Today saw the long-awaited return of a familiar resident: the kingfisher. It was sitting above the stream that runs parallel to the 35E bridge, and flew upstream over the small marsh and into the patch of woods beside Sheperd Road. The backwater held some more returnees: startled by human presence, 3 male wood ducks took off from the flooded area.
With the Mississippi back-washing ever farther into the park, it was necessary to use the paved trail and cut through the woods, to gain access to the river paths.The potential owl nest cavity kept its secrets today, as no bird was visible in the opening. However, we did hear a barred owl calling from the direction of the evergreen stands. Given its faintness, I would guess it was in the grove closest to the covered bench that sits at the intersection of two paths. About halfway between the 35E bridge and the mouth of the MN River, one of the pileateds began calling and made an appearance. A response was heard, and it began to feed, but did so somewhat sporadically. At one point it sat poised upright on top of a limb, and seemed to be peering intently upward and in all directions, whether looking for food sources, nest sites, or predators it was hard to say. However, an immature eagle did make a brief foray over the river just then, and the woodpecker resumed its feeding. On the east end of the big lake, another immature eagle was flying over the ice, which was now occupied by only a few gulls and some crows. In the water, yesterdays bufflehead were joined by a ring-necked duck, but none of them were doing any diving. Their only entertainment was a brief solo by one of the red-winged blackbirds. It did NOT sound like spring out there today! Linda Whyte ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
