Powderhorn Bird Watch

Two months of fairly nice park walking weather has not helped me find any more park birds. In fact, I am finding fewer than the usually low winter numbers, and have about run out of other subjects with which to fill a winter column, but I will try.

There are always Crows in the park and usually I find at least one other kind of bird: Juncos, Chickadees, Starlings or Downy Woodpeckers. I did get one report from Powderhorn neighbors that their world-traveling expert birder friends heard a Screech Owl in or near the park while they (the birders) were visiting them in late December. I heard an owl around that time also, but was not able to identify it.
The back yard has been better for winter birding with the usual Cardinals, Chickadees, English Sparrows, Crows, Pigeons, and regular visits by Juncos and Goldfinches, two species that don’t visit some winters. I have not yet heard the male Cardinal spring mating song, which I sometimes hear in early or late January. However, there was a report on Jim Gilbert’s “Nature Notes” radio program of the spring “What Cheer” song at the end of December.

One recent late afternoon I heard what seemed to be a small dog barking. I traced it to high in a tree, where small dogs seldom go, and found a Crow making the sounds. I don’t know if the Crow had a very unusual voice or if it was imitating a small dog. The sound was nowhere near any Crow calls or rattles I have heard.
Something else to crow about: In the middle of January, a group of crows was passing over the yard in full noisy, harassing mode. They were harassing a large, mostly white bird. I would like to think it was a Snowy Owl, but I did not get a good enough look. It could have been a light-phase hawk. There are quite a few Snowy Owl reports this winter over much of the state, with several hanging out near the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

This is the 5th anniversary of the flying squirrel frequenting the back yard, but it has never returned as far as I know. I even put out special fifth anniversary treats, ungrateful little rodent! I do see plenty of regular squirrels and occasionally a rabbit.

Freeway birding is probably the best it’s ever been in the winter, with lots of Red-tailed Hawks, some Kestrels and a few Falcons on freeway lamp posts throughout the area, even downtown areas.

The Minnesota Ornithologists Union annual meeting and paper session in early December was interesting and educational, as usual, with many good presentations on birds and bird-related environmental issues. The highlight of the meeting was Minnesotan Jim Fitzpatrick’s talk and pictures on “Encounter with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.” Listening to him—you, or at least I—felt like people must have felt in Europe when explorers came back from the “new world,” or when Lewis and Clark returned from their travels to the western United States and told people of the wonders they found. I see no reason to disbelieve the information, and of course want it to be correct, but disbelievers continue to come forward, the latest in a January 24 Star Tribune editorial. The editorial writer states that the editorial “we” is rooting for a comeback also, but an ivory-billed expert, Jerome Jackson, called the sightings an exercise in “faith-based ornithology” and thinks the searchers were seeing Pileated Woodpeckers. A few casual observers could make this mistake, but the searchers were not casual observers. They were well educated in the various colors, size and other differences between Ivory-billed and Pileated Woodpeckers, and besides, some of them are from Minnesota, which makes them pure, true and above average. By the way, I saw a Pileated Woodpecker in Eagan in early December. I got good long looks at it and knew what it was; a beautiful bird, but no Ivory-billed.

On to other extinct or possibly extinct birds. Scientists recently found the only known complete skeleton of a Dodo bird on the Island of Mauritas. No live birds have been seen since 1663, so it is still pretty much a “dead as a Dodo bird” situation for Dodo birds.

Now to a relatively rare mammal. I was almost in on the Willmar cougar capture on January 31. Actually I was going to Willmar when I was passed by a Channel 9 TV crew. On my way back, the Channel 4 crew was headed west to Willmar. The cougar had already been captured before either crew arrived. The video was by amateur townspeople. The officials and police worked hard to get the cougar without hurting it. I tried and mostly succeeded in watching all the Minneapolis TV coverage of the event. One TV station (not 9 or 4) said the cat was going to be euthanized because they didn’t know what to do with it. This was troubling to me and seemed pretty dumb. It was just a cougar being a cougar. Fortunately they were wrong. The cat is going to an out-of-state sanctuary after first visiting an in-state sanctuary. I am pretty sure it is an escaped or released “pet” animal. I know there is at least one person near there with exotic animals, and as strange as it seems, there are people all over with “pets” they should not have. That is my rant for the month.

Precinct caucuses are coming up next month, on Tues., March 7. Please attend yours and voice your opinion on parks, youth, the environment, energy conservation, human rights, and extremely misguided and pointless wars.

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