Wood Lake Nature Center

Yesterday turned out to be a fabulous day weather wise, so I decided to go out and take some pictures before an afternoon dinner with Michelle's family. Since my time was limited I decided that it was best to stay in the Twin Cities so I went out to check on some of my favorite haunts including Wood Lake Nature Center. The visitors center was closed due to the holiday, but the park was open and occupied with quite a few visitors.
I was encouraged to see quite a few signs of spring. Insects have begun to spring up now that the weather has gotten a bit warmer. There were already plenty of flies and box elder bugs flying around. A few green darner dragonflies had completed their northern migration and were chasing the small flying insects in the fields and mourning cloak butterflies were warming their wings in the sun. Mourning cloaks over winter in their adult butterfly form, that is why they are usually the first butterflies that you can see in the spring. Soon they will mate and then pass from the world making way for their offspring.
The first warblers of the year have also arrived. Yellow-rumped warblers seem to be everywhere. Warblers are typically insect eaters so they do not usually return until after the bugs do. Since yellow-rumps do not typically migrate as far south as most other warblers they are usually the first to arrive in the spring, as well as the last to leave in the fall.
Canada geese have already begun to nest. They usually nest on islands of reeds in the middle of the lake. This gives the nest some protection from predators like fox and coyote. Then they use many of their own down feathers to line the nest, making a soft feathery bed for the eggs.
Much of Wood Lake Nature Center is occupied by Wood Lake and adjacent wetlands. The lake itself is very shallow, only a couple of feet deep in many locations, and has a boardwalk running through the middle of it.There are wood duck houses that have been placed around the lake, as well as in some of the parks other water features, to provide nesting habitat for cavity nesting ducks such as Wood Ducks. Because the correct habitat is carefully maintained it is possible to see wood ducks in the park almost any time that you want to visit.

It is not only wood ducks that take advantage of the wood duck nesting boxes though, hooded mergansers are also cavity nesters and frequently will take over nest boxes in the park. During mating season both male and female can often be seen floating on the lake but later on in the summer the males will move off leaving the female to raise the family.
The turtles were also out enjoying the sun and the warm weather. Turtles are reptiles and as such are cold blooded. So they rely on the sun to warm them up which helps them to move better, digest food and fight diseases. They use logs, rocks, or any other make shift platform to bask in the sun, often piling on top of each other, or staking, in order to get more sun.
With dinner time approaching I decided to make my way back to the parking lot. On my way I noticed this great egret flying across the beautiful blue sky. I think that perhaps he had the same idea and was heading off to his in laws for dinner, but I doubt that it was ham and German potato salad.

Lake Hiawatha

With over 10,000 lakes it is not difficult to find one here in Minnesota. Even Minneapolis, which is the largest metropolitan area in Minnesota, has several lakes with in its borders. Last week I headed over to visit one of these, Lake Hiawatha, after work.

The warmer temps that we have had lately finally melted most of the ice that had covered the lake. The newly opened water is providing needed habitat for migrating waterfowl who need to stop over in southern Minnesota because many of the lakes further north are still not open.

I spotted two types of mergansers on the lake. The hooded mergansers, the second picture, often nest in the area. There breeding range extends down through the northern and eastern portions of Minnesota. The red-breasted merganser, above, will continue north to nesting grounds in Canada and Alaska.

The common loon is the state bird of Minnesota. Loons often nest on lakes in the northern portions of Minnesota but we only see them in the southern portion of the state during migration. I estimate that there were at least 10 loons on the lake and it was fun to hear them calling to each other across the lake. Loons have an unique call that is difficult to ever forget.

At one point waters from Lake Hiawatha empty into Minnehaha Creek, which is winding its way to the Mississippi River. At the mouth of the creek is a stand of trees which is home to a small colony of Black-crowned night. Since we are on the northern portion of the black-crowned night-herons range this is one of the few places around that you can see these birds reliably year after year.

The birds were not the only thing taking advantage of the open waters. Muskrats stay active through out the winter by traveling under the ice, but it is much easier for them to find food once the lake open up. They eat mostly aquatic vegetation but since they are omnivores they will also eat things such as fish, crayfish and frogs.

Wordless Wednesday: Hooded Merganser Female

Birding Maplewood Nature Center

Over the summer I did quite a bit of birding at the Maplewood Nature Center. Near the boardwalk that crosses over the lake there is a small island that always seemed to be teeming with birdlife. On July 31st I stopped in and took the following pics.
I am not 100% sure what type of flycatcher that this is but my guess is that it is an olive-sided flycatcher. It was always pretty easy to find several types of flycatcher perched on the trees, that were growing on the island, waiting for a meal to fly by.
The eastern kingbird is another member of the flycatcher family. An interesting fact about eastern kingbirds, according to the Cornell website, is that when they migrate to South America during the winter they are mostly fruit eaters.
Another bird that eats mainly insects in the summer and fruit in the winter was also hanging around, although cedar waxwing are not members of the flycatcher family.
There was also a consistent amount of waterfowl that hung around the lake through out the summer. These were mainly mallards, wood ducks and female hooded mergansers.
The male hooded merganser are usually no where to be found after the breeding season. Once the eggs are laid the male leaves the female hoody to incubate them on her own, which is why we typically only see the females by late summer. Once the eggs hatch the chicks will be able to swim and catch food with in 24 hours. The female will continue to stay with the young, and show them where to find food, for a few weeks but she will leave them even before they can fly, at about 70 days. I tend to see a good number of hoodies around the parks where I live each summer. This is probably do to the number of wood duck boxes that people have put up in the area. Hoodies are cavity nesters and will often nest in wood duck boxes.

Birding Wood Lake Nature Center

After spring migration most of the good birding here where I live, consists of photographing the remaining bird while they nest or raise their young. While there is certainly not the variety that we get during the spring migration, this time allows us birders to take a closer glimpse at some of the more intimate behavior of our feathered friends. In mid July I spent some time at Wood Lake Nature Center watching the birds and their behavior.
There is always a good population of swallows at Wood Lake during the summer. This population consists of both tree and barn swallows. The tree swallows often take up residence in the bluebird boxes which are located on the prairie on the western portion of the park. The barn swallows like to build nests under the eaves of the visitors center, located at the east side of the park. The barn swallow nest, as shown above, is made of mud pellets, which are collected in the birds beak, and lined with grass. Barn swallows will nest in colonies, with each pair defending a space around its nest, if there is sufficient nesting space.
By July the wood duck males had already lost most of their breeding plumage. These ducks typically pair off while still on their winter range, in January, and return as a pair to the breeding range. The male will stay with the female through the breeding season but then find a new mate the next year. In the southern part of their range wood ducks will frequently produce two broods per season. Wood ducks are cavity nesters and will nest in large holes in trees, frequently made by piliated woodpeckers, although any cavity that is large enough will do. Since there is often a lack of natural cavities, wood ducks will often use man made nesting boxes, like the ones that are placed all around Wood Lake.
The female will line the cavity, or nesting box with down from her own body to make a soft feather bead for the clutch of typically 6 to 15 eggs, although if wood ducks nest to close together they will often deposit eggs into the nest of a neighboring female. These "dump nests" as they are called can contain up to 40 eggs. After they hatch the young chicks must jump from the nest and follow mom, who does not help them, down to the water.
Another type of duck that sometimes use the nesting boxes are hooded mergansers. The hoodies nest very much the same way that the wood ducks do, in a cavity that is lined with downy feathers from the female. The hoody babies are learning how to dive for their food, fish, bugs and crustaceans. They can adjust the refractiveness of their eyes allowing them to have better underwater vision. They also have an almost clear nictitating membrane, second eye lid that birds and some animals posses, which helps protect their eyes while they are under water. The wood ducks just have to learn to dabble across the surface poking their bills under the water in search of seeds, vegetation, bugs and other invertebrates.

Hoodies Gone Wild at Wood Lake

There are three types of mergansers that can typically be found in North America. The smallest of the three is the hooded merganser. The hooded merganser is also the only one of the three that can be only be found in North America.
I typically see hoodies around home during spring or fall migration. I sometimes even see them during the winter, in the few spots where the water stays open. Even though we are considered part of their breeding range, most hoodies seem to continue on past the cities up to Northern Minnesota, North Dakota, or Canada. That is why I was kind of surprised to see a small group of females when I visited Wood Lake Nature Center in mid June.

It should not surprise me to find them at Wood Lake because it would seem to be the right breeding habitat. According to what I have read, thanks Cornell Lab for all the great info, the breeding habitat is forested wetlands, which is a good description for Wood Lake.

Wood Lake is a fairly shallow lake, hoodies prefer shallower waters then other mergansers.
The north and south sides of the lake are lined with woods. There are quite a few older trees which are quite large and which provide cavities for the hoodies to nest in.
If there are no tree cavities available for them to nest in, then there are several wood duck boxes placed around the park that can act as a substitute.
Although the lake is shallow, it is deep enough for the hoodies to dive under water to hunt the fish, and aquatic insects living there.

As you can see in the pics it is also deep enough for the hoodies to splash around and get a little rowdy.

Must of been one of those girls gone wild things because I did not see any males around.

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.

Birds, Butterflies and Turtles atWood Lake

My last stop on April 20th was the Wood Lake Nature Center.

At Wood Lake I found another mourning cloak butterfly to photograph.
American robins are pretty common now so I am not as excited to see them as I was when they were first returning back in March. This robin gave me a nice pose though so I figured that he wanted to have his picture taken.
The hoodies are still around. On this trip they were in one of the ponds on the outer trail near to the freeway so the pics were not as good as I got last time.
There were also a lot of turtles sunning themselves on rocks or logs that were sticking out of the water. This guy slid into the water when I came by but decided to take a peek and check me out as I was checking him out and taking a pic.

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.