Heron Rookery

The great blue heron rookery is easily visible now in North Mississippi Regional Park.  I had to give a program there on Saturday afternoon and the nest building birds were a treat to watch. The trees haven't leafed out yet and so you can make out which nests are still under construction and which already contained incubating females.

I was very interested to note a great egret perched among the great blue herons (wasn't able to digiscope a photo)--will this colony diversify to other species?   Speaking of which, not everyone is happy to have a heron rookery in their neighborhood.  There's a news story from Kentucky of some residents who have gone so far as to cut down trees to keep nesting black-crowned night-herons from nesting over their homes.

Black Ducks Wear Dog Masks Too!

The Mississippi River has been flooding a bit in downtown St. Paul, MN.  It's an exciting time for us park rangers at Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.  I've been out taking photos for the park's Facebook Page of the progessing river levels and can't help but get in some spring birding when I'm out and about.  See the tangle of trees on the right behind the rail?  There were a pair of song sparrows lurking in there.

There was no singing on territory but anxious chips from the pair.  I think they were looking for food and I wondered if they had nested in this spot last year when the river was lower.  Now they arrived and were perplexed at the dramatic change in water level.  Normally, the river is about 9 feet and when I digiscoped the above image it was over 18 feet.  Soon the river will recede and the birds can go along with their nesting plans.

There's plenty around for the song sparrows to eat.  I saw this early spring insect near the trees (that white stuff in the back of the photo is unmelted snow--yes, we still have some).  There were bird feeders nearby by too, chock full of millet so the song sparrows should be fine.

Ducks have been enjoying the high water, foraging in the grass right off the river.  Above you can see 2 mallards and an American black duck.  Remember the whole meme of Ducks Wear Dog Masks?

Apparently black ducks have do too, it's not just mallards.  Their dog mask is a bit more subdued.

Unusual Bird Watching Training

For the second time in my life, I have questioned how much I love birds and wondered if I need an intervention.  The first time with the Horned Guan Death March , especially in Part 2 of that epic hike up a volcano to see one of the rarest birds in the Americas. But the second time came last week when I did some mandatory training for our fall waterfowl surveys on the upper Mississippi River.

When we do our aerial waterfowl surveys, we fly low.  It seems to me that we are right above the trees, but it's about 150 feet off the ground.  It's low.  Our biggest danger is power lines that run across the river.  Most of them are well marked and we have GPS map system on the plane that alerts us to when we are approaching a set.  But accidents happen.  If I'm going to keep doing these surveys, then the federal government said that I need to have training on plane safety and how to survive a crash, specifically in water.  How did we do that?

Why in a pool at a YMCA!  That's one of my teammates and me in a makeshift small plane, belted into our seats and about to be dumped  face down in the pool to see if we could calmly unbuckle and leave the plane should it submerge in the water.  In order to complete the course, we had to do this four times...twice upside down.

I'm not going to lie...it was nerve racking.  I survived three out of four times.  The fourth time, I got trapped inside the box and had to be pulled out (I was never in any danger, note all the people in the pool).  Two people are watching you under water and they knew right away if you were stuck and they pulled you out.  I think because on my third attempt, I got a big shot of chlorinated water up my nose and just general fatigue are the reasons I missed on the fourth attempt. And really, the chances of me crashing into water four times in a row in an afternoon are incredibly slim.  I have high hopes I'll survive a water crash and even higher hopes that I won't even need to use this training in my lifetime.

Here we are on one of our simulated crashes when they turned us upside down--you can see our toes. I think it was this dunking when I asked myself...how much do I love birds?  If this is what I need to do in order to complete my job to watch and count them from a plane, then maybe there is something psychologically wrong with me.  But still, even when we did the classroom portion, I asked myself, "Is counting ducks important enough for me to risk not coming home to Non Birding Bill at the end of the day?"

I think what we learn about native duck usage of the upper Mississippi River is important for the long run and it is worthwhile.  Honestly, flying in the plane has been fun and seems like an adventure. However, when you're preparing for a worst case scenario (that will most likely never happen) you do play those scenarios in your head and you wonder if you will be ready if that moment comes.

The first day was general classroom work on plane safety and guidelines.  We were given examples of plane crashes and outlined all the little things that could have prevented them and the reasons why some people survived and some people didn't.  When I first started doing these surveys, I took an online course on crash survival.  I chuckled as the training showed little cartoon planes fall to a fiery explosion and then learned that the number one thing that is going to save me in a crash is a positive mental attitude (surprisingly, not a parachute).

Our classroom training reinforced that and we learned the Seven Steps of Survival in a Plane Crash on Water.  Any guesses as to what the first step is when the pilot shouts, "May Day, we're going down!" (or some form of profanity)  Any idea?

Step one, say, "I'm a survivor!"

Side note: Do not sing it like a Gloria Gaynor song...that's frowned upon.  But first things first, you want to mentally psyche yourself up that you will stay calm and get through this.  You will survive and end up at home with your family at the end of the day.

You might be surprised to learn that of the Seven Steps, unbuckling your seat belt is Step Six.  Before that, you need to (shout, "I'm a survivor!") unplug your helmet, open the plane door (if you're sitting next to it) brace for impact, when you hit the water you want to count to four to give yourself time to for the plane to stop moving and then sit up, find a reference point to the open door (make sure the doorway is still clear) and then you can unbuckle your belt and exit.  The last thing you want to do it swim towards the top with a hand up first to check for debris and/or flames on the water (yikes).

The helmets remind me of the movie Spaceballs. The training was fun in a Mythbusters sort of way and a bit morbid, but I'm so grateful that I had it.  I'm fortunate in that we have a professional and attentive pilot but I feel more prepared than ever should we have to go down into the river.

All part of the fun and exciting life of being a park ranger.

Waterfowl Surveys & Flooding

Monday was our first flight out for our annual fall waterfowl surveys on the upper Mississippi.  This is our initial flight to get back into the swing of things, make sure our maps are correct and to get a refresher course on identifying and counting waterfowl while flying over them.  Last year my route went from around Hastings to Lake City.  This year, there were some staffing changes and now my part of the surveys go all the way down to Brownsville, MN.

We had some heavy rains last week and parts of the Mississippi River and the Minnesota River are flooding.  In downtown St. Paul, the Mississippi is expected to crest at 18.5 feet by Friday.  That will be in the top ten highest crests of recorded history.

We saw several areas affected by the flooding Mississippi south of St. Paul.  The above photos are cows working to stay high and dry.

American white pelicans and double-crested cormorants were some of the most common species that we observed.  They are mercifully some of the easiest birds to identify--especially those pelicans.

There were also quite a few great egrets staging for migration.  Unlike other types of waterfowl, they tend to gather in loose flocks.  They do not bunch together like pelicans, each egret appears to need its own fishing space.  But these loose flocks are a sign that they will be gone soon.  We saw far more egrets than great blue herons.

We did see some ducks.  Can you make out any different species?  The big white ones are easier--those are pelicans.  The rest are mostly American wigeon with a few gadwall mixed in with a few coots too.  It's all about wing pattern.  The wigeon are the bird with the white wing patches with a dark patch below the white.  The gadwall just have a white patch.

We even found a few small groups of ruddy ducks too.  They don't have the bright blue bills right now but they have those big white cheek patches which makes them obvious when we fly over--which I love.

And so we're off with our counting.  I'll be curious to see how the flooding affects our surveys in the first few weeks.  I'll admit, I'm a bit nervous about the sheer number of birds we'll be counting, but I'm learning some techniques that seem small but help a great deal.  One technique is when you see a huge flock of 3000 ducks and it's mixed--say 3000 and give percentages of species.  We fly to fast to do it any other way.

Now, as long as my stomach stays settled and I don't get motion sickness, I'll be good to go.

More Lock & Dam 1 Peregrines

As part of my duties as a park ranger, we go out and rove in the park.  Basically, we tote around a back pack with park info and you're on hand to answer questions--it's fun, it's a bit like improv.  I like to take my scope for birding of course, but it gives me a chance to explore more areas of the park that I otherwise wouldn't visit.  One is Lock and Dam 1.  On Friday, we did a canoe paddle through the lock (you really haven't experienced the Mississippi until you've taken a canoe or kayak through a lock and dam--to be tiny in something so big is amazing). It was fun Saturday morning to look down on it knowing the day before I had been right in it.

I was curious to be back on Saturday to see the peregrine chicks.  Last week, they were a lot fluffier!  On Friday as we canoed past, one was already out of the box, flapping around on a nearby ledge under the watchful eye of the adults.  We had that big storm on Friday night and I wondered how the first fledger from the box fared.  When I arrived, two were still visible on the nest box perches, practicing their flapping skills.  I scanned and couldn't find the third one.  I wasn't too worried, I figured it was perched nearby and when the adults arrived with the food, I would hear it begging.

This is the view from the deck of the Lock and Dam 1 visitor center.  You can see the peregrine nest box on the far left on the wall (note the box below the brick building).  As I watched this, I noticed some flapping behind the big pipe on the right...

The bird out of the box did survive the storm!  Heck of  a first night out of the nest box--2 storms with heavy rain and the only refuge is a pipe.

The other two continued to practice.  The one on top of the box almost seemed like it was really going to get completely off the box, but stayed and screamed impatiently for one of the adults to feed it.  The adults flew in once or twice with food, but no drop offs were made in the box.  They want the young out of the nest so they can learn to fly.  The chicks want to be fed and eventually, they will put two and two together. When the chicks are hungry enough, they will fly out towards the adults with the food.

I checked on the peregrine fledgling behind the pipe and noticed that it was laying down and they eyes were part way closed.  I thought it was odd, but chicks lay down when they sleep, adults  remain upright, sleeping on one foot while the head is turned around and tucked under a wing.  I wondered if this bird was exhausted and not used to sleeping while standing yet.

If you think about how quickly a bird grow they have to work out how their bodies move and function relatively quickly.  You will often see young birds like the immature above, just letting its wings hang to the side after flapping--those things are heavy and they aren't quite used to using those muscles just yet.

You'll see young birds in all kinds of weird positions as they work out their bodies (what's that bird doing, checking for the time on her Swatch?)--imagine going from super soft fluff to hard pin feathers growing in over every inch of your body in about two weeks.  We think teething makes babies cranky.  Feather shafts poking all over the skin has to be about as fun as sandpaper underwear on a bad sunburn.

When the peregrine nodded its head down, I though I would call my buddy Avian Images just to be on the safe side.  She works at The Raptor Center and goes to the bandings, I thought she'd have an idea.  As soon as I heard her cell ring...

In flew one of the adult peregrines and this bird sprang upright to beg for food--it was fine, just sleeping like a young bird instead of an adult.  Whew.

And peregrines weren't the only cool thing--I found a huge turtle out of the water.  I know that it is a softshell turtle, but I'm not sure which type.  Someone on Twitter thought it might be a spiny softshell turtle which is possible in Minnesota (as is the smooth softshell).  But many of the photos for spiny softshell show a light colored turtle and this is a very dark one.  Whatever kind of turtle, it was huge with a pointy nose.

Peregrine Falcon Viewing At Lock & Dam 1

Just a heads up that right now is an excellent time for peregrine falcon viewing at Lock and Dam 1 in Minneapolis near Minnehaha Creek.  I took the above photo of one of the chicks Saturday. Look at that baby peregrine--doesn't it look like quite the thug?

Here's a screen capture of the dam from Google Maps.  I circled the area you want to stand in to view the falcons.  Of course it helps to have binoculars or a scope, but the falcons are quite visible without optics.

The cool thing about the timing for the next two weeks is that the chicks are losing their natal down and growing feathers--they should be easy to see and huddled in the back of the nest box.  They are quite active as they beg for food and practice flapping their wings when they take flight very soon.

Here is one of the adult birds that was perched near the nest--look at that, her foot is tucked and her feathers are fluffed.  That's a sign of a relaxed and contented bird.  The Lock and Dam peregrines are a treat in the Twin Cities--easily accessible and awesome birds.  You can also watch for other species around the dam including great blue herons and double-crested cormorants.  Take advantage of this cool view before the chicks leave the nest box.

Crosby Park Ranger Work

One of the things we get to do at my park as a ranger is "roving." Essentially, we pick a part of the park and rove around to answer questions or interpret wildlife.  It reminds me a bit of doing improv work-- you rely on the audience to guide where the sketch will go.  In this case, you walk into to a park and use whatever is on hand as your method of interacting with the public.

On Sunday it was my turn to rove and I chose Crosby Park which is great during warbler migration as it's right on the Mississippi River and anything is possible.  There were some great birds there and while I was taking a photo of this song sparrow, I heard a sora.  Tons of birds were recent arrivals like great-crested flycatchers and yellow warblers.  I also noted a pair of broad-winged hawks setting up territory, which is fun because when we do Big River Journey, I always see broad-wings soaring over the park from the boat on the river.

The best part of my morning was when I hung out at this shelter--a great interpretive prop presented itself.  It's at a busy intersection of the trails in Crosby--it's actually not a bad spot to sit and listen for warblers.  But as soon as I approached, movement caught my attention...and it wasn't a bird.  Can you make out an animal in the above photo?  If you can't, don't worry, it's hard to see.  But check out that big hole in the trunk of the tree, just above the shelter roof.  It's a raccoon.  When I arrived, all you could see was the body rising up moving around, I think the raccoon was grooming itself.  When people would stop and ask what I was looking at, I'd set my scope on the hole and pish very loudly like I was targeting a huge bird.

The large raccoon leaned its head back as if to say, "Yeah, lady, what do you want, I've got things going on in here." It was the perfect place to camp out and interpret.  And a perfect place for a raccoon.  Nice secluded tree with a big comfy hole.  Enough natural food and litter to keep a raccoon fat and sassy.

As with birds, the raccoon soon grew tired of my pishing sounds and eventually ignored them, but it was fun while it lasted.  I showed Non Birding Bill the photos and he agreed they were cute but liked this raccoon hole photo series better.  In particular, this photo.

As I continued on, I heard a pair of robins raising a HUGE fuss.  Something was in their territory and they weren't happy.  It was a serious alarm sound but not the aerial predator sound.  There was a clump of leaves and I did my best to scan, as best as I could make out, a red squirrel (see the eye and the whiskers in the center of the photo) had found their nest and was eating their eggs.  They did not make it easy for the squirrel, and smacked into it several times with their body.  Fortunately, it's very early in the nesting season, they will find a better nest location and rebuild.  What was interesting was that I heard a new sound made by robins in alarm--bill snapping!  I always though only owls did that, but robins do it too. As the robins were calling in agitation, it spurred the local house wren pair to sing on their territory below their nest.  Here's a sample:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs7Pn3mMa5M[/youtube]

I was missing a piece of one of my digiscoping adaptors so I had to hand hold my video camera up to my scope, but you can hear the wren and the robins in the background.

I love watching wrens sing, they do it with such gusto!

For such an urban St. Paul park, Crosby is great, we did the Bioblitz there last year and not only does it have nesting indigo buntings, but also prothonotary warblers.  I'm a bit concerned about the warbler season.  The leaves are out in full force now and warblers love to hide in the tops of trees, they are going to be hard to find this spring!  Ah well, it will be a good chance to practice birding by ear.

North Mississippi Rookery Still Visible

I had to take a local film crew to North Mississippi Regional Park again to see the heron rookerly.  Since leaf out is so early (this is the first time since I've lived in Minnesota that I have seen lilacs blooming in April) I was curious how much of the rookery was still visible.  Here's what it looked like a couple of weeks ago.

Some of the nests are still visible but most were quite hidden.  One of the trees had fallen over in the last week.  I'm not sure if it fell because it was dead and weak or if the local beaver had a hand (or should I say tooth) in it?  Fortunately it's early enough that there most likely only eggs in the nest and any heron that had a nest in that tree has time to start over.  Quite a few males were still flying in with sticks but almost every nest I looked at had serious incubation going on.

This heron stood up from her incubation and adjusted a few sticks and then she went through the motions of regurgitation.  I wondered if she had a recently hatched chick?  It's not out of the realm of possibility.  What's interesting is that I gave a program last week at the fabulous Coon Rapids Dam and my friend Michelle Cook who works there said that the herons there did not return to the rookery this year.  Since North Mississippi Regional Park's rookery is only about 7 river miles south of Coon Rapids Dam, I wondered if the herons were too tired to go further north?  Or maybe it's because some other birds have moved into the Coon Rapids Dam rookery in recent years?

There is some bridge work going on near this rookery and I know people have some concerns.  I doubt the bridge work is going to bother the herons.  This rookery is in close ear shot of Hwy 94--it's noisy already.  The birds seem to have a tolerance for noise.  There's also quite a bit of river traffic along the river there anyway.  So long as no one is climbing the trees, I think the birds will deal.  If not, they will probably end up back at Coon Rapids next year.

Speaking noise, one of the trees hosting some heron nests appears to be hosting a pair of yellow-shafted flickers too.  The male is on the left (with the black mustache) and the female is on the right.

The male flicker worked his way up his trunk and disappeared into a hole.  I wondered if he was excavating a nest cavity and soon got my answer:

He came out with a beakful of wood chips.  Hopefully it will be a successful nest and the pair will not be chased out by starlings.  Wow.  If the herons in that tree can put up with woodpecker hammering, I think they'll tolerate the Camden Bridge construction.

North Mississippi Park Heron Rookery

This is the week to check out the great blue heron rookery at North Mississippi Regional Park (or the one at Coon Rapids Dam too).  I headed out to the North Mississippi rookery yesterday to take a look, right now the nests are very visible--even without binoculars.

You can get a great view of all sorts of behavior including nest building as the herons are coming in from migration.  Some have been at this rookery for a few weeks already.

Quite a few of the herons were perched on or near a nest and not moving.  I read on Cornell's Birds of North America Online that like many migratory bird species, males arrive to the nesting grounds first and establish who is taking what nest.  From there, when not foraging for food, a male will spend all his time at the nest.  Perhaps these were males waiting for a female to court or hoping to prevent other males from stealing sticks for their nests.

A few herons were already incubating eggs.  These nests will either be way ahead of the game with chick rearing or have to start over in a few weeks.  We are heading out of an unusual March--no snow in the Twin Cities at all.  This is highly irregular, March is technically our snowiest month.  It's not out of the realm of possibility for us to get snow in April.  I'm loving the opportunity to bike on the trails a whole month early, but I'm not going to hold my breath and say that we are totally free of snow for the rest of the spring.  If we get a cold snap, these already incubating herons may risk losing young and have to start over.  But that's what birds do.

So, take a moment to head to one of our heron rookeries before the leaves are out.  You can always somewhat see the nests at North Mississippi Regional Park and Coon Rapids Dam but it's ten times easier to point them to kids before the leaves are out.  If this 70 degree weather keeps up, that could be rather soon...aw man, that means that leaves will be well out when warblers get here in May.  That's going to make warbler watching a challenge.

UPDATE 2011: This heron rookery was destroyed by a tornado that ripped through Minneapolis in May, 2011.  All the nests were destroyed.  The birds did renest, some up river at Coon Rapids Dam and others at a new site at the Riverside Power Plant near the Head of Navigation on the Mississippi River. Most of the young did not survive, but the few that were rescued were eventually released later in the summer.

Judging The Jr. Duck Stamp

Tuesday morning I'm heading over to the Burnsville Civic Center as a judge for the Junior Duck Stamp Contest.  I had grand schemes of Twittering during the event, but I was reading over my rules as a judge and there will be no Twittering!  Check them out:

• Must have cell phones off throughout the judging process

• Only the designated state coordinator & volunteers may touch the art work at anytime

• No food or drink in the area for the judging

• Maintain quiet while judging is taking place

• There should be no comments about the art work; no pointing to a particular piece, no naming of the artist, etc. throughout the judging process

• The public is welcomed to attend. In previous years we have had students, parents, teachers, & grandparents attend. They are invited to the judging floor to look at the art prior to the judging of each grade category.

• When judges are not judging, they should be in the breakout room or sitting in designated area

From there all the judges are given poker chips and we look at the art and place poker chips next to artwork we want to keep in the show and whittle the group down and then do some scoring.  I'm so excited to this tomorrow.  I'm excited to be a judge (in a park ranger capacity), I'm excited to see what kids have come up with, I'm excited to just be part of the process.

This is open to the public, but I realize it's on a Tuesday and most people have to work.  But if you have some free time, do come to the Burnsville Civic Center to check it out.  There will be a second event with the winners at the Science Museum on April 23.