Great observers have seen Blue Jays harass the Owl

BY JOHN KARRIGAN

Once again, breaking (or beaking) news. I was just getting started on my column today (May 2), late as usual, when the gardener of the house came running in with a report of an owl in the neighbor’s pine tree (which overhangs the yard). Two extremely noisy Blue Jays were harassing it. I saw the owl as it was flying away, but did not get a good look. But the gardener did, and she is certain it was a Long-eared Owl. A first in the neighborhood as far as I know. She reported that it had been sitting on a branch, very close to the trunk, about 30-feet high, looking right at her. With luck I will find it in the park or neighborhood soon, but I don’t have much luck finding owls in town.

She also spotted a Hermit Thrush in the yard on April 21, which I did get a good view of, and saw again on April 26. Hermit Thrushes make occasional spring appearances in the neighborhood.

Usually I start my column with park sightings, but since I started with the yard this time, I might as well continue. Rocky Raccoon came by again in the middle of the month, and in the middle of the night. I think he comes by quite often but I don’t always see him. Mourning Doves are regulars in the yard again after being rare visitors the last few years.

A White-throated Sparrow was in the yard at least one day late in the month. Usually I see them more often, and I see some in the park but not so far this year. The Goldfinches are regulars in the yard and have mostly returned to their bright colors. I usually would find Goldfinches in the park often, but again, not this year. One bird I have seen in the park and flying through the front yard in April is the Peregrine Falcon, but only on a couple of occasions.

In fact, on several days, I have seen absolutely no songbirds or small birds on my park walks, but over the course of the month I have found things to write about. The brushy shore area on the northwest part of the lake is sometimes occupied by three species of sparrows: Field, Tree and Song, with Song Sparrows being the most common there. A small flock of Chipping Sparrows has been on the hillside north of the lake and the grass north of that late in the month. Robins also frequent that area. The big surprise, again in the same area, has been Eastern Bluebirds, which I first saw on April 24, and last saw on May 1. They may still be there. Three years ago, I saw Bluebirds, for one day only (Earth Day) in the same part of the park. Thank you to the southwest Powderhorn neighbors who told me about the Bluebirds.

I have only seen one kind of warbler in the park, and in the state, so far—a Yellow-rumped. Maybe many more will be coming, or maybe they all passed by on strong south winds. Brown Creepers were in the park early in April and I have heard their relatives—Nuthatches—but not seen either lately.
A mature Cooper’s Hawk posed for me nicely on April 23 in the pine grove. I saw it or a similar one several other times, but this was the most outstanding view I had.

Now to the more water-related birds. I saw a Great Blue Heron flying over the neighborhood, well south of the park, on April 15, and saw one in the park on April 17, and several times since then. I believe the Heron is somewhat smaller than the usual “Alpha male” Heron that has been coming for years. Great Blue Herons can live more than 20 years. The usual Heron has been coming for a very long time, so it may have left for the big park in the sky.

A Great Egret flew directly over the lake late in the month but did not stop, and the other former lake regulars, Green Herons and Black-crowned Night Herons, have not been seen as far as I know.

A female Kingfisher stayed for a couple of days early in the month, and Ring-billed Gulls are on the lake quite often.

I think there are at least three Canada Goose nests on the island and goslings should be hatching any day now. I believe there are more Canada Geese, Mallards and Wood Ducks than usual this year and there will be many young before long. I saw one duckling, all by itself swimming near the island today (May 2). This is unusually early for ducks. It could be joined by siblings and a mother soon, or it could be another case of human idiocy, which I will go into further on in my writing. Other ducks that made brief stops at Powderhorn were Blue-winged Teal, Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Mergansers, all just passing through.

A good observer saw a Common Loon one Sunday morning. I didn’t see it but did see one on a Sunday morning last year. One American Coot sometimes spends a day at the lake. Pied-billed Grebes have been swimming and diving all month, sometimes more than a dozen of them, but now we are down to one or two, more or less what happens every spring. More colorful members of the Grebe family, Horned Grebes, spent at least two days on the lake late in April. Of course, they don’t really have horns (and neither do Horned Larks or Great Horned Owls) but they are very distinct looking and were swimming and diving near the shore and the fishing pier. There were three of them. Years ago, there were two, almost exactly the same time of year, but they never came close to shore and were very hard to see.

A good neighbor and park walker sent me an article from a recent New York Times about Canada Goose control in Central Park. The New York City parks department is using highly trained border collies to “humanely” discourage the geese. Among the reasons to hassle the geese, beside the usual goose poop issue, is that the geese chase away the ducks. That must be an East Coast problem; the geese here never chase anything but other geese, in my many observations, and so far numbers are quite reasonable. The Minneapolis-St. Paul airport is trying dogs for goose control this year also, along with various other methods. The Minneapolis Park Board method, when they do it, is to kill as many as they can when the geese are molting and cannot fly, one of various issues I have with the Park Board.

Mid-month, another good neighbor and park walker saw that the park department (here, not in NYC) had not turned off the pump that was lowering the lake level. He went to a lot of trouble (it was on a weekend) to find someone to turn off the pump before it burned out. Then he suggested that, since the Earth Day clean-up was coming soon, they leave the water level down—already way too low—so Earth Day volunteers could collect more trash along the water’s edge, finding a silver lining in the situation. They are pumping again—in, not out—but the water is still quite low. The aeration system has not been turned on this year for some reason, which I should try to determine.

On the brighter side, more than 200 trees are to be planted in the park on Arbor Day, Friday, May 11.

Now to my human idiocy rant that I promised earlier. On April 1, a Sunday, I saw a white duck on the lake. When I got close to it I could see it was not an albino or any kind of wild duck, but a domestic or “barnyard” duck. I wondered what the heck it was doing there and continued my walk. When I got around to the park building, I found a rooster—a basic red rooster, wandering around, scratching, pecking, being a rooster—and two open cat carriers, or in this case, duck and rooster carriers. There were feathers in the carriers. I concluded, with my great deductive abilities, that some thoughtless, uncaring idiot had dumped the duck and rooster in the park. I went home and tried to figure out what to do about it. I still haven’t figured that out. The Humane Society doesn’t answer their phone on Sundays—well, they do, but no matter what extension you try you can’t get a real person. Animal Control is unlisted; you have to call 311, which doesn’t answer on Sundays. On Mondays, they tell you that Animal Control does not do ducks or roosters. Anyway, after trying various things, I went back to the park that evening. The rooster and one carrier were gone, I assume together. I have no idea of the fate of the rooster, and the duck is still there. I assume the duck cannot fly and wouldn’t know where to fly to anyway. It seems to be doing fine for now. Whenever someone asks me about the duck, I give them a short version of this story and tell them they have won the contest and get to adopt the duck. No one has fallen for that yet, so you could still be the winner.

I am running out of room and time, so I will not say much about the spring migration of drug dealers through our streets and alleys, but I am using my binoculars and great powers of observation to get plate numbers and vehicle descriptions.
Hopefully, many more warblers, songbirds, herons and others will show up in May.
Comments and observations are always welcome. Send them to me, in care of the Southside Pride. Thank you.