Slow time in Powderhorn

BY JOHN KARRIGAN

Photo by Rachel Bennett Longtime Powderhorn Park neighborhood resident, activist and poet, Mildred F. Miller, celebrated her 90th birthday recently at a party held at the Powderhorn community center. Over 100 family, friends and neighbors paid tribute to Mildred with song and speeches, and they donated over $1,500 to her favorite cause, Doctors Without Borders. Photo: Taimie (left), Mildred's water aerobics instructor and fellow nonagenarian, greets Mildred.

On most of my January and February park walks, I have seen zero birds. On my last walk, I heard crows to the east and west, but saw no birds of any kind in the park. I have again received good owl reports but still haven’t seen any myself, and the walking, in my opinion, is still quite treacherous with combinations of smooth slick ice and jagged sharp ice.

One great thing I saw in the park was Mildred Miller, a Powderhorn legend, at her very well attended and interesting 90th birthday party at the park building on Feb. 13. Happy Birthday, Mildred!

Away from the park, I saw a Northern Flicker in a next-door neighbor’s tree on Jan. 14. I had heard it before that, but I have not seen or heard it since.
I saw seven Mallard ducks checking out, but not stopping, above the park on Jan. 23, one of the few nice days. A couple days later, I found a small group of Common Canada Geese eating spilled grain near the grain elevator and railroad tracks on 35th Street and Hiawatha Avenue. A park neighbor reports that the geese are there regularly.

Not too far from the area, I saw a Red-tailed Hawk on a lightpost on 35W near the U of M. Also, not far away, the very nice letter to the editor in the February Southside Pride reported Eastern Bluebirds around Sibley Park. Maybe these are the proverbial Bluebirds of Happiness and Bluebirds and many other birds will return to Powderhorn soon.

Northern Flicker

Back to the neighborhood—I again had an occasion to take an injured bird to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Roseville. On Jan. 28, after dark, we found an English Sparrow wandering around on the backyard patio, apparently unable to fly. I boxed it up with my usual small animal rescue kit (gloves and a box or bag) and took it inside. (It was too late to go the rehab center that evening.) It turned out it could fly. When I was putting food and water into the small box, the bird escaped and knocked over a few things in the basement but I recaptured it quite easily. The next morning, we (the sparrow and me) went to the rehab center. I gave them a donation, as they always nicely request and richly deserve, and they took Spunky, the sparrow under their wing, so to speak.

They thought the problem was head trauma, which is what I thought when I could see no injuries on the bird’s body. It seemed to be recovering, but now it might be getting worse. I am hoping to have better luck than I had with the young crow a few years ago. The Crow had a broken wing, which the center successfully operated on, but the Crow died unexpectedly shortly after the operation. That same year, my neighbors took an injured female Mallard to the rehab center. Although it took the duck several months to recover, it did recover and we (with a trained bird-releasing person) released it along with another rehabbed duck on Black Dog Lake on a cold but nice winter day.

There have been very few backyard birds besides English Sparrows. I have not seen any Juncos for some time. There are some Pigeons and I hear and see Goldfinches, Chickadees and Cardinals, but not very regularly. Both the Chickadees and Cardinals have started their spring songs.

I had occasion to make a short trip to Aurora, Ill., in February. On the way, I saw birds I was hoping to see: Red-tailed Hawks and Wild Turkeys. I also saw birds I wasn’t expecting: a mature and an immature Bald Eagle. Bald Eagles need open water for fishing, and it turns out there was all kinds of open water, from tiny streams to large rivers in Wisconsin. In northern Illinois, there were not only open rivers, but minor flooding was occurring—quite a difference from our current weather and river conditions. Hopefully there will be a lot more local birds to report next month.

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