Red Wing Nature Notes

With the turn around in winter temperatures, I decided to head  for Frontenac State Park  Monday afternoon and the well groomed trails in the open prairie section of the park.  No sooner that I left my car at the park office, the sun went under the clouds.  This was somewhat disappointing as I was planning to check out the springs at the far east end of Frontenac pond and hopefully take some photos of possible bird activity.

As I approached the springs and open water, I jumped a flock of close to twenty mallards.  As soon as the mallards flew off, a flock of several robins made their grand entrance.  Robins not at the springs, could be heard singing in the trees nearby. Amidst the robin calls, I could detect an occasional bluebird call and eventually observed several in with the robins.  With the poor lighting conditions, I made a feeble attempt at trying to get some photos.  The results were less than satisfying.

With the clear skies and good sunlight, I decided to make another visit to the springs on Tuesday afternoon.  As I approached the desired area, numerous robins could be seen actively flitting around the open water. I skied into the area of the activity and tried to determine the angle for the best light conditions for my photo attempts.  Of course, all the birds flew off with my appearance.  After becoming situated behind some marsh grass, I waited for their return.

Thirty minutes later, there still were no birds and I was slowly getting the feeling that I blew this opportunity.  Eventually, I could hear and see robins perched in the top of a large cottonwood tree forty yards away.  One hour after arriving at the springs, a lone brave robin made it’s appearance about twenty feet away.

Within five minutes, I was surrounded by a couple dozen robins some within six feet.  It appeared that in addition to getting a drink, the birds were feeding upon invertebrates along the edge of the ice.  It was interesting that as I packed up my camera, daypack and put on my skis to head back, these birds were not the least bit concerned with my presence.

Tuesday morning amidst the fog and frost on the trees, I checked out eagle activity at Colvill Park.  Twenty eagles were counted including the one that posed for me in a tree adjacent to the parking lot.  The next couple months should provide some exciting eagle viewing at this wonderful location maintained by the city of Red Wing.  Don’t miss this great opportunity.

Those of you reading this might be interested to know that at 7 pm. on January 21st, the Minnesota Audubon Society is providing a great opportunity to learn about the increasing number of golden eagles that are being observed in southeast Minnesota ans southwest Wisconsin.  The event will be held at United Lutheran Church at 5th an Dakota in Red Wing.

I thought things were rough lately with the cold temperatures and two inches of solid ice on my driveway, until some recent observations of local wildlife trying to stay alive changed my perspective.  On my way into town the other morning, I noticed a sizeable flock of wild turkeys trying to work through the hard crust in an attempt to find something to eat.  Birds like pheasants and turkeys are dependant upon scratching and uncovering food on the ground.  With current snow and ice conditions, I am sure both species of birds are having great difficulty  getting enough to eat.

Upon further examination as I was stopped along the side of the highway, I noticed one creative and energetic turkey hanging on for dear life to a slender box elder branch eating seeds left over from last summer.

This past Sunday afternoon despite the minus 20 degree wind-chill, I put on a number of layers and headed out on the nearby Wacouta Bay on my cross country skis.  On my way to the upper end of the bay, I noticed a pair of coyotes travelling on the ice between a couple of small willow sandbars next to the main river.  As I skied closer to the coyotes, they eventually spotted my presence.  As they ran off in the other direction, I continued skiing and quickly came upon their fresh tracks in the snow.  At this point, I thought it might be more interesting  to follow their tracks in the direction from which they had appeared rather than chasing after them.

Soon after starting on their trail, I discovered where they had recently been bedded down on the south sunny side of a muskrat house well out of the effects of the cold northwest wind that was blowing.  As I continued back tracking the wily animals, I discovered they had been patrolling the edge of the ice on the river in search of sick or injured waterfowl.

Continuing to ski up river, I jumped numerous American mergansers that were resting on the open water and diving under the surface to feed on the abundance of gizzard shad that were available for the catching.  These ducks are sometimes called sawbills because of their serrated bills which are adapted for catching fish.  The silence of this remote part of the backwaters was periodically broken by their wing beats as a flock would fly overhead.  Another frequent sound was that of the clanking of huge sheets of ice moving swiftly downstream and smashing into the red and green navigational buoys marking the main channel of the river.

After a couple hundred yards of back tracking, I discovered that these two coyotes had just visited an active beaver lodge with the remote possibility of finding a tasty meal.  In the winter, it is quite easy to determine if a lodge is inhabited by looking for hoar-frost on the top of the structure.  The warm moist air from the breathing of the beaver rises and condenses on the cold sticks which their home is constructed.  More years ago that I care to admit, my father introduced me to the late Irv Benson who lived with his wife Tempest on a remote island on the Canadian side of Saganaga lake at the end of the Gunflint Trail.  Irv made a living running a winter beaver trap line over a large area in this part of the wilderness.  He was convinced that timber wolves were smart enough to follow his trail and check out these active lodges only to return in the spring and open water to prey upon the young kits as they were learning to swim.  On numerous winter trips that I led over the years with the Environmental Learning Center into the BWCA, we observed many times where timber wolves had walked on top of beaver lodges checking for evidence of activity.  I wonder if these two coyotes that I just observed will return in the spring for a possible meal of beaver kits?

Early yesterday morning as the sun was starting to appear over the bluff east of Colvill Park, I stopped in to check on eagle activity and numbers.  In addition to observing a dozen eagles, there were numerous mallards resting at the edge of the ice as misty clouds of steam were rising off the river.  With assistance from my binoculars, I noticed that like the mergansers these mallards were feasting upon the small shad in the river.  Evidently, wild creatures possessing the ability to adapt to the rigors of nature stand a much better chance at survival.  Maybe there is a message there for me and the two inches of ice on the driveway.

On December 27th, Kathy and I participated along with several other people in the Red Wing area Christmas Bird Count”.  This activity was the result of a considerable amount of hard work and planning by Laura Coble of Cannon Falls.  Laura is an avid birder, retired teacher and single handedly organized this fun and interesting event.  The first Audubon Christmas Bird Count in Minnesota was held in 1905 and Red Wing was one of the communities that was involved.  The Red Wing area participated off and on over the years with the last count being held in 1973.  Through Laura’s efforts, these counts started back up in 2007.

This count was conducted by eight different groups with each being assigned to a particular area within the larger Red Wing area.  Kathy, Al Larson of Lake City and I  were given the Frontenac area which included Frontenac State Park.  The count is conducted by travelling by car on various county and township roads with periodic stops along the way.  The species of birds observed along our morning route included: Wild Turkey, Red-Tailed Hawk, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Blue Jay, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, European Starling, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Cardinal, Purple Finch, House Finch and American Goldfinch.

In the afternoon, Kathy and I conducted a count based on observations in our backyard and feeding station.  The way this count works is that your count is based on the highest number of a certain species that you can see at one time.  Birds observed on the count included: Blue Jay, Dark-eyed Junco, Black-capped Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Tree Sparrow, Purple Finch, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Crow, Mourning Dove and Cedar Waxwing.

For those who have been following Nature Notes, our brave chipmunk decided that enough was enough.  He hasn’t been seen since the sloppy rain/snow mix on Christmas Day.

The last couple days I have tried my hand at ice fishing in the Mississippi backwaters near Wabasha.  To get to our fishing spot, we drove on highway 61 as it passes through Reads Landing.  The number of eagles and American mergansers taking advantage of the feeding opportunities in the open water at the lower end of Lake Pepin was incredible  If you happen to be travelling in that area in the next few days, please stop at one of the wayside viewing areas and enjoy this seasonal spectacle.