Great Egret

Hunting Egret

The great egret is a common bird through out much of the world. The most widely distributed egret they can be found in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. They are large birds with a four and a half to five foot wingspan, the great blue heron is the only member of the egret family which is larger.

For me the fun thing about egrets is watching them hunt. They slowly wade through the water stalking their prey. Frequently they will stop and stand motionless and then quickly lunge at the prey catching it with their long slim beak. This egret was hunting at Purgatory Creek.

Great Egret

When I was younger, maybe about 7th or 8th grade, I was down at the neighborhood pond when I saw a large white bird land in the reeds at the far side. This bird was huge and different from the small birds that I was used to seeing around like robins,crows, and cardinals. When I went home later that day I found myself grounded as usual, I was not allowed to go to the pond, woods, park or pretty much any where, which gave me a lot of time to go searching through my families outdated set of encyclopedias, my family never owned any books on birds let alone a field guide, to find that I had just spotted my first great egret.

This was one of those moments in my life that I will always remember, and one that I believe helped to shape me into the naturalist that I am today. Over the years my path may have veered, from time to time, away from nature but the awe that I had as a teenager when I saw that large white bird flying overhead has always been inside of me. The local pond by my parents house is still around but it is now surrounded by houses, apartments and townhouses. The egrets are not there any more but fortunately I know many places close by where I can be at peace in the natural world, like Purgatory Creek where I took these pics.

Birding Makes a Return at the Bass Ponds

If you are a fairly new visitor to Ecobirder you might be a bit confused. After all with a name like Ecobirder you are probably expecting to see pictures of birds, instead of all of the insects that I have been posting lately. That is why we, Michelle helped to chose the name, called it Ecobirder because the eco part represents all of the non-birding nature pics that I post. However, how about if I post some bird pics that I shot at the Bass Ponds in July so you bird purists out there do not totally walk out on me.
While I was traveling around the ponds, checking the trees for passerines and the tall grass for butterflies and dragons, a double-crested cormorant made a big splash on the scene.
The double-crested cormorant is the most widely seen cormorant in North America. Where most cormorants are only found near the coast the double-crested cormorant are found in large numbers on inland lakes and water ways. The double-crested cormorant was listed as a species of special concern by the Audubon Society back in the 70's but since then there numbers have exploded. This increase in population has caused conflict with fisheries, who claim that the cormorants eat their fish as well as some park management, fecal matter from nests has a tendency to kill trees.
The sudden arrival of the cormorant startled a great egret who was fishing on the pond, either that or the guy with the big camera eye staring at it.
The great egret is a member of the heron family and is found across much of the world. The great egret, like many members of the heron family, was decimated by plume hunters in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They rebounded after federal laws were put in place to protect them. Today the great egret is the symbol of the National Audubon Society.
All of the racket over at the pond, what with that prima donna symbol of the Audubon Society and the paparazzi photographing it, caught the attention of a cedar waxwing that was trying to take a snooze.
The cedar waxwing gets its name from the red, waxy appearing, tips on some of the secondaries. The tips are clearly visible in both photos above. The purpose of the red tips is not known for sure however some believe that they may come into play during mate selection. Cedar waxwings are berry eaters and can get intoxicated from eating fermented berries.

Birding Dodge Nature Center

While I did take quite a few dragonfly pics at the Dodge Nature Center, when I visited in mid June, I did get a few bird pics too.

Even though house wrens have a cheerful bubbly song they can be very aggressive and territorial during the nesting season. They will often work hard to prevent other cavity nesters from nesting in or near their territory. This may include filling empty potential cavity nesting sites with sticks or even breaking the eggs of other birds.
At Dodge there seems to be enough room for the house wrens and eastern bluebirds, a competing cavity nester, to coexist. The bluebirds seem to occupy at least one of the bird houses. Inside they will build a nest made of grass, sometimes they use pine needles however there are few pines in the area so they are most likely using grass, and line it with fine grass and feathers. The clutch is typically between 3 to 6 eggs which will hatch in about 12 to 18 days. The young fledge in about 17 to 20 days, sometimes the male will continue to feed the fledglings while the female begins another nest.

Over looking one of the many small ponds that are part of the nature center I found a green heron. Green herons spend much of their time foraging for small fish, frogs and insects at ponds, rivers and other marshy areas. A clever bird, they will sometimes drop bait, like worms, sticks or feathers, on to the water to attract fish or frogs to come to the surface.

I also spotted another member of the heron family at another pond. The great egret hunts its prey, mainly fish, frogs and reptiles, by stealthily wading through the water until it finds something to eat. At that point it will slowly move into position and then lunge forward with its beak to impale its prey.
Dodge has a pretty good population of wild turkeys. Last fall I found about 30 of them on one visit, most of them were females with only a few toms. On this trip their were 3 toms in the field right behind the headquarters building. Turkeys are not what most people would consider a beautiful bird but I like the way that they look in the sun light, their feathers get an almost metallic look to them.

Kingfisher, Bufflehead, Egret, Pelicans

After doing some birding at Fort Snelling State Park on April 20th I headed down the Minnesota River a bit to the Minnesota Valley NWR to see what wildlife that I could find.
At the marsh across from Black Dog Lake, which technically is still part of Fort Snelling, I found the female belted kingfisher that I have photographed on a few occasions lately. She was perched on her favorite snag but she did not stay very long this time.
In one of the small ponds near Black Dog I found a pair of bufflehead ducks.
Across the river a the old Cedar Avenue Bridge I found an egret who was pretty intent on its fishing.
There was not a lot to photograph from the boardwalk at Old Cedar Ave. Quite a few ducks and geese around but most were not with in good photographic range. As I was leaving, to head over to Wood Lake Nature Center to check things out there, a kettle of white pelicans flew over, following the river north.

Birding Woodlake

On Sunday the 13th I made one last stop and that was at Wood Lake Nature Center. That was were I spotted my first warbler of the year, a yellow-rumped warbler, but there were quite a few other birds there to photograph.
The Canadian geese have begun to nest and I counted at least about 10 that I saw at Wood Lake.
While the female are sitting on the nest, I assume that they are incubating eggs, the males walk the perimeter and keep guard. That occasionally leads to conflicts between geese and visitors. Usually it is nothing more then a bunch of hissing though. Some of the males are a bit more mellow and keep a watch from the water.

There were also a lot of gulls lie this ring-billed gull on the ice. My guess is that they are looking for fish that died during the winter and are surfacing as the ice melts. This makes for an easy meal. I have been back to Wood Lake since that weekend and all the ice has disappeared and so have most of the gulls.
A great egret was prowling the reeds looking to catch its own meal.
While walking the trail I spooked a pair of wood ducks who we in the reeds next to the trail. They flew off before I could get a shot but I found them later in the safety of deeper water and got a pic of the male.
The birds that I was the most excited about, besides the warbler was a pair of hooded mergansers.

The male hoody was swimming around like a king displaying his majestic crown.
The female did not want to be undone so she tried to display her tiara but it just came out looking like she was having a bad hair day.
The low part of the trip was when I spotted this squirrel by the feeders near the visitors center. At first i was not sure what it was, since it was missing a big chunk of fur and most of its tail. I am not sure what happened to it. Maybe it ran into a predator like a red-tail hawk, great horned owl or a fox, all of them are local to the Wood Lake area. Maybe the issue was with another squirrel. I am sure that I will never know the reason for his injuries I just know that he is lucky to be alive. I really don't think that he would make it with out food from the feeders at the visitors center. With out his tail I am sure that he is lacking some balance and may have a hard time navigating his way through the trees the way that squirrels normally do.

Birding Black Dog Lake

On Saturday May 5th we had a bit of sun so I set out to do some birding. I decided to head down to Black Dog Lake, since most of the lake is open water now I was hoping to find some migrating waterfowl. I came down from Cedar Avenue and as I passed the marsh, which is a part of Fort Snelling State Park, I saw my first great egret of the year. As I stopped the car to get some better pics he flushed and flew further back into the marsh but I was able to get a couple of shots as he flew by.
There still quite a few American coots around. I like coots because although they look and act like ducks they are really rails so instaed of webbed feet they have long lobed toes like the rails do. I thought that this picture was unique because the bird seemed to be caught on some vegitation or something. the other cool thing about this shot is the eye. Doesn't it look like he has a red M&M for an eye? I guess that I have never quite seen a coots eye at that angle before.
The small flock of ruddy ducks that has been hanging out at Black Dog was still there. this was very cool since I do not remember seeing many of these around last year at this time.
It is the beginning of the ruddy duck breeding season. Some of the males are already in their breeding plumage, see the first ruddy duck photo, while others, like the one above are still in the process of changing. You can see that the ruddy or rust colored breeding plumage is replaceing the gray plumage that the ruddies have during the non-breeding season. The bill is still pretty gray but looks like it is starting to lighten up. The ruddy duck is one of only two, the cinnamon teal being the other, that breed in both North and South America.

Great Egret

Great Egret Venice Rookery

Ding Darling NWR

The Ding Darling Refuge on Sanibel Island is considered by many birders as the top birding location in the US. It was first set aside as the Sanibel National Wildlife Refuge in 1945 by Harry Truman. Later, in 1967, it was renamed for Jay Norwood Darling, environmentalist, political cartoonist and creator of the first duck stamp, who was instrumental in getting the land preserved.

Located on Sanibel Island on the gulf coast of Florida the 6400 acres refuge consists mostly of submerged seagrass beds, mangrove forest, cordgrass marshes, and West Indian hardwood hammocks and is habitat for over 220 species of birds. Many waterfowl from all over North America migrate to their wintering grounds in the Ding Darling NWR, these include American white pelican, double-crested cormorant, snowy and great egrets, and well as many other types of birds.

If you visit Florida and you are at all interested in birds Ding Darling is a place that you must visit.

Midwest Birding Symposium

I arrived in the Quad Cities on Thursday a little bit before 4pm. That evening at 5pm was the opening reception at the Putnam Museum in Davenport, IA. At the reception there was a short program with some awards given out and some announcements made and then we had time to check out the museum. The Putnam also provided people an opportunity to take a behind the scenes tour. I thought that this might be interesting so I signed up for one. Since we were a birding group the behind the scenes tour was focused on the bird exhibits that they had in storage. A lot of the people seemed excited to see a bunch of stuffed and mounted birds. A lot of the birders where identifying species or taking pictures. I was kind of creeped out by the whole thing. I love watching birds because they are so live and free and I try to capture that life with my camera. Stuffed and mounted birds are not live or free and it made me a little sad to see them that way. After the tour I wandered around exploring exhibits about the local history and the civil war which I enjoyed much more.

Friday morning was the first of two field trips which I signed up for. The trip was to the Andalusia Slough and Milan Bottoms on flatbottom DNR boats. The trip started at 6am and it was pretty cold out on the river. The first thing that we came across where several large flocks of white pelicans. I could not count them all but there was well over 100 pelicans all together, which the local people who were on the trip said was more then usual.

It was still a little dark so it was difficult getting a sharp picture, especially on a moving boat with no tripod. As we got closer the pelicans took of in a big wave of white and black feathers.
We saw quite a few waders along the shore lines including

solitary sandpiper

great blue heron

and great egret.

We also saw some waterfowl including american coot.

Other birds that we saw that I did not get a picture of where mallards, green heron, belted kingfishers and numerous songbirds.

The boat launch that we left from and returned too also had a very interesting weather vane. This was very confusing at first. We were not quite sure why all of these bikes where on a pole about 30 feet off the ground. Then the wind blew and the direction that it was pointing shifted and we realized that it was a weather vane.

Alas a shorebird

For the past couple weeks I have been in search of shorebirds migrating back through the area. The conditions where pretty good with a lot of smaller pools being mud puddles before the rain started this weekend. However every where I went I could not find any until I went to the Bass Ponds in the Minnesota Valley NWR on Friday after work.

It was sunny when I left work but I knew that would not last long. The weather forecast said that the skies would begin to cloud up Friday night and that we would have rain all weekend, that was an understatement with a few people in southeast Minnesota dying in flash floods due to the rain. So I decided to get in as much outside time as possible. First I went to Fort Snelling State Park and got some more dragonfly pictures and some picture of birds a their feeders. Then I moved onto the Bass Ponds where I found this solitary Solitary Sandpiper.

He was scavenging the shore of the Minnesota river.There were also a few egrets hanging around.Unfortunately the light did not last long as the clouds started to block out the sun around 6pm so I headed home.

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.