Baby crows and cardinals arrive

The baby Crows and Cardinals that the back yard was lacking last month have arrived, but only briefly so far. And, so far, I have not seen any birds attacking other birds in the yard in July, as happened in June. Goldfinches have been coming to the Finch feeder regularly and a bunny has been spending a lot of time in various front and back yards on the block. One of my few Common Nighthawk sightings this year was over the yard on July 15. On the 18th, I saw a Double-crested Cormorant flying over and wondered if it had been to the lake. The next day, while I was talking to a nice couple of Powderhorn bird and park lovers, a Cormorant came in, circled the lake and landed. This is the first, and so far only, time I have seen one at Powderhorn in 2004. It spent most of its time under water, including one dive going from north to south past one end of the island, startling the usual ducks as it passed under them in shallow water.

Another first for this year, or any year as far as I know, was seeing a Spiny Softshell turtle (Western subspecies) on July 13. The turtle was medium size and much flatter and different looking than the usual Painted and Snapping Turtles at the lake. I had no idea what it was, but had my assistant (oh, wait, Southside Pride has not hired my assistant yet)— anyway, I found that there are nine kinds of turtles in Minnesota. This one matched perfectly with the description and picture of a Spiny Softshell, including what the description called a snorkel-like nose. The size matched the female (much larger than the male) in the description. I have no idea how it got there or if there is more than one, but if you see a turtle that looks more like a Frisbee with a long nose with a bulb at the end, you have seen a Spiny Softshell.

Small schools of Bullheads (4-8 inches long) are sometimes near the shore, but I have not seen the large, ball-shaped schools of very tiny Bullheads that I saw last year. I saw the resident Great Blue Heron catch and swallow a bullhead about 6 inches long.

I found a Black-crowned Night Heron once in July. As usual, it was very well hidden, and might be there all the time. A Spotted Sandpiper was on the lake July 18. I see that almost exactly two years ago (July 20, 2002) I spotted (a spotted?) shorebird on the island. Was it the same bird? Many shorebirds are now migrating back from very far north. In the last few days, 12 species at one location and 16 species at another were seen in far western Minnesota. Nine species were seen in eastern Minnesota, but, as usual, very few stop at Powderhorn. They just don’t know what they are missing. Or maybe they do know what they are missing. The lake has been various shades of green and sometimes quite foul smelling in July. The barley straw experiment does not seem to be working to clear the water.

The plantings around the shore seem good in some areas. In others, I don’t know if it’s plantings or weeds. But the various colorful flowers are attracting bees and at least three kinds of butterflies including Monarchs.

The ducks are generally doing well. The Canada Geese matured (young) or molted (adult) to flying condition and left in late July as they usually do. The numbers were down from nine to seven. We will have to wait and see if nine, seven or some other number return for their usual late fall stop.

Other park birds have been the usual Chipping Sparrows, English Sparrows, Robins, Goldfinches, Chimney Swifts, Cardinals, Eastern Kingbirds and Rock Doves.

The Powderhorn Garden Tour on July 17 was a great event. Many yards had ponds, fountains, bird baths or other “water features,” all sorts of flowers and plants, and great areas for sitting, entertaining, reading, bird watching or doing nothing. And, of course, friendly neighbors and neighborhood artists showing their work. The only downside was seeing more elm trees in the park and neighborhood marked for removal.

On a non-neighborhood note, today’s (July 28) Star Tribune had a great column in the Home and Garden section by Jim Williams about his trip to Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge near my hometown of Aberdeen, South Dakota. I wrote about Sand Lake this spring and hope to go there in a few days and find more worth writing about. One of the birds he featured and pictured was the Eared Grebe. A number of years ago, an Eared Grebe was on Powderhorn Lake the day of the May Day celebration. As far as I know, it did not like the celebration and has never returned. (True story.)

Last month I said I might write about two (one good and one bad) human behavior situations I had observed in the park. Some readers said they were going to hold me to this and I will do it next month, I promise.

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