Kinglets, Sparrows, Eagles and Osprey

Although my trip out on Sunday was primarily to photograph migrating waterfowl I did also manage to find a large number of new passerines as well as a couple of raptors.
Kinglets are always pretty difficult to photograph, but I followed this golden-crowned kinglet around the Old Cedar Ave Bridge area for a while and was able to get a couple of good pics.
I did see ruby-crowned kinglets at Black Dog Lake and Old Cedar Ave Bridge that day also but all of my photos of them turned out to be like Big Foot pics, blurry and indistinguishable.
The song sparrows were out singing in the fields around Black Dog that morning. The males sing as a way to attract a female, as well as to warn other males to stay out of their territory.
The lenghtening days, as well as warming temps and food availability, determine when the males begin to sing their courting songs. Studies show that females prefer mates that sing a more complex song. If that was the case with humans then classical and opera singers would be studs while boy bands would be duds, well at least half of that statement is true.
While reading up about song sparrows I found that the song sparrows in the Aleutian island in Alaska are so large that they are actually twice the weight of an eastern bluebird. Talk about a raptors extra value meal.

Speaking of raptors I did see my first osprey of 2008 on Sunday. I was just a fly by, so I did not get any great pics, but it was still a welcome sight. I will need to make sure that I start checking out the osprey platform in Roseville to see if any osprey are nesting there again this year.
I also found a bald eagle perched in one of the large trees on the shore of the river. It is possible that it could be an inhabitant of the nest across the river channel, that is visible from the road. Several people who I ran into at Black Dog and Old Cedar Ave where down there looking for eagles because of a feature that one of the local stations ran on their news program about eagles at Black Dog Lake. I let the people who I talked to know that there was at least one eagle still around as well as a nest but that the best time for eagle viewing at Black Dog Lake is actually during the winter months. Since Black Dog is one of a few locations where the water does not freeze over, due to the power plant on the lake, eagles congregate there during the winter. When the temps warm up and our 10,000 + lakes thaw out the eagles disperse leaving only a few behind.

A Visit to Dodge Nature Center

Last Wednesday the sky cleared up for a little bit in the evening, unfortunately I was not able to go out and do some major birding because Wednesday afternoon is my volunteer shift at The Raptor Center but since it was the only time that we really got sun during that week I decided to stop at the Dodge Nature Center on my way home from The Raptor Center. Since I did not have too much time, it was already 6pm when I arrived, I decided to make a quick loop first over to the farm pond, then past the crossroads pond, then the prairie pond and then back to the parking lot.
The most interesting thing that I found was a hermit thrush in the wooded marshy area that leads to the farm pond.

There were also quite a few gold-crowned kinglets flitting about
Most of the kinglets were in the small picnic type area right next to the parking lot.
Kinglets are very small and frequently moving, which makes them especially difficult to photograph. Since they are very small the camera autofocus has a problem picking them out quick enough before they move so all of these picture, like a majority of the pictures that I shoot these days, were taken using manual focus.
The ponds were still mostly frozen but there were a few geese, muskrats, and mallards near the edges of the ponds where there was a bit of open water.
On my way out I spotted a couple of white tailed deer. There are a lot of white tailed deer in Minnesota, even in the Twin Cities. So when it starts to get dark it is pretty easy to find a few in most of the neighborhood parks or nature centers.

Other wildlife at Vadnais Lake

I did see some other birds and wildlife at Vadnais Lake other then the waterfowl. One day as I was shooting the ducks a bald eagle flew over head.
In the woods north of the lake I spotted a golden-crowned kinglet. I wanted to get some better pics but it flew up a trail. Unfortunately the trails in the woods by the lake can only be used for cross country skying. This seems like such a waste to me especially during the summer. It is really strange that they do not even allow hikers on the trails. Each visit I usually spot a muskrat swimming along near the shoreline.

Playing hooky at Wood Lake Nature Center

On Saturday October 13th I participated in the Upper Midwest Audubon Conference in Bloomington, MN. I arrived at the conference at around 8:00am and after registration and the welcome I went to a very interesting program session entitled The Great Northern Owl Irruption of 2005. Having photographed many great gray and northern hawk owls during the irruption I was very interested in hearing the speaker, Dave Grosshuesch, talk about his research on the phenomenon. It was very interesting and it left me looking forward to the next northern owl irruption whenever that may be.

The second program session that I went to was not very exciting and it was all that I could do to keep from falling asleep. As soon as it ended I went outside to check the weather. As the weather man promised the clouds had left, the skies had cleared and the sun was shining. This was the first nice day in a week and I was going to be in the conference all day. I was scheduled for a field trip to the Bass Ponds at 2pm but I could not wait that long to get outside. So I took my camera and headed over to Wood Lake Nature Center, which was right down the road. I figured that I would skip one session then head back for lunch but sometimes plans just don't work out, especially when out shooting on a beautiful day.

When I first arrived, at Wood Lake, I checked the small trees down by the dock near the visitors center. These trees always have a lot of small birds to photograph and this Saturday things were no different. The first thing that I spotted were a few song sparrows in the brush next to the trees.Up in the trees there where northern cardinals.
The male looked like he had completed his molting.

The female looked like she was still missing some feathers around her face.

I also spotted some ruby-crowned kinglets. This one almost came right down to me. He got real close and flashed me his crown, unfortunately I was not fast enough to get that shot but I did get him a bit further up. I also caught this american goldfinch. The ruffled feathers kind of threw me off and I thought that it was a yellow-rumped warbler at first, but a helpful reader pointed out my error and when I looked at it closely I can see that it's beak looks too wide for a warbler.I guess I am not the only one who likes a good bath. Out on the trails I spotted a white-throated sparrow. The last one of these that I saw was in Duluth three weeks earlier.I also spotted a fox sparrow out on the trails. This was the first one of these that I have seen so far this fall.Even though it is already mid October there were quite a few insects around, like this autumn meadowhawk.George Bush finally admitted that there is such a thing as global climate change so I guess now it is real and the dragonflies can hang out here into winter. LOLThere were a few waterfowl out too. American coots have been moving through the area in the past week or so. I saw about 20 coots through out the park.I also got some shots of the pied-billed grebes that have been hanging around for about a month.

By the time I got through the park the lunch time for the convention was already half way over. So I decided to eat the food that I had with me instead. On my way back to the convention I took a wrong turn on 494 and somehow ended up at the Bass Ponds.

A gray day at Afton State Park

The weather has been pretty poor lately. The rain and clouds came into town on Sunday the 7th and remained for most of the next week. On Thursday October 11th the rain had stopped but the skies were still pretty overcast. I had planned to drive up to Duluth that afternoon after work and spend that evening and most of Friday, I had taken Friday off of work, birding the North Shore and Hawk Ridge. However since the weather was so poor I decided to change my plans. I decided to stay home, go to work on Friday, and try to make a trip up north later on, when I would have better weather for photographing birds.

It had been several days since I had been birding so I decided that I would go out despite the overcast skies. I decided to go visit Afton State Park, I had not been there since I participated in a St Paul Audubon field trip in the early summer. By the time I got off of work there were a few peaks of sun so I was hopeful that I might get some productive shots.

As I entered the park I spotted a red-tailed hawk flying overhead. Unfortunately there are no parking spots at that part of the road and since there was other traffic I was not able to pull over and get any shots of the hawk. So I continued on to the parking area and headed down the hiking trail towards the river. Along the trail I spotted quite a few sparrows, warblers, robins, chickadees, and other small birds, however between the clouds and the trees there was not enough light to get any descent shots. When I got down to a picnic area that was a little more open, down near the river, I noticed a few birds fluttering around in the small trees. I decided to play the waiting game and found a good place where I could observe the birds and wait for them to get more comfortable with my presence so that they would come out into the open and I could take some pics. A little patience paid off and I got a few shots of both ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets.

Unfortunately the ruby-crowned kinglets were not showing me their crowns.You can tell by most of the pictures that the weather was pretty gray out.
I did get a nice peak of sun every now and again and I was quick to take advantage.
Because the light did not last very long.Down on the beach I spotted a few ring-billed gulls flying over the river. One dove in after a fish while this one decided to take a rest on one of the swimming buoys. After too short a time the sky got darker so I decided it was time to take off. On my way out I spotted a group of wild turkeys foraging on the side of the road. Since there were not any cars on the road at that time I pulled over and took some pictures.A little further down the road I spotted the red-tailed hawk that I had seen when I arrived. He was sitting in a tree not far from the road with a beautiful gray sky as a background (sarcasm alert). I stopped again anyway and took a few shots and then headed off to home and dinner.

Ruby-crowned kinglet at Wood Lake Nature Center

Here are some pictures of a ruby-crowned kinglet that I took last Wednesday. It was in a small tree with a yellow-rumped warbler at Wood Lake Nature Center.

Since I am not a birding genius, not yet at least, I was not sure on the ID.

I had it in my mind that it was a warbler, since I have been seeing lots of warblers coming through on the fall migration lately.

This post was originally a request for help in coming up with an ID.

John, at A DC Birding Blog was kind enough to help me out and point out that this was actually a ruby-crowned kinglet and not a warbler. Because of helpful readers like John I learn more about birding all the time. Thanks for the help John.