Purgatory Creek Birding

Spent the day hanging around the house. We are under a winter storm warning until 6pm CST, it began last night but so far we have not seen any snow where I live. That is the good news, we have already had plenty of snow so far this winter so I am hoping that it misses us all together this time, the bad news is that it had foggy all day so it has not been really good weather for going out and taking pics. Yesterday we had some clear skies so I was back out at Prescott, WI, after work, trying to get some harlequin pics but he is still being uncooperative and sticking to the opposite side of the river. So here are some more of my back log of pics from the summer. These pics where taken at purgatory creek back on August 11th. I was pleasantly surprised to find an indigo bunting on this outing. Michelle really likes indigo bunting, I think that it is because of the way they kind of shimmer between black and blue depending on the light. I like them too but I would prefer a painted bunting, which would be a lifer for me. I will need to travel south though to see one of those.
I love when green herons have their crests sticking up, it makes them look like they have a mohawk. A bird with a mohawk sounds like a perfect fit for a place called purgatory creek. The funny thing is that Purgatory Creek is located in a pretty affluent suburb of Mlps. I am guessing that the creek got its name before the burb grew up around it.
A several occasions, during the summer, I got the opportunity to photograph a female wood duck who was raising a family in the wetlands that surround the creek.
The male wood duck is the perfect example of the deadbeat dad. He is around for all of the fun and games but when it comes time to incubate the eggs, or raise the chicks he is gone. He is off somewhere with the rest of the guys probably bowling or playing poker. Actually since this is in Eden Prairie he might be hanging out at the golf course.

Dragonflies Purgatory Creek

Up here in Minnesota the realities of winter are starting to sink in. The light covering of snow that we got this past weekend looks like it is going to stay and unfortunately there is surely a lot more on the way. I stopped by Lake Vadnais yesterday to photograph migrating waterfowl and found that they had already closed the road for the winter. I decided to park and walk in but I found most of the water near the shore was already ice and the only open water was near the middle of the lake so the birds were to far away to get any decent pics. So since I kind of have a case of the beginning of winter blues I decided to post some summer dragon pics to cheer up myself and anyone else who is already sick of snow, cold, and grey skies.
All of these pics where taken at Purgatory Creek Back on July 23rd. It is kind of fun to look at these pics and remember sweating out in the wetlands, back in July, when the high temps this week are in the 30s if we are lucky.The first three pics are of eastern pondhawks. Eastern pondhawks begin life bright green in color. Females stay this green color but as the males mature pruinosity covers the abdomen and and thorax and gives it the powdery blue color.
Another dragon that is very similar looking to the eastern pondhawk is the blue dasher. They also get a powdering blue color as they mature due to pruinosity but the pruinose on the blue dasher does not cover the thorax like it does on the eastern pondhawk.
Blue dashers typically hunt from a favorite perch. Both males and females will defend their preferred feeding perches leaving the perch only to catch prey or fend of a rival.

The eastern amberwing is one of the smallest dragonfly in our area. Since they are usually less then an inch long, the elfin skimmer is the smallest dragon in North America at .8 inches, they are often easier prey then other dragons. To help keep themselves from becoming prey they will often mimic wasps, which they resemble in size and color.

Hoppers Purgatory Creek

And now for something completely different.
While at Purgatory Creek on July 23 I was facinated in trying to get some pictures of frogs. As a young boy I spent a lot of time at the pond a couple of blocks from my parents house catching frogs, snakes, turtles and other wild creatures, much to the dismay of my mother. However even though I had been spending a lot of time in wetland areas photographing I did not see many frogs. This made me curious, and then about the end of July I finally began to see them.
The reason why we do not see as many of these frogs as I did when I was a kid is because their population has been on the decline since the 70's. Polluted water systems are probably the main reason for the decline. This is a bad thing because these frogs are an indicator species, meaning that the health of their population is a direct correlation to the health of their habitat. So if we do not work to get control of our pollution problems we will not only possibly lose the frogs but we may also lose our wetlands and all of the species that rely on them for crucial habitat.
I also found this cute little rabbit, now does that face look disapproving. It reminds me of one of the rabbits that I had back when I was doing magic shows. Most of my rabbits were albino, all were Netherland dwarf, but one was this brownish color. We named her baby because she never got much bigger then the rabbit above. All of my rabbits are gone now and we probably will not get a rabbit again, mostly because they do not live that long and it is hard to lose pets when it is their time. Now we just have the cat and she will hopefully be a part of our family for the next 20 years.

Butterflies at Purgatory Creek

I have decided to make a slight change in how I do things here at Ecobirder. Since I began I have tried to post things in chronological order but with the abundance of material that I currently have to share I have decided to mix things up a bit. I am hoping that by mixing up my content it will make things more interesting for you my readers. So let's begin with some butterflies that I photographed at Purgatory Creek on July 23rd. The monarch butterfly is probably the most recognized butterfly in the world. Monarchs are found through out much of North and South America as well as New Zealand, Australia, and some parts of Europe. Their bright orange wings are toxic to many predators, due to the milkweed that they eat as caterpillars and so they are usually not bothered.
Do you notice something different about this monarch? See the black stripe running vertically down the wing? That stripe indicates that this is not really a monarch. Instead it a Viceroy.
Viceroys may look like monarchs but they are pretty different. Both are in the family Nymphalidae, brushfoots, but the viceroy is in the Limenitidinae or admirals subfamily while the monarch is the the subfamily Danainae. The Danainae subfamily consists of the butterflies which eat milkweed while in their larval state. The viceroy larva does not eat milkweed, it eats the leaves of willows, aspen, apple, cherry and plum, so it is not toxic like the monarch. However due to its close resemblance it is often over looked by predators.

There is Gold at that there Purgatory Creek

The last weekend in July brought some nice weather so I decided to head back over to Purgatory Creek Park and continue my explorations there. The first time that I visited the park I did not have a lot of time so I only went around the wetlands to the path that lead to the blind. This time though I decided to follow the path all the way around the wetlands until I came back to the parking area where I began. The back side of the wetlands was a lot more wooded. That is where I found a very colorful male American goldfinch flitting among the trees at the edge of the marsh.
The American goldfinch actually goes through two molts per year. The first is in the spring when the males molt into their bright breeding plumage, like the bird in the photos. Later in the fall the bird will molt again into its much more drab winter colors.
Goldfinch nest later then most other passerines do. They do not begin their mating season until late June or early July. Some females that mate early enough in the season may leave the male to take care of the fledglings while she finds a second male to mate with and begin another brood.
Goldfinch are often seen feeding in groups, smaller groups in the summer and large flocks during the winter. They are primarily seed eaters and in my experience they have a fondness for thistle. I have fortunate to have had several opportunities over the past couple of years to photograph them while they eat wild thistle seeds. It is fascinating watching them remove the seed from the pod. Each seed has several silky threads attached to it to help it to propagate and spread by floating through the air. The goldfinch use these threads to pull the seed out of the seed pod and then eat the seed leaving the silky threads behind. Often these threads find a hold in the birds beak or feathers giving them a comical look as they continue to dig more seeds out. Unfortunately I did not see any thistle around at Purgatory Creek so I had to be satisfied with pictures in a tree.

Birding Purgatory Creek

Shorebirds were not the only type of birds that I found at Purgatory Creek Park. The wetlands as well as the fields and woods surrounding them provided good habitat for many different birds.
Flycatchers, as well as other insect eating birds, were hunting in the fields and woods. There were a lot of insects besides the dragonflies to keep them busy and well fed.
The wetlands also looked like a good place to raise a family, that is if you are a wood duck that is.
Soon after hatching the young wood ducks leave the nest, which is a tree cavity or nesting box sometimes a good distance above the ground or water, and are already able to swim and dabble on the waters surface for seeds and bugs.
Green herons hunt along the shore of the water. They are often difficult to see as they stand perfectly still in the shallow water, sometimes hiding in vegetation, waiting for a fish, frog, or crayfish to come by. Then they will snap the prey up with a quick dart of their head.
The green herons larger cousin, the great blue heron, also hunts by wading through the water looking for fish. Because of their longer legs, great blue herons are the largest member of the heron family in North America, they are often able to fish in deeper water then green herons.

Monarchs at Purgatory Creek

Purgatory Creek Park also had a few butterflies for me to photograph. On this occasion they were all monarchs.
It is always fun to photograph monarchs, mostly because they are usually in better shape then most other butterflies.
This probably has a lot to do with the fact that they are toxic to most predators because of the milkweed that they ingest during their larval stage.
By now most of the remaining monarchs have probably headed south. They migrate down to Mexico or Southern California. They will spend the winter in large groups in these areas and then when spring comes they will mate and then die. The offspring that are produced down south in the spring will make their way north and will be the first brood that we see next year.
Those monarchs that hatch earlier in the summer do not migrate. They will spend 3 to 4 weeks in their adult butterfly stage. During this time they will mate, as shown above, and then die shortly after the eggs are laid.

Halloween Pennants Invade Purgatory

The best way to start October is with a load of Halloween pennants that I photographed at Purgatory Creek.

I was quite excited when I found them because they were different then the one that I photographed earlier in the year at the Bass Ponds or the ones that I photographed last summer at Fort Snelling State Park.

The ones that I had photographed earlier were all the orange variety with black/brown spots. As you can see these were the yellow and brown variety.
Male Halloween pennants are always orange and brown. Females can be either orange and brown or yellow and brown like these in the pictures.
You can see, in all of these shots, the dragons perched horizontally at the top of vegetation. This is how the pennants got their name, because they resemble a pennant blowing in the wind.

They Had Dragonflies at Purgatory Creek Too

Since most of Purgatory Creek Park consists of wetlands there were quite a few dragonflies around back in July. So while I was exploring the mud flats, as well as the rest of the park, I took a few dragon pics.
Like this male widow skimmer. This one looked like it had quite a bit of pruinose on the tale which is an indication that this was a mature dragon.
I was also a bit surprised to find a variegated meadowhawk. We do not see as many of this type then we do many of the other types of meadowhawks. When we do see them it is usually in the spring when they migrate north in large group or in the fall when they migrate east. Since this was late July it was a bit uncommon to see one.
Here is a better view of the variegated meadowhawk. The red color indicates that this is a male. The females are usually more of a yellow, mustard type color with a similar pattern on the abdomen.

Purgatory Creek Shore Birds

This summer when gas prices got high I decided to try and do more of my birding closer to home. There were a few good spots in the Twin Cities that I visited regularly, Carpenter Nature Center, Mn Valley NWR, Dodge Nature Center and Wood Lake Nature Center, but in the past I also did a lot of traveling to places like Crex Meadows,Carlos Avery, Necedah NWR, Hok Si La, Park Point, Hawk Ridge, and Sax Zim Bog. This year since I was limiting my trips to those further locations I needed to find some new spots in the Twin Cities that I could visit to give me some more variety. Near the end of July I found a new spot that fit the bill. Purgatory Creek Park is a wetland area surrounding Purgatory Creek in Eden Prairie, MN. It is in the South west part of the Twin Cities, and I live on the South East, so it is not as close as many of the parks that I frequent in the Twin Cities but it is still only 20 to 30 minutes away, depending on traffic. They have a good system of trails, including one that runs between two wetland areas, and a viewing area. I heard about it on the MOU list server because it had some of the best mud flats around back at the end of July.
So I headed off to Eden Prairie after work to explore the park and check out the mud flats for any possible shore birds. I was not disappointed. There were a lot of things for me to photograph. They even had a small mud flat with a few shorebirds like this killdeer.
Besides for the killdeer I also spotted a solitary sandpiper. You can tell that it is a solitary, as I learned later in August at the shorebird workshop which I attended, because of the white eye ring and the dark shoulder.
Solitary sandpiper often found alone, thus the name. They are unlike most other shorebirds in that they do not mind having vegetation around, so they are often found wandering small ponds.
The lesser yellowlegs, on the other hand, will usually avoid mud that is filled with greenery. They use their long legs to wade through the water looking for aquatic insects, and small fish to eat.
It is difficult to tell the difference between the lesser and greater yellowlegs. A lot of people look for a difference in size to tell them apart but this can be difficult when you have only one bird. In our shorebird class we were told to examine the beak of the bird, if it is two toned then it is a greater yellowlegs but if it is a single color, as this bird demonstrates, then it is a lesser yellowlegs.