Wednesday I helped out at the
Raptor Center after work so I did not get a chance to go out and do any shooting. Thursday I decided to head back to Anderson Lake Park to try and get some more pictures of the black-bellied whistling-duck. When I first arrived at the park I went and checked out the pond where the duck had been hanging out. The duck was not around only a couple of birders. Unfortunately the
MOU list server was down that day, so I could not get any updates on whether people had still been seeing the duck, so I asked the other birders if any of them had seen it and was told that they had not had any luck. So I decided to go check out the lake. There were some flocks of waterfowl on the lake but they were on the far side and consisted mostly of mallards and
Canadian geese from what I could see,
definitely no whistling duck. I followed the path around and it took me back to the pond so I checked out the path that lead to the shore. I did not see the duck but I did spot a
meadowhawk landing.
It was very strange to be shooting pictures of a dragonfly on November 1st in Minnesota. I also spotted an American tree sparrow in one of the small trees lining that part of the pond.
But still no duck. So I decided to go back to the other side of the pond where I could stand on the hill and see the whole pond a bit better. I ran into another birder at the overlook and we began to converse about birding and photography. It is always cool to talk with someone like this who has been an active birder for a long time. We stood there and talked, while we looked for the duck, for about an hour and a half. I did not get another view of the duck but I had fun and learned a few new things. We did get a nice fly by from a red-tailed hawk.
A little after 4:00 pm we decided that the duck had
prolly moved on so we both decided to leave. It was still light so I decided to stop at
Wood Lake Nature Center on my way home. As usual I checked out the trees on the shore by the visitors center first. This is always a good place to find
passerines. On this day I found an American tree sparrow and a black-capped chickadee.
Further off in the woods I spotted a couple of American robins.
On the trail I found another
meadowhawk. This was my last Minnesota dragonfly on 2007.
On the lake where the usual mallards and
Canadian geese with a few American wigeons mixed in.
There was also a flock of about 20 or so American coots.
I was getting hungry so I decided to take off but on my way home I found another red-tailed hawk scouting the roadside from a light poll.
The American wigeon is a bird that we usually only see in Minnesota during spring and fall migration. I typically see them in parts of Fort Snelling State Park, Black Dog Lake or near the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge, which is where I photographed this pair, in the fall.
The American wigeon is a duck that we typically only see in the spring or fall here in Minnesota. They breed up in the tall grasses of Canada as well as parts of the western United States. In the fall the begin to head south, often stopping on lakes and ponds around here to feed before continuing on south. They end up wintering on the East or West coast, the southern US, Mexico, Central America and may even go as far south as the northern portions of South America. 
The American wigeon has a shorter bill then most other ducks. Their short bill allows them to exert more torque and dig up vegetation that other dabblers are not able to get. Because of this efficiency at feeding the American wigeon has a higher percentage of vegetation in their diet then most other ducks do.
As we headed across the border from Montana to Idaho near West Yellowstone we came across a small lake on the side of the road.
We were not sure what lake that it was but then we found a sign stating that it was Swan Lake so we decided to stop and take some pics.
We looked around and did not see any ballerinas or any swans. There were a number of ducks on the lake though including some American wigeon.
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.
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.
This is the first time this fall that I have seen any wigeon but I have read account of them passing through on the MOU list server.
Although their population declined in the 1980s due to droughts in prairie areas they have recently been recovering their numbers.
