Renaissance Fest 2011

This weekend I spent a day helping The Raptor Center out down at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, MN. In the past TRC has preformed at Ren Fest for special weekends but this year they are entertaining and educating crowds each weekend at the fest. With the expanded schedule TRC volunteers have been asked to help out so I decided to volunteer on day one of the festival.
In between programs I had time to run around the festival and take pictures of some of the more colorful participants. I found this guy outside of a leather shop. He looks like a walking advertisement.
Even though this costume looked very cool I bet that it was really hot. The mask, gloves and chest pieces looked like they probably would make it a long hot day but they did get a lot of attention.
This young satyr looked awesome. She came complete with pan flute and giant hoofs. The feet are what really make the costume. The hoofs are built on foot high platforms.
There were also some celebrities at this years celebration. Capt'n Jack took some time off from pirating to come visit with us peasants. His costume and looks was dead on, unfortunately I did not get to here him talk to see if he had the voice down too.

Prairie Wetlands Learning Center

After my visit to Tamarac NWR I headed over to the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center in Fergus Falls to participate in a Minnesota Odonata Survey Project event. The morning started out with some showers and thunderstorms but by afternoon the sun was out and shinning.
The Prairie Wetlands Learning Center is a cooperative venture between the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Minnesota DNR, and the city of Fergus Falls. It is the first residential environmental education center that is operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The center began as the dream of local conservationists in the Fergus Falls area. A grass roots effort began in the 1970s to create a facility, that was open to the public, that would focus on prairies and wetlands. In 1989 they formed the Friends of the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center to help to accomplish their goal.
Through a combination of private donations and public grants they eventually were able to fund the creation of the center in 1994. In 1998 they expanded by adding a visitors center and dormitory. In 2008 they expanded again and added an education wing which included six classrooms and a multi-purpose meeting room.
The center is a part of the Fergus Falls Wetland Management District and includes 330 acres of native and restored prairie, 28 wetlands, oak savannah and 3.5 miles of trails. Over 180 bird species have been identified on the property including the yellow-headed blackbird and purple martins pictured in this post.Unfortunately I did not see any new and exciting dragonflies, however there were some cool insects around for me to photograph. Two of the cool new insects that I was able to photograph were the Virginia tiger moth and the yellow garden argiope spider pictured above.

Path of Destruction

Earlier this year, May 22nd, a F2 tornado raged through North Minneapolis tearing the roofs off of houses and toppling trees. One person was killed by a falling tree and 30 others were injured. Many houses were damaged by the twister which caused a total of over 166 million dollars worth of damage. However not all of the homes destroyed in the storm belonged to people.
The tornado also hit the North Mississippi Regional Park where a large heron rookery was located. The rookery, pictured above, has provided a safe place for a large number of great blue herons to nest and raise their young for many years. Unfortunately on May 22 that ended. Compare the photo above taken this March as the birds were beginning to nest to the first photo, which is how the rookery looks now.
We were in Yellowstone when the tornado hit. We heard about the storm in the news but did not find out about the rookery until a little while after we returned. It is likely that many of the young heron chicks in the rookery were killed in the storm. The ones that were found still alive afterwards were taken to a local rehab center.
Trees through out the park were splintered and/or ripped from the ground. As I walked though the park I felt as though I was walking through tunnels at several locations, as chunks of trees that had fallen on to the path had been removed to allow people access to the trails.
With so many of the nesting trees gone I wonder if the herons will return to this spot again next year or will it be a tragedy that will continue to be felt for years to come?

Back in Business!

After nearly three weeks the stand off between the Republican held Minnesota Congress and Democratic Governor finally came to an end last week. The debate was over the approximately 5 billion dollar deficit left by our ex Governor now presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, of BS. The congress was looking to slash government spending to make up for the short fall where the current governor wanted to balance the budget through spending cuts and raising taxes on the top 4% of wage earners, so they would pay the same percentage as the rest of us Minnesotans.
Even after the Governor came half way in the negotiations and added more spending cuts and was looking to increase taxes on only the top 2%, about 60,000 people, the congress would not budge and so on July 1st with no budget agreement the government shut down. Thousands of government employees were laid off as well as many private employees that worked for government contractors, like those working on fixing the roads. Schools, cities and counties did not get any of their budgeted many from the state. The state lottery shut down cutting the state revenue even more. Thousands of people had their plans ruined as the state parks were closed up and hotels, restaurants, car rental agencies and the airlines lost money because many tourists went to places other then Minnesota. Finally the governor gave in. He could not take all of the punishment that the shutdown was placing on the state and its citizens. He accepted a plan from the borrow and spend congress which balanced the budget on a combination of cuts and borrowing. He did manage to get some of the awful parts of the Republican budget expunged. So the everything is now getting back to normal but at some point in the future people will need to realize that all of the great things in life that we take for granted every day are not free and the way that we pay for all of the good stuff that the government and society grant us is through our taxes.

A Return to River Bend

Last year I participated in a number of MOSP (Minnesota Odonata Survey Project) around the state. One was held at the River Bend Nature Center located in Faribault, MN about 25 miles south of the Twin Cities. The nature center had a good variety of habitats so I decided to return there last weekend.

Although I was primarily looking for dragonflies and damselflies, River Bend Nature Center is one of those places where you can see a great variety of nature. This is why I like spending time in nature centers because while looking for dragonflies you might get lucky and find a cooperative belted kingfisher.
The nature center has several wetland areas as well as some hardwood forests and open prairie. Wild flowers are in bloom forming a colorful carpet through out most of the grounds. Many insects, such as this bronze copper, were dining on nectar from the flowers and in turn helping to pollinate them.
The River Bend Nature Center began back in 1970s as the realization of a dream of the Faribault Naturalist Club. In 1975 they convinced the Faribault City Council to purchase 487 acres of land from the state for the purpose of building a, "Nature and Agricultural Interpretive Center." The land was acquired in 1978 and in 1979 it was named the River Bend Nature Center, after the Great Bend in the Straight River which runs through the grounds. More land was acquired over time, the park is currently 743 acres, and 1991 a new interpretive center was opened, replacing the Trail Side Center which had been built back in 1980.

Down by the river there were many dragonflies and damselflies. Most of the damselflies that I saw down by the river where broadwinged damselflies, such as ebony jewelwings or the American rubyspot pictured above.
For dragons I saw quite a few skimmers flying around, including common whitetail, twelve-spotted skimmers, and meadowhawks, but I was hoping to find some clubtails. I was finally rewarded when I found this riverine clubtail. I have only seen this type of clubtail once before, during the Minnesota Dragonfly Gathering of 2010 in Morris, MN. So I was pretty excited to get a chance to get some good pics. I was going to try and net it, I was not sure if one of this species had ever been recorded in the county, unfortunately it took off over the trees before I could switch over to my net.

Fort Snelling

This year to celebrate the U.S. Independence holiday I decided that it might be fun to do something somewhat patriotic. So I paid a visit to Fort Snelling which is a local historic location here in the Twin Cities. After the War of 1812 the government of the United States of America began to build forts between Lake Michigan and the Missouri River. The purpose of the forts was to protect the new U.S. territories from Canadian and English forces in the north, control relations with Native Americans, and protect the lucrative fur trade.
In 1817 Major Stephan Long approved the site for a new fort at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The area had long been an important meeting place of the Dakota Sioux Indians and held an advantage overlooking the two major waterways.
In 1820 the U.S. 5th Infantry Regiment began construction of the fort under the leadership of Colonel Josiah Snelling. Originally the fort was named Fort St Anthony after the St Anthony Falls located in what is now the northern Twin Cities. When the fort was completed in 1825 the army decided to rename it Fort Snelling in honor of its first commander. Snelling commanded the fort until 1927 when he was recalled due to health concerns. He died a year later later.
As more of the western territories became settled the need for Fort Snelling diminished. In 1858 Minnesota became the 32nd U.S. state and the fort was decommissioned and then sold. In 1861 the fort was leased back by then Governor Alexander Ramsey to train Minnesota Soldiers to fight in the U.S. Civil War. Minnesota offered the first troops to fight for the Union and were pivotal in many Civil War battles, including the Battle at Gettysburg. Minnesota furnished at least 16 regiments of soldiers for the war all of which were trained at Fort Snelling.
In 1962 the fort played an important role in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1962. An uprising by a small group of Dakota Sioux Indians in Minnesota lead to a six week war with the Dakota tribes. Colonel Henry Sibley, who was in charge of the fort at the time, ended the war and sentenced 303 Dakota men to death. Later President Lincoln renounced the sentence on warriors who had not killed civilians leaving 38 men who were executed by hanging near Mankato, MN. It was unfortunately the largest mass execution in U. S. history. Fort Snelling continued to be ta training ground for Minnesota soldiers until it was decommissioned for a second time in 1946. In 1960 the fort was listed as a National Historic Landmark. Today much of the fort has been restored by the Minnesota Historical Society, who manages the property. They use the fort to help educate people, like me, on Minnesota history. Costumed staff can be found around the fort during the summer, such as in the round tower above which is the oldest building in Minnesota, to interpret what life was like at the fort in the 1800's.

Bowdoin NWR

Yellowstone in May is not exactly a birders paradise so we typically arrange another stop or two, while on vacation, to do a little bit of birding. This year we left Yellowstone a day early so that we could visit a couple of other parks on our way home. Unfortunately due to bad weather and a flat tire we only had the opportunity to make one stop.
Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge is located in the short and mixed grass prairie region of North-central Montana. It is home to many western prairie species of birds such as the western kingbird and western meadowlark, pictured above.
Bowdoin was established back in 1936 to help protect vital resting, feeding and breeding habitat for migrating birds, particularly waterfowl and shorebirds. The refuge encompasses 15,551 acres, 8,675 of which is wetlands. The wetlands provide homes to a variety of birds such as the yellow-headed blackbird pictured above.
The refuge is centered around Lake Bowdoin. In preglacial times it is believed that the lake was actually an Oxbow in the Missouri River but over time the river has moved 70 miles south of the lake. What was left behind is a variety of habitats including saline and freshwater wetlands and native prairie. These are perfect habitat for the marbled godwit pictured above.
Before 1936 Lake Bowdoin was used by the Montana Bureau of Reclamation as a catch basin to help manage the waters of spring floods, irrigation return flows and seepage. Each spring snow melt would pour down into the lake from Beaver Creek and the Black Coulee drainage flooding the land around the lake. This provided good habitat for shorebirds and waterfowl that were migrating north at about the same time, like the white-faced ibis flying above.
Once the refuge was established the Works Progress Administration began the construction of the refuge headquarters as well as a system of water control structures designed to help manage the wetlands to provide the proper habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds like the Wilson's phalarope pictured above.
Lake Bowdoin sits on 5,459 acres of the refuge. Islands in the lake hold breeding colonies of white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, California and ring-billed gulls. Wetland areas around the lake provide habitat for American avocet, black-necked stilts, ducks and grebes. Eared grebes in breeding plumage are a common site at this time of year.
In the upland prairie areas you can find pronghorn antelope, deer, sharp-tailed grouse and raptors. We found a pair of northern harriers hunting in the fields just outside the refuge. I was happy to get a shot of the mail in flight. I see females pretty frequently around home, mostly during the fall, but I hardly ever see the males. Female harriers are mostly brown compared to the light gray color of the males from which they have received the nickname, "the gray ghost".

Yellowstone Part 3

We started out Wednesday by heading back over to the Yellowstone Lake area by the Fishing Bridge. As we got to the lake, much of which was still frozen, we saw two small dark shapes out on the ice. We stopped to take a closer look and found that they were a pair of river otters. One otter, pictured above, seemed to be resting near the edge of the ice while the other was running around.
After the otters finally disappeared under the ice we headed out towards the east entrance. The road was still closed off due to danger of avalanche but we did find a couple of grizzly to photograph, one at Mary's Bay and another at Sedge Bay. Unfortunately we still were not able to find the grizzly sow and cub.
Since the sky was beginning to clear up we decided to head back around the southern end of the park so that we could get some pictures of Old Faithful erupting. We had tried a couple of days earlier but the weather that day made it difficult to get good shots. With nice blue skies the pics turned out much better.
After Old Faithful we headed up to Mammoth and the north entrance to the park. We had hoped to get some more shots of the new born big horn lamb that we had seen a couple of days earlier but as we came around the corner we could not see the sheep on the cliff face where we had seen them earlier. We did see some cars pulled off a little way down the road so we headed that way to check it out. There on the hill not far from the road was the big horn ewe and lamb. Since they were much closer we were able to get a lot of good pics. It was amazing to see this little lamb scurry around on the rocks and cliffs at the ripe old age of two days.
It was getting late so we decided to head back to our hotel in West Yellowstone. On the way we spotted two black bears in different areas. The first black bear was indeed black, above, but the second was a cinnamon black bear. Black bear is a species and can come in a variety of colors, although black is the most common.

Thursday was our last day in the park. We were already quite happy with all of the great wildlife that we had seen and the photo opportunities that we had. So we decided for the finally day we would go all the way around the park, except the road between Tower and Canyon which was still closed due to snow, and just see whatever we would find. On the south loop near the Lake Area turn off a large bird flew across the road and perched in a tree close by. It turned out to be a Swanson's hawk that was cooperative and let us stop to take some pictures.

Then we headed up top the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone to take some scenery shots. This shot was taken from Artist Point and the falls in the distance are the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. We do not spend much time in this area because I am afraid of heights. Since places like this bother me we just took the shot and got going as quick as possible.
Next stop was Mammoth where we were surprised and pleased to find that one of the local elk females had calved the day before. A small heard of elk live in Mammoth and the surrounding area. Since the main predators of elk are wolves and grizzly it is smart to stay in a place that has a lot of people to keep the predators away. However the elk themselves can be dangerous to people in Mammoth that get too close. The ranger, who was keeping spectators from getting to close to the elk and calf, told us that she had chased a park employee who unknowingly had gotten too close to the calf.
Bull elk usually are found alone or in small groups at this time of the year. A healthy buck like this does not have too much to fear from the predators so they usually wonder about more in the highland areas on the north side of the park. During the fall each bull will be surrounded by a harem of females in hopes that he will find one that is receptive to mating. Shortly after we took this picture it began to snow again. It was not bad on the north end but as we passed Mammoth and headed towards Norris the snow on the roads began to get deeper and driving more treacherous. I am used to driving in the snow but roads here in Minnesota get plowed and sanded. They are also wider and do not have steep drop offs or rivers on the side. We were worried that we might have to park and sleep in the car. Fortunately things got better after Norris and we were able to make it out to West Yellowstone.