Woody Woodpecker and Paula Possum visit the hood

BY JOHN KARRIGAN

As I usually say in cold months, birding is slow, but there are some new and interesting sightings. A couple of good neighborhood birders saw a Piliated Woodpecker in the park the first two days in November. I didn’t see this one, but I did see one fly past the park a few years ago. The Piliated is our largest woodpecker, about 16.5 inches tall, black and white, with a big red crest, sort of the model for Woody Woodpecker. I have seen a few Downy Woodpeckers, a Hairy Woodpecker, the usual Dark-eyed Juncos, a few mystery sparrows, and one Robin (on Nov. 9). I saw an adult Cooper’s Hawk quietly sneaking out of the park on Nov. 16. It successfully avoided the Crows, which are now gathering in the park every afternoon by the hundreds, and some days maybe by the thousands, before they head north to wherever this year’s urban winter roosting location is.
On the water

The Pied-billed Grebes are gone, but the lone American Coot is still there, along with three dozen Ring-billed Gulls, three or four dozen Mallards and from 100 to a couple hundred Canada Geese on most days.

As David Allen Sibley, America’s preeminent birder, says, there are at least six recognizable populations of Canada Geese, extremely variable in size but all with similar habits. Our usual ones, the ones at the park all summer, are the “Common” subspecies, which is the largest group in size and numbers. On a couple of occasions in November, there was at least one pair of Cackling Geese on the lake. They are the smallest of Canada Goose subspecies at 25 inches long versus 45 inches long for the usual Common subspecies. I saw the Cackling Geese on Veterans’ Day and other very good observers saw them earlier in the month. Statistically, a very rare sighting for Powderhorn Park and this area. I believe some of the other November visitors are Lesser Canada Geese, about 36 inches long.

I also got a late report of a Ruddy Duck from October, an occasional Powderhorn migration visitor.

As regular park walkers would note, the ice skating warming house is back and the pump has been turned on to raise the water level for winter.

In the back yard
The usual fall regulars come to the back yard—Cardinals, Chickadees, Downy Woodpeckers, English Sparrows and, once in a while, Goldfinches (now non-gold) and Nuthatches, and one new special visitor. More about that later.
On the road

We made our annual Tundra Swan-watching and apple- and cheese-buying trip down and up the Mississippi on Nov. 14 and 15. Due to some habitat changes and restoration work, most of the Tundra Swans now gather on the Minnesota side of the river, south of Brownsville (on Hwy. 26) on what is known as Pool 8. I had no idea how many swans were there. I was going to say five or ten thousand. The official number according to the bird hotline is now estimated at 12,000 swans. At one point, late Saturday afternoon, there were at least a thousand in the air coming into Pool 8 from somewhere to the south where they had presumably been feeding. Besides the swans, the Pool 8 area included Pelicans, Canada Geese, Coots, at least six kinds of ducks, one Great Blue Heron and a large, but difficult to pin down, number of Bald Eagles plus a few deer. There is a brand new observation area overlooking the part of the river where habitat is being restored. The next day, we returned to Pool 8 and then went to the Wisconsin side of the river and returned to Minneapolis mostly on that side of the river. Reick’s Lake, a river backwater north of Alma, Wis., used to be Tundra Swan ground zero. This day it only contained two swans but there were two Great Egrets, a Pelican and various other waterfowl, plus we saw lots of hawks on the way back.

The Tundra Swans will be headed to Chesapeake Bay when winter finally arrives, but if things stay mild, they and most of the other birds will hang around for a while and most of the Eagles will stay somewhere in the area all winter.

Back to the back yard
Now for another one of my trademark big finales.
Raccoons are for the girly men and girly women of “prestigious West Powderhorn.” I now have a pet Possum, or Opossum. It is not really a pet but I think I could tame it. I talk to it regularly but I do not try to scare it to see if will “play possum.” It has been visiting since Nov. 2. The possum is nocturnal and the only marsupial (the female has a pouch) found north of Mexico. I don’t know yet if it has a pouch. Because most animals do not have good language skills, they like names with onomatopoeia or alliteration. I think its name is Paul or Paula or Patrick or Paulo (named after my Brazilian neighbor because they are both small and cute) Possum.

Opossum, or my preference, possum, is a southern or southeastern mammal that has been expanding its range north for 50 years.

Yes, they do “take” children, but only very small children. My forbearers (previously referred to as the now politically incorrect “hillbillies”) believed it was good to have their small children taken by possums and that they would come back as leprechauns and bring good fortune to the family.
I hope everyone has a good holiday season, whatever, if any, holiday you celebrate.

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