New birds, a new season & loss

by JOHN KARRIGAN

The ice went out on April 16 this year, which is a little later than normal, and the weather, as I say on many Aprils lately, has been stranger than normal.
Even before the ice went out, the usual water birds, Canada Geese, Mallards, Wood Ducks and Ring-billed Gulls and two species of visiting ducks, Buffleheads and Scamp, were on the open water areas.

The day the ice went out, two other types of ducks, Blue-winged Teal and Northern Shovelers, along with Pied-billed Grebes and one Coot, arrived. A pair of Scamp have remained on the lake since then, with the other visiting water birds making random stops. Also on ice- out day, an Osprey flew over the lake, but did not stop. A Great Blue Heron has made a few stops before and after ice out, but has not been regular and no other members of the Heron family or other shore birds have stopped or passed by that I know of.

The pair of Cooper’s Hawks are usually around and are nesting in the southwest areas of the park. I have, along with various other people, seen them mating, so there should be young hawks again this year.

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are excavating a tree cavity nest in the southeast corner of the park. That should provide interesting baby bird watching in a few weeks.

White-breasted Nuthatches and Brown Creepers have been active on some days and nowhere to be seen on more days, along with Song Sparrows and a few Chipping Sparrows. I think the Eastern Phoebes are also nesting in the southeast part of the park as they have in the past. The only Warblers I have seen so far have been a few Yellow-rumps, and I have not seen any Kingbirds or Flickers in the park. There was a Golden-crowned Kinglet on April 20, but none of the usually more common Ruby-crown Kinglets. A Red-winged Blackbird made a two-day stop, as happened a few years ago, but apparently would rather be where there are hundreds or thousands of Red-wings than be the only one in the park.

I have seen Mourning Cloak butterflies several times in the park and the yard in April.

Mourning Cloaks are the first butterflies you see because some of them, more or less, hibernate and make it through the winter.

Another non-bird item. There seem to be more bats than usual this year, including one that was five or six times larger than then the usual quite small Red bats. I don’t have any idea what kind it was. I did what may have been a successful bat rescue on April 21.

A group of young Hispanic boys had found a Red bat in the water, tangled in fishing line and seemingly almost dead, and they wanted my help to free it. I went home, assembled a bat rescue kit (scissors, gloves and a bag—about the same as a squirrel rescue kit) and returned to the park. We got the fishing line off, including some that was knotted around the bat’s neck, and put him (or her) in the crotch of a large tree, and left it alone. It seemed to be improving as it dried off. I warned the boys about rabies (as one Powderhorn bat had rabies a few years ago) and thanked them for their concern for wildlife; they thanked me for my help and the next day the bat was gone. At least I would like to think it was a success.

Fish Die-off Meeting

The Powderhorn Lake Information Meeting—Impacts of Brazilian Elodea—held on April 30, turned out OK, as far as Park Board-conducted meetings go.
Park Board and Department of Natural Resources staff explained the serious problems caused by the invasive (Brazilian Elodea) weed and that this was the first discovery of the plant in Minnesota. They wanted to stop it in its tracks before it become a statewide problem like Eurasian Milfoil. The herbicide used last fall was not supposed to kill fish or turtles, but something did kill fish and turtles. The experts think the die-off was winter weather conditions and possibly leaving the aerator turned off to help kill the unwanted plants. Fish will be restocked in May and hopefully there are enough turtles left of the four species to continue their populations. At least two Spiny Softshell Turtles were found dead when the ice melted. I don’t think there were more than a handful of them in the lake to start with and most turtles take at least four years to mature.
Anyway, time will tell if the plants were eradicated and how big an effect the fish die-off will have on birds and everything else.

The professionals said they would do a better job of communicating with the neighborhood in the future. I don’t think they could do a worse job. That’s my rant for this month.

***
The yard birds have not been too exciting so far this year, and if spring is really here there may be more arrivals in May. A Cooper’s Hawk and a Yellow-rumped Warbler passed through on April 29 and a White-throated Sparrow the next day. I believe the last Junco left to go north on April 20. There have been pairs of Mourning Doves, Cardinals, Downy Woodpeckers, Chickadees and White-breasted Nuthatches, along with the usual English Sparrows, Robins, Goldfinches and one Hermit Thrush. Rocky Raccoon returned at 2:50 a.m. on April 6 and I think he was back again about a week later to knock over and slightly damage the birdbath.

I could write in detail about the Salt Lake-Madison (Minnesota) Bird Weekend, April 26 and 27, but I probably will not.

It was the third time this year, twice in April, that I had to drive long distances in extreme white-out conditions. We got to the motel in Madison in one piece. The next morning there was about three and a half feet of snow out back and about five and a half in front.

I know this because the snow was to the top of the car. The car was not next to the drift, it was in the drift. The rear and one side were covered with snow and various parts of the lot and driveway were blocked by drifts or stuck vehicles. By the time we got out birding it was sunny, a little above freezing and the wind was only carrying away smaller children.

On the rural birding roads, you had a choice of almost getting stuck in the drifts or almost getting stuck in the mud between the drifts.

One road like that was enough. We found a paved road, watched cars being towed back onto it as we returned to the new plowed motel lot and watched birds in front of the motel. There were lots of good birds there, including Yellow-headed Blackbirds and quite rare Eurasian-collared Doves. The next day was quite a bit better. Even on the first day, people saw about 130 species, but I wasn’t ready for the driving adventures needed to see that many.

Epitaph

When the publisher of Southside Pride, Ed Felien, lost his brother and his father, he wrote about them in the paper. When Al Sicherman, a former columnist for the Star Tribune, lost his college-age son, he wrote about him in the paper, and does each year. I always thought I wanted to do the same. I lost my father in April, but I really don’t know what to say.

He was truly a member of the “Greatest Generation,” as fellow South Dakotan Tom Brokaw calls people of that era. He was married for 68 years, worked as a reporter and editor for the daily paper for 46 years, with a 4-year break for WWII, and lived for 99 and one-half years. The first 90-some years were quite good; the last few were not.

He had a fantastic range of experiences in war, peace and life in general.
He, and of course my mother (who will turn 95 this month), taught me to keep reading, listening and learning with an open mind, and to participate in my neighborhood community, government and the world, and to volunteer and give back. I could recount many fantastic stories about war, politics or other subjects, but this is supposed to be a bird column.

Thanks dad.

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