Saturday, November 3, 2007

Hawks, eagles, ducks and waxwings at Black Dog

Monday I had some problems with my blood sugar so I went home early from work. After some rest I got to feeling normal and around 3:30pm I decided to go out and check the local haunts to see what birds where hanging around. I started by driving down by Black Dog Lake. The lake itself was pretty quiet but in the fields between the lake and river I spotted a red-tailed hawk perched looking for prey. As I slowed down the car to take a picture he took off.
He was circling on the thermals over head, gaining altitude, so I decided to get a flight shot.
While I was shooting pictures of the red-tail in flight another shape passed by over head, a bit lower but close to the hawk. This was an immature eagle.


Next I went down to the ponds across the street from the lake, which are a part of Fort Snelling State Park. Besides for Canadian geese and mallards there were quite a few wigeons in the first pond that I came to.There was also a couple of northern shovelers mixed in with the wigeons and mallards.At the second pond that I visited I saw wigeons, mallards and gadwalls.I didn't have a lot of time, and I wanted to check the other side of the river, so I left the park and headed towards the Cedar Avenue Bridge. Right before I got to Highway 13 I saw a flock of birds in the small trees lining the property of an industrial strip mall. So I pulled into the parking lot to check them out and found that they were cedar waxwings.I got pretty close to the waxwings and was able to get some pretty nice shots. I even got a few of them eating berries off some of the trees. I will save some of them for this winter when we will all appreciate the sight of a good looking bird, like a waxwing a lot more.

No comments: