Finally, a “sort of good” bird day at the park

I finally had a “sort of” good bird day at the park. It really wasn’t all that good, just good compared to most this winter. On my last park walk before deadline, it was sunny and warm, there were Cardinals, Juncos and Chickadees all happily hopping in the snow in one small area of the pine grove, while many Crows were socializing, vocalizing and flying overhead. It was almost like those peaceful, cutesy greeting card-type pictures of all the animals around the pond. In real life, half the animals would eat the other half and then sit around the pond. In the Powderhorn Park version, the birds were not that predatory except the Crows might rob nests if they got the chance.

Speaking of predatory, at least two people saw a large bird grab a small bird and fly toward the park from the 3400 block of 11th Avenue early in February. These things really do happen fast and are very surprising. I would like to think I could have identified both birds, but maybe I could not have. The big bird was probably the Cooper’s Hawk that has been around the park on a few occasions, and, statistically speaking, the smaller bird could have been a Starling.

The only new yard bird in February was a Downy Woodpecker (on the 7th). I finally heard the Cardinal spring mating song on the 9th and a neighbor heard it on the 21st.

Highway birding has been picking up. A Red-tailed Hawk can often be found somewhere along Cedar Avenue between the Crosstown highway and the Minnesota River. My road trip this month was west bound to South Dakota and back. We took a more southerly route than usual, sometimes paralleling the Minnesota River on the way to South Dakota, and saw a lot of Ring-necked Pheasants and a fair number of hawks. Some I could identify as Red-tails and others were unidentifiable.

The trip, like the ones last year, was part of the ongoing situation of dealing with aging parents. And, like last year, I had a few chances to bird, which gave me a much-needed break from the continuing family concerns. I saw a Red-breasted Nuthatch and a Brown Creeper on the same tree at the same time, something that I used to see in Powderhorn in good years, and a flock of Cedar Waxwings. The Waxwings are pretty, subtly but brightly colored birds. I have never seen one in the neighborhood, but they are fairly common in parks and nature areas in the outer reaches of the metro area.

My best learning experience was finding a Rough-legged Hawk. It was in the middle of nowhere, not near a busy highway, and I was able to look at it from the front, side and back and see it flying. When I saw another on a power pole in Minnesota on the return trip, I knew right away what it was. The unidentified hawk I mentioned last month and some of the other hawks I have seen in the winter that were not Red-tails were probably Rough-legged Hawks. It’s amazing how much better you can see them when you are standing still rather than going by at 50 or 60 mph. I also saw several Kestrels (the smallest member of the Falcon family) on wires along the highway on the return trip. This seemed quite early in the year for them so I checked the record book and found I was not seeing things. A few stay, and some do return in late February. Maybe this means there will be an early spring and I will have lots of birds to write about next month.

In the meantime, I will fill up space with some information about spring birding trips. I have written about these three trips in the past so I probably should not repeat it, as so many of my loyal readers memorize my columns. The Salt Lake (that’s the Salt Lake in Western Minnesota) weekend is April 24 and 25. The Great River Birding Festival (on both sides of the Mississippi River around Lake Pepin) is May 14, 15 and 16 and the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds is May 21-23. All are great trips and relatively close to the Prestigious Powderhorn area.

Comments and observations are always welcome. Send them to me, in care of the Southside Pride. Thank you.