Watery Wednesday: Blue-winged Teal

It has been hard to go out and get pics lately. I have been trying to put in as much time at The Raptor Center as possible while still maintaining my full work schedule and many of the days when I have had time the weather has not been very cooperative.

I was able to get out for a bit last Thursday and Friday, after work and training, and I was hoping that I would spot my first warblers of the year. I was able to spend a few hours birding at the old Cedar Avenue Bridge area on Friday but unfortunately I did not find any warblers. I did find this very cooperative blue-winged teal however.

These ducks are fairly common through out most of the northern portions of North America during the summer. They are usually found in shallow ponds and wetlands where they forage for aquatic plants seeds and invertebrates by dabbling. Dabbling is when the duck keeps most of its body on the surface of the water but lowers its head under the water to look for food. Seeing blue-winged teal is actually not a great sign if you are a birder in the Twin Cities this year. Blue-winged teal are one of the last ducks to migrate in the spring which means that if they are around then the waterfowl migration is pretty much over. This is very unfortunate since there really was not much of a waterfowl migration to speak of this year.

Medicine Lake NWR Waterfowl

Our adventure began on Thursday May 15th. We left the Twin Cities that morning and spent most of the day driving to Williston, ND. Williston is on the west side of North Dakota near the border with Montana. I chose Willistone because of it's close proximity to Medicine Lake NWR. The plan was to spend Friday and part of Saturday at Medicine Lake. We visited Medicine Lake on our way home from Yellowstone last year and had such good luck that we decided to leave a couple days early so that we could stop and spend some time on our way out. Medicine Lake is a great birding location for waterfowl and shorebirds but the main reason that we visit is to photograph eared grebe in breeding plumage. This year our luck was not nearly so good. Unbeknownst to us, at the time, Montana appears to be going through a bit of a drought. The drought did not effect the Medicine Lake so much, but many of the other lakes and bays that are near to the roads, and thus places where we got many of our pics last year, were dried up. We were still able to find some waterfowl though.
The most common of the waterfowl that we saw where either blue-winged teals

or northern shovelers.
We did find one pair of northern pintails in a small tributary that was still feeding into the lake.
We did find some eared grebe but they were on the big lake and too far to get any shots that compared with those that we got last year. We also did see a pair of western grebes out on the big lake. The western grebes were also pretty far out but since we do not already have close up shots of western grebes I decided to add another 1.4x converter and snap a couple of shots.
Another thing that Medicine Lake NWR is known for is that it is the location of one of the largest white pelican breeding colonies in the world.
We went out to the pelican over look to view one of the peninsulas that the pelican colony uses for nesting. The peninsula is blocked by an electric fence and gate. These protect the females and the young from predators like coyote, fox and raccoon. Unfortunately it also makes it difficult to get any good pics so we decided to just stop and have a picnic there and watch the pelicans fly out over the lake. Later on I did find these 3 white pelicans taking of near Gopher Point so I was able to get a couple of nice shots.

We also saw quite a few shorebirds as well as some passerines but since this post is getting long I will put them in my next post.

First 2008 Trip to Crex Meadows

The nice weather continued on Sunday so Michelle and I made our first trek of the year up to Crex Meadows. Unfortunately most of the ducks had already moved on to the north but there was still plenty of things for us to photograph.
Yellow-rumped warblers are all over the place right now. I see them at every park that I visit and Crex was no exception.
Although not as common as the yellow-butts I have spotted quite a few eastern phoebes.
Michelle spotted this northern flicker and was quite proud of her self for identifying it.
There were a few shorebirds around, mostly greater yellowlegs. In August I am registered for a shorebird workshop out in South Dakota. I should have a good opportunity to get some nice shorebird pics then.
We did see a few ducks that were still around. Most of them were blue-winged teal but we did also spot a single northern shoveler.

The trumpeter swans have begun to build there nests. When we visit again in late June they will probably have some cygnets for us to photograph.
Most of the osprey platforms were occupied with nests. One of the nests had been taken over by eagles but the others were acting as home for osprey pairs. Unfortunately most of the platforms are pretty far out and don't have a very good view. One of the platforms on the north east side of Crex had a little better view from the road. As we stopped to check out the osprey this bird took off from the platform and came over to check us out. That allowed me to get a couple of closer pics as he flew over head.

Birding Bass Ponds

It was not all just warblers that I photographed on my trip to the Bass Ponds.
There are probably more blue-winged teal in the area right now then any other type of duck. It seems as though there are even more teal then there are mallards, which is very unusual since we have a healthy mallard population all year long.
There are still some hoodies around but they will probably all move north soon.
Herons are a bird that we see often during the spring, summer, and fall. Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes but we also have about twice as many ponds and each one typically has one or two great blue heron or great egret fishing in it.
I have been having some fun lately shooting female redwing black birds. Even though they are much more drab looking then the males I enjoy shooting them more. That is probably because it is more of a challenge. The females are more secretive and do not usually hang out in the open like the males do.
Another type of bird that I see a lot of but have a difficult time photographing are swallows. Usually they are darting through the air chasing bugs around. They are so fast and maneuver so quickly that the autofocus can not home in on them. Of course the AF on my 100 - 400 never really works for small birds or insects so most of the photos that I take I use manual focus. Fortunately for me this tree swallow decided to perch and let me take his pic.

Migrating Waterfowl at Black Dog Lake

My birding expedition on Sunday began at Black Dog Lake. Much of Black Dog Lake does not freeze during the winter, due to the Excel Energy Plant that is located there, so while many other large lakes still had a lot of ice on them Black Dog was primarily ice free. This makes it one of the best spots around to see migrating waterfowl and this Sunday did not disappoint.
There were of course the usual mallard ducks out dabbling in the shallow waters.

They were joined by lesser scaups.
There were also a few pair of blue-winged teal.
The teal were located in the marsh that is east of the lake and actually a part of Fort Snelling State Park. This area has become a very good wetland area due mainly to beaver activity. I am going to try and get some beaver photos this weekend so that I can do a post on them. Since beavers work mainly at night it may be a challenge but I think that it will be worth it.
On the east channel to the river there were a couple of northern shovelers.
As I walked on the path that run along the lake from the east channel I startled a hooded merganser who swam away from shore with his hood in full display.

After I finished at Black Dog I crossed the river to check out the waterfowl at the old Cedar Ave Bridge. From the observation deck that goes out a little way over the overflow area of the Minnesota River I spotted quite a few ducks and mergansers but most were too far away to get any good pics. One exception was a group of white pelicans that had stopped over to rest on a shallow part of the river.

The shallow spot which they were roosting on was not that far from the observation deck so I was able to get some pics. Notice the notch on the beak which is an indication that it is the breeding season.

Birding the Bass Ponds

April 5th was a nice day so I made several stops at some of my favorite local birding locations. One stop was at the Bass Ponds.
There are now quite a few red-winged blackbirds around claiming their territory and letting everyone know it.
I found a pair of blue-winged teal in the marsh that is near the entrance.
There where three red-breasted mergansers, 2 male and 1 female, on the one pond that is open.
There was also a pair of male ruddy ducks on the open pond. The second pond was still mostly frozen and it is currently still fenced off because of the construction that the city had to do with the holding pond that is right before the Cedar Bridge. The construction was supposed to be done on March 15 but tomorrow will be April 15th and yesterday when I visited it looked like they still had quite a bit of work to do.

Medicine Lake waterfowl and waders

While browsing the Internet several months ago I came across a site of a photographer who had gotten some great pics of eared grebe in breeding plumage. I was fascinated by the shots and fortunately for me the website listed that the photographs had been taken at Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge in early June. So I did some research and found that Medicine Lake was located in Montana near the North Dakota border. Since we were planning on going back through Montana and North Dakota on our way back from Yellowstone we made a plan to make a one day side trip to Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
Medicine Lake is a pretty flat refuge with only a few slight rolling hills and even fewer trees. The two areas that have any trees to speak of are the area around the headquarters and the picnic area where the only bathroom, outhouse style, is located. The Picnic area is where we spotted the great horned owls and their nest. The majority of the park is Medicine Lake and the adjacent smaller lakes which are managed through a series of damns and dikes. We found a lot of waterfowl and waders on the small lakes and potholes.

We saw a few american avocet wading through the shallows, their heads were rusty red with the breeding plumage.
Mixed in with the avocets we saw a couple of marbled godwit.
There were quite a few Killdeer both on the shore of the lake and scouring the dirt roads.
The Wilson's Phalarope were also in breeding plumage. They swam, mostly in pairs, in tight circles close to the shore of the smaller lakes.
The eared grebe where in breading plumage and were magnificent. There were quite a few of them around.

About 10 of them swam under a small bridge that we were parked on giving us perfect views and marvelous pictures.


There was also a pair of western grebe near the highway on Medicine Lake.
We also got some good shots of several types of ducks.

They included ruddy ducks,

northern pintails
northern shoveler
and blue-winged teal.

After a day full of clouds on Friday as we drove across Montana, the weather on Saturday was perfect. The great weather, the owls, the eared grebes, and all the great shots that we got helped to make up for some of the things that we missed, and the bad weather that we had in Yellowstone. We also saw a few prairie birds in the fields surrounding the lake but I will include them in my next Medicine Lake post.

Fun at Crex Meadows

Sunday we went up to Crex Meadows in Wisconsin. The weather was very nice with mostly sunny skies. Crex is about an hour to an hour and a half northeast of the Twin Cities, just across the Minnesota and Wisconsin border. This is the earliest that we have made the trip up and it was not quite as green as it was here in the Twin Cities. The water levels were good and the waterfowl had started to return. We saw a lot of canadian geese nesting.
There were also quite a few american coots, especially near the shoreline of Phantom Lake.

We also saw some blue-winged teal and a few ring-necked ducks.

The highlight of the trip were the trumpeter swans. As you can see in the pictures they have already begun to nest. We will need to come back again in June to hopefully photograph the cygnets. We saw about a dozen swans throughout Crex.

We did not see as many raptors as we have on past trips. This osprey had left it's platform and was scouring the lakes and ponds for fish. The only other raptor that we saw was a northern harrier but it was flying too fast to get a picture. In the past we have also seen kestrels, red-tails, and peregrine at Crex.

Some of the sandhill cranes have returned. In the fall, Crex is usually home to large flocks of sandhills which feed on the refuge fields. On this trip we only saw about a half dozen cranes, all of them foraging in several areas that had been control burned. All were painted up for mating season looking a lot more orange then the ones that I photographed in the Bosque del Apache earlier this year in February.
As usual the red-winged black birds were "singing in the marsh, just singing in the marsh".
On the way out we passed several bird houses on the grounds of the local airport. On the pole for each house stood a tree swallow, their metallic teal wings glinting in the bright sun.
We had a great time being outside and enjoying the weather. We plan to return in early June when we hope to see more waterfowl and trumpeter cygnets.