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.

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.

Fort Snelling State Park

On June 29th I read on the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union list server that a prothonotary warbler had been spotted at Fort Snelling State Park. Since it is only a short 20 minute drive I decided to run over and see if I could get a picture. That day I did not see the prothonotary but I did get a good look at a peregrine falcon that appears to be living under the Mendota Bridge which passes directly over a large part of the park. Since the 29th I have made several trips back to Fort Snelling. I did get a glimpse of the prothonotary once as it crossed the path that I was on but was never able to get a picture. I did find some good subjects while I was in the park though. Like the eastern phoebe pictured below. I found him at the edge of a small field that opened up out of the woods.

There were also some downy woodpeckers checking out the small trees that lined the field.

On most my trips to the park I got some shots of indigo bunting.

They liked to sing in a dead tree on the side of the trail.
The indigo bunting were more blue then this juvenile eastern bluebird that I found.The Minnesota River travels from the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge through the park and then connects to the Mississippi. The flood plain of the Minnesota River provides plenty of shallow water for long legged waders, like great egret and great blue heron, to hunt.
The egrets and heron are not the only hunters in the park. Several times I have spotted the peregrine again on my visits.

Unfortunately I have not been as close as the first time that I spotted it, usually I see it perched on the high support beams of the bridge.

But one morning I was lucky and it decided to take off from a beam that was fairly close and so I got some decent flight shots.

There are other things to photograph in the park other then birds. There are a lot of white tailed dear in Minnesota, even in the Twin City metro area, so photographing them is kind of like taking pictures of cowbirds or robins.

However the fawns are still cute and fun to watch and they are plentiful at this time.

I found a pair of muskrat working on building there home.

They kept going to a small island, in the pond that their home was located, digging up weeds and then dragging them through the water back to their home on the opposite bank.

I also took a lot of pictures of butterfly and dragonfly but I will save them for my next post.