POWDERHORN BIRDWATCH The eagle has landed— sources say

BY JOHN KARRIGAN

A mature Bald Eagle flew over parts of the park and lake, landed in a tree, and stayed for a short while on the afternoon of October 30. And I did not see it.

That is the short version of the story. Here is my other version. A beautiful woman called and left me a message about the eagle that afternoon. As a dashing-looking famous writer, it is not unusual for women to call and try to lure me to the park, but in this case, it was not a ruse. By the time I got the message and got to the park, the bird was gone. But a neighbor from down the block was in the southeast tot lot with her two children (one, brand new) and had seen the eagle and had seen it spook the Canada Geese. A young family I didn’t know saw me with binoculars and told me about the eagle, but secondhand information was as close as I got that day. I was disappointed, but it was still a beautiful day to be in the park, one of the few nice days in quite a while. There were plenty of geese for the eagle to scare, probably about 200, the most I have ever seen there, along with Mallards, Ring-billed Gulls, and about six Coots, hundred of Crows, a House Finch, a Hairy Woodpecker, lots of Juncos, Tree Sparrows, Robins, plenty of dogs, and some neighbors I had not seen in a while.

The Juncos and possibly the Tree Sparrows will stay all winter. I saw Fox Sparrows in the park on the last day of October. Normally they would pass through the park and yard in early October and not stay long. This was my first and only sighting this fall. I saw Ruby-crowned Kinglets several times in late October; sometimes they stay until early November. Almost all the Wood Ducks are gone. There were at least three Pied-billed Grebes on the water mid-month, but they seem to be gone now.

Back to raptors in the park. For several days in a row around Oct. 20, I saw Coopers Hawks (I believe two) and a Peregrine Falcon, but I never saw both species on the same day.

The yard has not been very exciting lately; just cold, dull and gray like most everything else. A White-throated Sparrow made a brief stop (and a few stopped in the park at the end of September). Juncos sometimes join the English Sparrows, and a small flock of (now non-gold), Goldfinches visit the finch feeder. The regulars—Cardinals, Chickadees, Blue Jays and Pigeons—are still regular.
And now, back to Eagles again. Missing the Powderhorn Eagle will probably result in my continued decline and I will soon be seen mumbling about birds outside of seedy bars in the scrap yard district. Of course, years ago, when I lived on the near-north side I was often seen doing that anyway. Luckily, the day before the Powderhorn Eagle sighting, I had been in the Detroit Lakes area, visiting an aging relative (a nice old “coot” who traveled the world in his hot air balloon until well into his 70s). While there, I went to the Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge, where I saw a pair of mature Bald Eagles, then saw a young Eagle take a fish a few hundred feet away, and later saw another mature Eagle over the prairie. I also saw the usual Mallards and Canada Geese, a lot of Redhead Ducks, a fair number of Green-winged Teal and three Snipe in various mud flats and potholes, along with three deer standing on a hilltop silhouetted by the sun going down behind them.

I was not mauled by a bear in Colorado as I had speculated last month that I might be. In fact, I did not even see a bear, another disappointment in the dreary month of October. I did see a large herd of big horn sheep (very close), probably at least a thousand mule deer, a thousand pronghorn antelope, lots of prairie dogs, lots of white-tailed deer, and several hundred elk. These animals were not all in Colorado; some were in South Dakota, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota. I was not gored by elk either, as I also speculated, but I did see one small bull elk battle. It was not serious, just a couple of young bulls, sort of practicing. They did not have the heft or gravitas, as political commentators would say, of the magnificent very large, mature, older elk that control, or try to control, large harems.

I was not gored by a bison (or buffalo) either. But that was probably my best chance at being gored. On regular highways in Custer (SD) State Park, bison were grazing within a few feet of the road. On the park’s “nature loop,” which I took at dusk, descending into total darkness, they grazed singly, literally right at the edge of the road. (So would mule deer.) I would stop near some of them, open the car windows, turn off the engine and sometimes talk to them. (I know I am weird.) One could hear them breathing and chewing. When they stopped chewing and started staring at me, I would leave. I did the same thing with some of the mule deer—give them advice, such as not to stand in the middle of the road. When they got tired of my talking, they would slowly walk away. (I wasn’t worried about the deer charging.)

Also, on that loop, we heard a Barred Owl calling, probably from a mile away, and on a mountainous part of the loop, we startled a Great-horned Owl that apparently had been sitting on a guard rail until we came along.
A few years ago I was in Custer State Park in July and would listen to the prairie dogs, which make all kinds of noise late at night. Apparently they don’t make any noise in October.

This column should come out the day before the election. Last month, I asked people to vote thoughtfully and environmentally. I hope you and others follow this advice, or I really will be mumbling outside of a seedy bar soon.
Comments and observations are always welcome. Send them to me, in care of the Southside Pride. Thank you.