More Trumpeter Swans at Monticello

Here are some more pictures that I took of the trumpeter swans in Monticello.



It sure did not take long to fill up an 8 gb card. This is good because I was only able to stay a couple hours then I had to leave because I came down with the flue. I spent the next couple of days at home in bed.

It is very cool to see all the swans gathered together. The park where they feed the swans is pretty easy to get to. If you are in Minnesota and want to visit just take 94 to Monticello, that would be west if you are heading out from the Twin Cities, and take the County Road 39/Riverview Drive exit north. As Riverview Drive begins to curve east following the river look for a dead end called Mississippi Drive on your left. Turn on Mississippi Drive go down a couple of blocks and the park will be on your right. I am not sure how much longer the birds will be around with spring on its way. This last trip there were only about half as many birds as my first trip. That still left me 600 to 800 birds to photograph.

Birding in Monticello

On February 23 I travelled up to Monticello, MN to get some more pictures of the trumpeter swans that have gathered here before they head out for their summer territories.
The swans gather here because there is usually open water all year round due to the Excel Energy Power Plant that is upstream.
It also helps that there is a woman, the Swan Lady, who feeds the swans.
That is right, there is a woman who is feeding hundreds if not thousands of swans here.
Her home is next to a small park that is on the river. They have a large feed trailer parked in their driveway and a duct system that transports cracked corn from the trainer to large bins which she uses like a trough down at the shore line.
At feeding time she makes her way from her house down to the shore, surrounded by hundreds of mallards and Canadian geese. She carries a large bucket filled with cracked corn which she tosses out to the ducks and geese as she walks.

Down at the shore the swans begin to gather around. The Swan Lady opens up the corn duct and feed pours down the hill to the river side. Each trip she fills up a couple of large buckets and uses them to fill 10 or more large tubs, which act as troughs, down on the shore.
besides the trumpeter swans, Canadian geese and mallards there were also a few odd waterfowl. Out in the river there were a few common goldeneye and common merganser. On the shore I found a female northern pintail in with the other ducks looking for a hand out.
There was also a pair of woodducks. it was easy to see that the female was in charge in this relationship, as the male followed her around wherever she went.
There was also this mystery bird. My guess is that it is some escaped or released domestic bird.
If anyone knows what type of bird this is I would appreciate it if you could let me know. Just add a comment below.

Thanks.

MN Valley headquarters 2-21

Winters in Minnesota tend to last a long time and can get some what depressing. Sure we have some cool winter birds but most of them are only in the northern part of the state. Down here, in the southeastern part of the state we mostly see the same birds through out the winter such as dark-eyed juncos, tree sparrows, crows, goldfinch, white breasted nut hatch,

downy and hairy woodpeckers
and northern cardinals.
But in the last couple of weeks of February I started to notice some differences on my frequent trips to the Minnesota Valley NWR visitors center. There have been some changes and some new visitors to the feeding stations that they maintain there. One noticeable change is that the goldfinches are beginning to get there color back. Goldfinches molt twice a year, once in the winter, into the drab olive color and once in the spring into the brilliant lemon color that most people identify with goldfinch.

A new visitor to the feeders have been house finches. Originally house finches were a resident of the southwestern US and Mexico but in the 1940s they were introduced to the eastern US. Since then they have spread and are now year round residents for most of the US, including most of Minnesota. I have not seen many around this winter and I have not seen any at the MN Valley NWR this winter, until now. Anther year round resident that has been noticeably absent until recently have been house sparrows. House sparrows were introduced to North America from Europe in the 1800s.
The most exciting new visitor has been a fox sparrow.
While I remember some reports on the list servers back in December about a fox sparrow at the MN Valley NWR I have not seen any in my many trips here. Fox sparrows are birds that we usually only see during migration. There wintering grounds are in the southeastern US where there is less snow making ground foraging easier. Their summer breeding territory is in the western US, northern Canada and Alaska. Spotting a migrating fox sparrow is usually a good sign that the spring migration has begun. Let's hope so, we can certainly use a bit of spring up here in the frozen north.

Presidents Day Eagle and Harlequin Duck

Presidents Day is a paid holiday where I work. Since I was already up north for the Sax Zim Birding Festival I stayed in Duluth Sunday night and planned to do a bit more north country birding on Monday before I headed home. Unfortunately when I woke up that morning Duluth was dark and gray with cloud cover and fog. So I headed home in the morning instead of sticking around. The clouds continued for most of the trip home but cleared a bit as I approached the Twin Cities. Since it was still early I decided to head over to Prescott, WI to see if I could refind the harlequin duck that had been wintering there.
When I arrived I spotted a large shape in a tree on the Wisconsin side of the river.
I had to move down to the edge of the river to get a good mostly unobstructed angle.
I thought that it was fitting to get some eagle pics on Presidents Day but I was really hoping for the harlequin. As I moved north up the river I noticed a lone dark duck over by the railroad bridge. When I saw it dive under the water I knew that it was the harlequin.

It traveled between the two bridges constantly diving under the water in search of fish.
Even though it was clear that day it was extremely cold with a dangerously low windchill factor. So when the duck would move to the Minnesota side of the river and be too far away to get any good pics I would move to the truck. After a short warm up time I would check the river again and usually find that the harlequin had moved back with in range.
After taking a few shots I noticed one of my tripod feet was gone. While I retraced my steps trying to find the missing foot I lost track of the harlequin. This was a shame because I ran into another birder who had come looking for it. I let him know that I had just been photographing it but I was not sure where it had gone to. Since the bird was gone I decided to head home with frozen fingers and short one tripod foot.

Great Horned Owl

Between the Sax Zim Winter Birding Festival and the flue I have gotten a bit behind in my posting. I took these shots of the great horned owls nest in Lakeville, MN on Valentines Day, the day before I left for the festival.
The female was still on the nest but it is very possible that she may be tending to young now instead of eggs. I first photographed her on the nest on February 2nd and got word that she was on the nest before that. Since great horned owl eggs incubate in 30 to 35 days they have either hatched or will be hatching very soon. I know that the owl was still on the nest this weekend because Sharon Stiteler, AKA Birdchick, took a picture of the nest on Saturday.
The male was around on the 14th also. His job is to provide the female and young, once they have hatched, with food. Even though the nest is located in a quickly developing area there are enough fields around to provide adequate hunting grounds for this growing family. The typical fair is most likely rabbit or squirrel but can also include rodents, birds and skunks. Most birds, except vultures and some others, have a very poor sense of smell which is why the great horned owl is the skunks only serious predator.

An Eagle is Set Free

Last Thursday, February 28th, was a very special day. That was the day that I got to release the immature eagle, that Michelle and I rescued from Crex Meadows back in August, back into the wild. Michelle got off of work early that day and picked me up at work around 2:30 PM and then we headed over to The Raptor Center to pick up Terry Headley, who was our eagle handler and eagle 07-393. Birds at the clinic portion of The Raptor Center are given a designation when the arrive. The first number is the year in which the bird is brought into The Raptor Center and the second number is the chronological patient number for that year. So our eagle was the 393rd bird that checked into The Raptor Center in 2007.
Here is a shot that we took at The Raptor Center before we left. It is very fitting that Terry was our handler because she was volunteering in the clinic when we brought the eagle in. She remember him because of all of the mud he was covered in. She remembered that they had to wash him and blow dry his feathers before they could even do the exam.
You can see that he has a small cut near his eye. He got this while in the flight pens. When the birds are almost ready to be released they spend a lot of time working with the flight crews exercising and having their flight evaluated. When they are not working with the flight crews they are placed in the flight pens. These pens allow the birds some room so that they can fly between perches. There were several other eagles with 393 in the pen and another waiting. Since they were so crowded and he was getting rambunctious The Raptor Center was in a hurry to get him released.
The plan was to release him down in Colville Park in Red Wing, MN. This area has a lot of open water and a good food supply which would increase his chances of making it through the rest of the winter. It is about an hour and a half trip to Red Wing and it was an extremely interesting drive with a very vocal eagle in the seat next to me. The weather did not help as it had begun to lightly snow as we were making our way down. When we arrived there were several eagles around, including this immature which was on a deer carcass that the DNR had dropped for the eagles.
While Terry got out of the car with the eagle I was getting the photo stuff ready. Since I was going to be handling the release Michelle took most of the pictures that follow.
The most important part of the release is to make sure that you have a firm hold of the talons. These are the business end of the eagle and the most dangerous.

I remember how strong the talons were from when I rescued the bird. During the rescue I had to pry them from the cage door.
Changing from terry supporting the eagle to me was a bit tricky but once I had a hold it was fine.
Look at that look. "Hey aren't you the guy who dragged me out of the mud."
Here we are ready to go.
On the way down Terry had told us about other releases that she had done at Colville Park where the eagle had landed in the water and needed to be rescued again. So we stood a short way back from the river and on the count of three gave it a little toss.

A couple of people who read the blog braved the weather to come down and watch, John Mikes from weekend shooter, who took a pic of an immature eagle being attacked that we believe might have been why this bird was injured, and CAS. I would like to thank them both for coming down and thank John who took the picture below and has been gracious enough to let us use it.
The eagle did fly low over the water, which made my heart stop for a couple of seconds, but then he soared up and landed in a tree by the marina.
He sat there for a little bit so I grabbed the camera and headed down to get a couple of shots.
After checking things out for a bit he took of again and headed to where the other eagles were on the other side of the water.
The weather was getting worse and we needed to get Terry Back to The Raptor Center so we did not have a lot of time to celebrate. Holding the eagle was extremely cool but there is nothing like the feeling that I had when the eagle left my hands, opened its wing and reclaimed its freedom. It is a memory that I will always cherish and one that is even more special because with out Michelle and my intervention, as well as all the people who helped at Crex Meadows and the great staff and volunteers at The Raptor Center, I know that this eagle would probably not be alive.