielle's son Tallen's birthday party at Chuck e cheese. It was fun and I'm glad we went. Later still we went to the dam and got very close to a tree swallow sunning himself on the walkway. I also got this shot of our male Osprey friend flying close by. 
The next day we took out our bikes and rode them to the dam. Unfortunately Carolyn when stopping to fix her binocular strap passed out and hit her head and I had to bring her to the Er where they later admitted her for testing. She spent 28 hours there and was tested for everything and tested out fine but she still has a sore head and a bit of light headedness. She will be alright i'm sure.
Today I went to the dam by myself since it was such a beautiful day and Carolyn needed the rest. It was a lovely peaceful early morning stroll past bluebirds, flycatchers, tree swallows,  goldfinch and many house sparrows. The dam looked especially beautiful so I even took a picture of that. 
This afternoon it is raining but Carolyn is fortunately feeling much better and was out with me to the grocery store.
Thanks for reading and thanks for your comments and emails.
Ron
P.s. I just heard from Brooklyn, her boyfriend showed up unexpectedly this afternoon and they are racing off to Duluth to spend a night on the lake. Good for her!
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Sunday, April 27, 2008
10:10:38 PM EDT
Kestral, Turkeys, Osprey and a bluebird
Hi Everyone!
Well if you live in Minnesota you know how cold and rainy and dreary the last few days have been. Even had some snow. So this morning even though it was brisk I took out my Panasonic and headed for the river. I was hoping to get a better shot of the owl but no such luck. My next thought was to see if the kestral were back in the power pole hole. I stood by their traditional nesting place for several minutes staring intently into the hole through my camera lens before I saw a Kestral seated upon the pole next to it. I took several pictures from various angles then headed upstream only to have the kestral fly off over my head and back to another hole. I then began to look for an eagles nest someone had tole me about on the south side of the 610 bridge. When I got down there all I saw were several yellow rumped warblers but the light was good so I got some shots. Later on the way back I spotted three wild turkeys' mom, pop and baby gobbler.  A woman walked by with her stroller wondering what I was looking at, when I told her she said " oh they come to my door every so often" she told me she lives along the river.
We later on went off to dinner with friends but when we came back in the evening I saw how beautiful it was out so back to the dam we went. I had good light for the osprey and they were in a romantic mood so I got a few pictures of them  and some sunset shots from the walkway. 
So that was my Sunday. I hope that your sunday was beautiful too. Ron
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Saturday, April 19, 2008
10:21:47 PM EDT
Some Recent hikes
Hi Bird lovers. My young friend Brooklyn is with the man of her dreams a man who just returned from Iraq. He is very nice and she is visiting him in Utah. While she's been gone we've had a couple of hikes of note. The first one was Thursday morning when we went to islands of peace park in Fridley. Last year there was an eagle's nest but we heard that it failed to produce any chics so we found it again this year and could see the female presumably sitting on chicks while the male was out hunting. When he didn't bring anything back he took a rest in a nearby tree. In the mean time we got fairly close to some wood ducks which is unusual since they like to keep their distance.
We saw many other birds down there but shots were of varying quality so I won't include them here. I saw a red tailed hawk and a wide variety of ducks. I thought i saw an albino duck but my picture as i say was not that good.
I had to go to work after that but later in the day towards evening in fact we went to the dam where I was in search of bluebirds. I got a couple of pictures As well as a few photos of some deer.  I had found an online blog for owners of my particular camera and on it a man told about some photos he took of the moon just the day before.
I have tried with varying success over the years to get good moon shots but his idea of waiting to just one hour after sunset was a good one so I got some halfway decent shots. Here's one. Yesterday and today were just too cold and damp for hiking but this afternoon as I was writing some emails Carolyn ran in to tell me that the cedar waxwings were back at our crabapple tree so I went out and got a few shots. Well folks that's as exciting as it gets right now but spring is still young.
Hope that you are all well and as usual I love hearing from you.
Ron
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Sunday, April 13, 2008
10:47:36 PM EDT
Beautiful cool spring day at the dam
Hello again
Well it was a nice but cool day to be out. I started out with my usual Sunday visit to the Ymca then I headed down to the dam and out by Cinaiko lake where I hoped to get some pictures of the blue birds but I saw none. I then headed for the river to see the great horned owl in the Heron rookery and though I saw it the pictures were not worth posting. Next I headed for the dam. There I saw four osprey flying overhead  but none of them were the old fellow from past years. I met a nice middle aged couple on the walkway and the wife happened to be using the exact camera that I had. She loved the Panasonic but was less experienced with it than I so I showed her a few things to make her photographic experience easier. She was grateful. The man spotted a horned grebe so I took a picture of it. later I saw Mark at about the time that our old friend the male from the last 9 years showed up. I took a few pictures and headed home.
Later as we were watching the Masters golf tournament on television I noticed what a bright day it wast turning out to be so we went back to the dam. In addition to seeing Paul with his scope focused on the osprey platform we saw another Paul who works at Wargo nature center. He was interesting to talk to and told me of some upcoming birding events that we might attend.
One of them requires that we ride in canoes and the other will be next week on earth day. We might go we agreed.
There were other bird lovers out today  and we all talked our speculations about the osprey and what might happen here at the dam. As we talked there was a turf battle between our old friend, who I call "the old geezer" and an eagle. The geezer won as he always does. My theory is that this old bird who was damaged by an eagle years ago is now so toughened that I feel sorry for any eagle that gets in his way.
At last we had to go but it was an invigorating day and as I get older I appreciate them more and more.
Ron
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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
1:57:12 PM EDT
Some new birds and an old one
Hi nature lovers!
This morning I went out without carolyn who was at he church group. I was only at the dam for half an hour but it was a good outing. I had gotten a call from Paul Fusco last night to tell me that last years male was back and that he had kicked out the new nester and taken over. He might have a mate already but there is no concrete evidence yet. So I went out about nine a.m.. The weather was dark and there was some mist in the air.
As I approached the dam I was happy to see Gary the naturalist. He told me that he had seen a beaver and wished he had his camera. He went back for it but when he returned there was no sign of it. He pointed out three loons on the river and as I crossed the river to get a better picture of the loons   I spotted a bird I was unfamiliar with. I was going to return and find Gary to identify it when Oscar showed up. I surprised Oscar at my ignorance of the blue bill on the Ruddy duck while he identified the Horned Grebe for me. We talked a bit about the Osprey being back and then I headed home.
Once on the Anoka side I noticed a beaver walking slowly and then faster from the river to the Channel. I would guess that it was the same beaver that Gary spotted. I was cold by then and grateful to be back to my car.
More to come. Thanks for reading.
Ron
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Friday, April 4, 2008
3:12:27 PM EDT
Osprey still around
Greetings bird lovers!
Yesterday we couldn't wait to get out. We were at the dam around nine o'clock and there were numerous bird watchers already there. I recognized Ron who does bird banding and Dennis an avid photographer and Mark and Oscar and several others. Most were looking at the river where hundreds of coots were mixed with Ruddy Ducks , blue winged teals, gulls, scaups and many others. I caught a shot of the coots all flying at the same time.  Then Dennis offered to show Carolyn and i and Oscar a photo of two eagles on the osprey nest from last fall. We went to his car and saw the photo. Dennis offered to give me a copy next time we see him. On the way back to the river Oscar spotted a pileated
woodpecker. I spent some time trying to get a good shot and came up with this one. 
There is another one in the box above.
We had to get going soon after but we came back in the late afternoon and saw the osprey again. I only saw one this time. Paul had his scope set up and i took some pictures through it.
We saw the osprey bring back a fish to the tower and eat it. Paul was interested in seeing the band and i managed a half way decent photo of a couple of the letters on it which I later sent to him. I won't put it on here since it would have to be blown up more in order to see it . Before the osprey finished it's meal something startled it and it flew off. We scanned the skies and then Paul spotted a bald eagle. 
We now couldn't see the osprey but moments later it appeared over the eagles head and proceed to dive bomb upon it and eventually scared it off. It returned to the platform minutes later but without any fish in it's talons. There is no sign that I can see that anyone has set up housekeeping yet but we are all hopeful. This morning the bridge to the dam was closed but we went down by lake Cinaiko and spotted a pair of bluebirds coming and going out of their house as well as a great horned owl living in a heron's nest. I'm told that there are two chics but we didn't see them.
Thanks for reading and as usual thanks for your emails. If any of you have blogs I'd love to read them.
Ron
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Wednesday, April 2, 2008
4:16:48 PM EDT
First Osprey of '08
Hi Everyone!!
Well it looked to be a cool slightly overcast day but I decided to go to the C.R. Dam anyway. Carolyn and I were down there last Sunday and saw many ducks and more than a few of the regular bird watchers. Paul Fusco and Mark and Oscar were there and everyone was hoping to see osprey. There were reports of an osprey spotted but I didn't see one.
Today I went down there by myself and Carolyn joined me later. It was a bit cool but not bad really. I at first only saw ducks and coots but later on after I met up with Mark and he set up his 100x22 mm binoculars we saw a red tailed hawk and a pair of eagles and finally a pair of osprey. The first osprey that we spotted was heading south/south east on the river and soon flew over to the original platform. He/she sat there about two minutes then flew on to the tower where the second nest was made last fall. He/she sat there about five minutes then took off and headed towards the river and was met by a second osprey and they flew together around the dam area. Carolyn and Mark swear that they saw a damaged left wing but I took pictures of both, though I'm afraid that I can't tell which are which and none of the photos show a damaged left wing.
Later I stopped in at the Anoka county building and spoke to Gary who looked at my pictures and also did not see a damaged left wing among the osprey. I will go down again tomorrow and look again. Now there was no sign of nest building or even that either osprey would return to the platform or tower but let's hope that someone sets up housekeeping soon.
As usual let me know your thoughts. I enjoy all your emails.
Ron
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