American Redstart

 The American redstart is a small warbler that breeds in the eastern United States and most of southern Canada. Their preferred habitat is deciduous forests preferably with a good deal of shrubs and undergrowth. Like most warblers their primary food is insects.They catch their prey both in the air and by gleaning from branches and leaves. Often they will flash their tails and wings where the flash of color startles insects allowing the bird to snatch them as they try and fly away. The bird in the photo above has caught some prey. Since they are insect eaters they do migrate south to Central America and northern South America during the winter months.

 The American redstart is sexually dimorphic, meaning that there is an obvious difference between males and females of the species. Males are predominantly black with a white under belly and orange patches on their sides, wings, and tails. The top photo is an example of a male. Females are not as colorful. They are a combination of yellow, olive, and grey, as demonstrated by the second photo. Immature birds, both male and female, have the same coloration as the female. The male will begin to molt into their adult plumage in its second fall. Most males do not breed until they are in their adult plumage, although some immature birds do try to hold a territory and a few are able to attract a mate in this stage.

American Redstart

Every year for a few weeks in the spring and a few in the fall warblers migrate through the area. This is usually one of the most exciting time of the year for a lot of the birders, since most everyone loves the colorful warblers. Unfortunately it does not usually last all that long and before you know it most of the warblers have moved on past us. Fortunately their are a few species that seem to hang around most of the summer.

The American redstart is one of the most common warblers that breeds in our area. Mature males are red and black in color while female and immature males are yellow and gray like the bird pictured above. I usually spot redstart fluttering from branch to branch looking for insects to eat, which they often catch on the fly. I photographed this redstart up at Park Point in Duluth back in September.

Wordless Wednesday: American Redstart

Wild River Birding

Wild River State Park, located along the St Croix River north of St Paul and Minneapolis, can probably be considered the first park that I ever birded in as an adult. In my younger days I spent a lot of time working. In the mid 90s I was working a full time job and a part time job and trying to run my own family entertainment business, for which I did 99% of the work myself. I had very little time for anything but work and Michelle, my wife, but a few times a year I would get a weekend off, these usually came in September, January or February which were the slow times for my business. Michelle and my wedding anniversary is in September so one year we went up north for our anniversary. While we were in an info center in Duluth we read that a good place to view eagles in the wild was Wild River State Park. Since I had been into nature as a kid I thought that it would be cool to see an eagle so we decided to stop off at Wild River on our way back home. The day that we stopped the sun was shinning and the temps were in the upper seventies. We spent the next day laying on a sand bar on the shores of the St Croix searching the skies overhead for eagles. We had so much fun that we returned several more times that fall. Later that year I decided that I could not continue working so much, so I went back to school got some certification and in 1998 took the job that I am working at today. I still work a lot but I do take time now to enjoy nature and my life and then come here to share the experience with you.
We returned to Wild River frequently over the next few years but as I learned of other places to bird our trips there decreased. I did make one trip to Wild River in August (8-24) of 2008 and I saw a few interesting birds. There were a few cedar waxwings travelling up the shore of the St Croix, probably searching for berries to eat.
The American redstart is a wood warbler that usually hangs around southern Minnesota around the summer time instead of heading further north. Like most warblers they are insect eaters which is a good thing to be around Wild River where there are a lot of insects, don't forget the mosquito repellent if you visit.
The most exciting bird that I found on this trip was this scarlet tanager. Scarlet tanagers are not uncommon in Minnesota, except in the winter, but since they often stay near the tree tops they are sometimes difficult to find and even harder to photograph.
This tanager was in the middle of molting from his summer breeding colors to his winter coloration. Males in the breeding season turn a bright red with black wings. In nonbreeding plumage the male looks similar to the female and is olive green in color.
Scarlet tanagers spend their winter down in South America. While they are down in South America they will forage with flocks of other types of tanagers and flycatchers.

Redstarts on the Way to the Bass Ponds

After I finished checking out the boardwalk over near the Old Cedar Bridge in the Minnseota Valley NWR I decided to head north on the path that leads under the new Cedar Ave Bridge and over to the Bass Ponds.
The small trees that line the trail make for good habitat to search for warblers during the spring and fall migrations. During the summer you can still find a few warblers hanging around, usually yellow warbler or common redstart, as in this case.
You may expect a bird that is called a redstart to have some red coloration to it. This is true with the male of the species, which has reddish feathers on its wings, back and tail, but the female redstart, pictured here, has yellow color instead of red.
They use these colored feathers on the wings and tail by flashing them to startle insects. When the insects flush the redstart is there to reap the rewards.

American Redstart Nesting at Old Cedar

Another warbler that we often see during the summer here in southern Minnesota is the American redstart. The American redstart is easily recognized by its orange and black wings and tail, which it frequently flashes to help flush insects.

In June I found several redstarts nesting by the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge in the Minnesota Valley NWR. The female redstarts are less colorful then the males which makes them a bit harder to find. This female was carrying feathers probably for nesting material.

The nest is cup shaped and usually made of grass, bark,leaves, sticks, moss, feathers, and spider webs. The nest is fitted between the branches of a tree or large bush located in a wet deciduous forest with plenty of bushes for hunting insects.
During the winter these birds migrate south, most ending up in southern Mexico or South America, although there is a small percentage that will winter in southern California or Florida

The Day Before Vacation

Well I am back from vacation. It has been hard to get back to my normal life after spending 9 days shooting pictures for 10to 14 hours a day. I just began to make a small dent in going through the trip pics yesterday. With 120gb worth of pics it may take a while. I hope that you guys don't get sick of Yellowstone pics too quickly. I spent most of the day yesterday doing stuff around the house, like washing cloths, giving Misty kitten some much needed attention and then Michelle and I took in the new Narnia flick.

I do have one last group of photos that I shot the evening before we left on vacation. It was a Wednesday and it was supposed to be cloudy that day, since my new lens was already packed I brought my old lens with me to work and The Raptor Center and when it turned out to be sunny I could not help but stop off at Fort Snelling State Park on my way home.
I was really disappointed not to have my new lens, I have become spoiled very quickly, with so many warblers around. The AF with my old 100-400mm lens does not pick up small birds very well so I am often forced to use manual focus which does not work very well with small darting birds like warblers. So the pictures did not come out as well as they would have if I had brought the new lens. I followed this black and white warbler from tree to tree but was only able to get a few marginal pictures like the one above. I love how the black and white warblers act a lot like nuthatches, although I have not seen them walking down the tree like nuthatches like to do.
This magnolia warbler did not come out as well as I would have liked either.
The American redstart was a little more cooperative and gave me enough time to get a good focus.
Besides warblers there was also a few Baltimore orioles.
Although I am not sure who was watching who?

The fun part of shooting that night was the newly hatched goslings
I spotted 3 different pairs of Canadian geese with goslings. each had a clutch of 2 to 4.
When photographing something as cute as young goslings I guess it does not matter what type of lens that you use.
Too bad they have to grow up. The goslings are cute but adult geese can become a nuisance.
One of the adults decided that it did not want me taking any more photos of the babies and it started to hiss at me. It is all bluff and bluster, since there is not much that a goose can do to hurt a person, but I did not want to stress them so I headed home to pack. I guess that the goose did not want its little goslings to be stars but it was already too late. Anything that cute will always draw attention.

A fresh birding location.

Since most of the birding locations that I have been visiting lately have been relatively consistent with the type of birds and wildlife viewing I decided to try a new location on Thursday evening. I had read about some people birding at the Miesville Ravine on the MOU list server and since it was fairly close to home I thought that I would check it out. Unfortunately since we have received a lot of rain lately the mosquitoes have been vicous, and on this evening I used up the last of my bug spray. But I did get a few pics before the mosquitoes chased me away.

I found this scruffy american redstart at the start of the trail that followed the creek.There where a couple of white-breasted nuthatch in the trees over by the pavilion.

They were doing a good job of finding bugs in the trees but I was kind of wishing that they would eat some of the mosquitoes that where trying to eat me.

I also found a monarch out by the parking lot. Since I had blood taken earlier in the day for a doctors exam I decided I did not want to give up more to the blood suckers so I decided to leave and come back again later when I had more bug spray.

Birding and politics on a Saturday afternoon.

On July 11th I received an e-mail from the Minnesota Ornithologists Union about an upcoming rally at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge on July 14th. The purpose of the rally was to show the state politicians, who were visiting the site, that they should help to fund a plan to replace the bridge. The bridge, which stretches across the Minnesota River, was replaced with a new bridge in 1979. It was closed to vehicular traffic in 1993 and to pedestrians and bicycles in 2002. As you can see by the picture below the bridge is in extremely poor shape.

So you may be wondering what an old bridge has to do with birding and the Minnesota Ornithologists Union, well this bridge extends through the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. This bridge was used by many birders to get a great view of the Minnesota river flood plains and mud flats before it became unsafe to use.
Now politicians in the cities of Bloomington, who currently owns the bridge, and Eagan, which is on the opposite side of the river, as well as several state politicians have put forth a plan to tare down the existing bridge and build a boardwalk platform on the existing cement supports. The problem is that the estimated cost is $4.5 million. A large part of that cost is for the removal of the existing bridge which contains lead so that it can not be knocked down conventionally. So far the supporters of the plan have secured $1.3 million in funding but still have a long way to go. That is why 200 or more people of all types (birders, bicyclists, hikers, and families) showed up on the 14th to show our support for this great cause. At the program, which began at noon, they had speakers ranging from local and state politicians, leaders of bicycle groups, neighbors, and leaders from MOU, Minnesota River Valley Audubon, and Minnesota Audubon.

I arrived at the park at 8:30am and spent my time waiting for the speakers program on the trails birding. The Old Cedar Avenue Bridge is a part of the Long Meadow unit of the Minnesota Valley NWR. There are a total of 8 units in MV NWR which follow the Minnesota River and stretch from Bloomington in the north to Jordan in the south. I walked all the trails north of the bridge. As I started from the bridge parking lot I saw an american redstart who had just caught itself some breakfast.

As I continued on I spotted several goldfinch near the bass ponds, which was once used to raise fish for stocking Minnesota lakes. This one was pulling the seeds out of the pods of the wildflowers when a bee ran smack into his head. Boy did he give that bee a dirty look.

Near the same pond I also saw this ruby-throated hummingbird.

I also saw several sparrow, some green heron, and some great blue heron. Then I went to the south of the bridge to check out the small boardwalk which goes out to the lake. There I saw a couple of great egret as well as tree and barn swallows.

I also took a couple of butterfly pics like this one of a common sulfur
and this eastern comma which looks like it had seen better days.
When I was walking back off the boardwalk I was startled by a white tail doe. She just sat and watched me as I walked past about 4 feet away.
This was the only deer that I saw which surprised me because on my trips to Fort Snelling State Park, which borders the park in the north, I have seen plenty of deer. It turned out to be a great morning and afternoon. I got out, did some birding and helped lend my support for a good cause.