Breeding Birds

Today I decided to do some work on my breeding bird atlas project. I scoped out the northeast section by car. I stopped at four places. I saw rock doves, tree swallows, barn swallows (see above, courtesy of flicker), brown headed cowbirds, sedge wren, red winged blackbird, pileated woodpecker, mourning dove, a sharp shinned hawk, and red bellied woodpecker. I went to the bridge where the Rum River flows beneath County Road 7. I thought swallows might be nesting under there but couldn't see very well from shore. I wasn't able to confirm any species breeding. I wished I had a kayak so I could travel down stream and look some more. I went home and documented what I saw. What next? I said to myself in an Eeyore voice, "I suppose I might as well go and get some groceries." Somebody knocked at the door. Offspring #2 was here. "Want to do something?" I asked. Before he could change his mind I had the paddles and life jackets ready to go and we were hoisting that canoe on his car. We put in about the 16900 block and upstream we went. We canoed north to the Rum River Central Park before floating back down. There were barn swallows nesting under that bridge. Wooo Hoo! Barn swallows confirmed on the nest. I also confirmed Canadian geese when we saw a momma hiding her gosling behind some weeds as we paddled by. We saw only one turtle - a painted splashing off a log. We heard green frogs playing their loose banjo strings at each other. I love the shape of the silver maples that line the river bank. They form graceful arches over the water. Today was a great day for canoeing. I wish I could go canoeing as often as I get groceries.

Flowers In The Garden

Miles on the Motorcycle

I've put 250 miles on the motorcycle in the past two days. I had a couple of places to go on Friday. The weather was so perfect I just had to use the bike. Today I met a friend in Hugo and we drove northeast along the St. Croix. We took that awesome road (Washington County Road 4) into Marine on the St. Croix. We went north to Taylors Falls before crossing into Wisconsin. We continued north of St. Croix Falls about 5 miles when my friend turned into this very strange place. I had no idea where she was going. The driveway was gravel and there were two stone gargoyles on the posts by the road. We passed grapevines and approached a huge stone square fortress looking building with a flat roof. Outside there was a huge fountain with a woman's figure and other statues all around. Inside the first thing I saw was a suit of armor. Turned out this place is a winery. They sell wines and wine accessories plus paintings. Also for sale was an ice cold can of Diet Pepsi - sweet, fruity with a hint of citrus. That sure hit the spot because I was cooking in my black jacket in this heat. I can unzip the zipper a few inches and air enters the jackets forcing it to balloon outward and cool me off. That works great until you have to stop - then you're instantly hot again. We got back on the bikes motoring across the Wisconsin countryside. There is a lot of up and down action in the St. Croix river valley. I love going up and down hills but my absolute favorite is curvy hills. I saw four turkey vultures circling overhead. I can tell they're turkey vultures because they float on the air without flapping their wings and tip side to side once in a while. When I compared my arm span to a bird, I came out to the size of a turkey vulture (or an osprey) so I feel an affinity to them now. We saw lots of things today on our beautiful ride. The strangest thing I saw was just a few miles from my home. A strip mall on Hwy. 47 has several businesses - a sports bar/restaurant, a Subway, a vet, a karate studio, a chiropracter, a beauty salon and a dentist. Out in front of this strip mall was a man wearing a costume. He looked like a big, mustard yellow triangle. I thought he was a bad tooth at first. Then I thought he was one of the Subway slices of cheese - they always come in triangles. The yellow triange held a sign that told me different. It read, "One Free Cream Cheese Wonton." A walking wonton - that was a first for me.

Plant Identification Class

Last night I went to a plant identification class at Arcola Mill. Boy, am I glad I went! The class was free of charge plus they had giant cookies there. I had driven from Northfield. Because of construction on Hwy 494 I had no time to stop for dinner or even buy gas so that cookie really hit the spot. Arcola Mills is a lovely retreat used for education, art, and spirituality. They have many acres and a lot of shoreline on the St. Croix. We had three tour leaders. I went with a woman who is a botanist and a forest ecologist. Like all great teachers, she had a lot of enthusiasm. She would get all worked up about a fern. One of her goal was to teach us five ferns. We saw interrupted fern (the stem is interrupted), ostrich fern (tall, showy and majestic), lady fern (lacy and with hairy legs-she must not have shaved), bulblet fern (has bulblets underneath), and maiden fern (on black stems). She showed us all the silver maples in the flood plain; the hillside trees of basswood, ironwood, pin oak, and sugar maple; and the upland oak forest. The St. Croix valley has many springs and seep areas. We saw watercress and ferns and other wet and cool loving plants. The property is positively gorgeous. Sometimes I felt like I was on a movie set and Robin Hood would peek out from behind a tree. We walked up steep hills and looked down many deep ravines while listening to the scarlet tanagers sing. I thought I heard an ovenbird in there. We saw a giant chunk of "Hen of the Woods" mushroom also known as sheepshead or maitake. Several people asked if they could have it. This is a preserve so we weren't allowed to pick anything but invasive species. Volunteers on the site are working to eradicate the buckthorn. The poisoned, dead stalks of buckthorn held a wonderful surprise - a hummingbird nest located just three feet off the ground. Last night the moon was full, the weather was perfect, the mosquitoes were scarce, and I was with people in the woods who could answer all my questions. Circumstances just don't get any better than that.

Frogs in the Garden

Yesterday I cleaned out my pond. I have a plastic insert pond that is about 3 feet deep. The water was thick with slimy algae. Offspring #2 and I emptied it with buckets. I got down in there to empty the final amount of water with a soup can. I scooped out all the leaves, sticks, and swollen crab apples. Watery angleworms were everywhere in the muck. This was not a pleasant smelling task. I was standing in the pond finishing up when two frogs moved. One was a leopard frog and one was a green frog. Wow, did I jump! And scream! The frogs panicked at the sight of that. I decided there was enough room for all three of us and proceeded to work around them. When the pond was mostly clean, I left a stick propped so they could escape on their own time. I came back a couple hours later with a broom and a bleach/water mixture to scrub the green scum off the sides of the pond. Both frogs had escaped. After I emptied the pond of the bleach and water mix I refilled it. Today I worked on the garden to the east of the pond. I dug up all the perennials and arranged them so the garden appeared more organized. The daisies went in one spot, the black eyed Susans in another and the bluebells on the edge. While I'm working, the leopard frog appears. I keep working with my shovel, crowding the frog farther and farther from the pond. Eventually he jumps on my bare foot. Again with the jumping and screaming. I wish I could control that reaction - it's just a frog. Plop - he jumped back in the pond. I do not like the sight of a bloated dead frog floating in my pond. Every year I wedge a wide stick under the rocks and extending into the pond so frogs can climb aboard and escape. Lets hope he or she uses it.

Conference Day Three

Sunday was the last day of the conference. I got up early. I had a choice of either a bird hike or a mushroom hunt. I chose the mushroom hunt. Actually we didn't hunt. We sat and talked about mushrooms. The presenter was a quiet, short little lady with John Lennon glasses. She seemed so meek but once she started talking, my jaw dropped open. This lady was an EXPERT on mushrooms. She belongs to the St. Paul mushroom society. She is called in on cases of possible mushroom poisonings. She enjoys eating mushrooms but eating is not her main interest. I had to ask, "Why are you so interested in mushrooms?" She replied, "I enjoy taxonomy." Wow, she must really enjoy taxonomy. Some species can only be identified by their spores seen under a microscope. We had a good discussion and the hour just flew by. I know there are several safe species of mushrooms to eat but I don't think I would eat any unless someone looked at them for me first. At breakfast I bid on more silent auction items. I kinda went crazy. But the prices were so good! I couldn't help myself. We went to a class on prairie plant identification. Our last class of the day was on likable, lovable lichens. Lichens - that gray, green or orange stuff that grows on rocks and tree bark - is neither a plant or an animal. Lichens are a combination of fungus and algae and some include bacteria too. One person in the group loves lichens and learned about the many kinds found here in this state. Amazing how much there is to know about lichens. Before lunch I had to figure out how many items I won at the silent auction. I hoped I didn't win all that I bid on. (Off topic - my indigo bunting is back for the first time - he's so pretty!) I got a hand knitted hat very cheap. I got a wren house very cheap. I got a container of maple syrup for only $15. I got a shelf with cardinals on it for only $4. For $7 I got a trio of caterpillar photos in one frame. I got some birch sculptures for only $3. I took my bounty out to the car and paid my bill. I did go a little crazy on the silent auction but the prices were awesome. After lunch we intended to visit a tortoise farm near Granite Falls. We confused state highway 7 for a county road 7. Eventually we saw a sign that said South Dakota, 20 miles. Oh, oh, we knew we went the wrong way. We bought gas in Ortonville and headed straight east on home. What a great weekend. I can hardly wait for the convention next year. The learning was fun; the field trips were fun; but spending time with people with similar interests was the best part of all.

Convention Continued

After the organic dairy tour, our convention had dinner together. In a group of about two hundred, the organizer asked who the vegetarians were. I and one other person raised our hands. We had, by far, the better meal. Wow, it was delicious. Baked squash, peppers, onions and tomatoes in a layered pile with sauce and cheese - it was heavenly. The others had dry chicken, wild rice, green beans and rolls. After dinner we had a speaker who talked about Minnesota history while illustrating on rolls of paper tacked to the wall. He drew the head and shoulders of Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, Abraham Lincoln, Josiah Snelling, Dakota and Sioux men plus birds, the flour mills, and other points of interest. I had been up since 5 a.m. and was ready for bed after that. We stayed in Independence Hall - a dorm. I shared a room with one person and a bathroom with about 30 women. We had to wait turns for the shower. I am lucky in that I can sleep pretty well when I am exhausted but I am glad I don't have to live in a dorm 9 months of the year. In the morning we had a bird walk at 7. We didn't see much on campus - bluebirds, red winged blackbirds, grackle, brown headed cowbirds, meadowlark, mourning doves and chipping sparrows. The highlight was watching a pair of wood ducks fly in and land in a tree. After breakfast, my class was in photography. I have a little camera I bought a couple years ago before my trip to Africa. I never knew how much it could do until I took this class. I have a timer on my camera that I never found before. I can set it for 10 seconds or 2 seconds. I was told we should always use the timer when taking photos because you can avoid the blurriness that comes when you press down on the button. That makes sense. I have a "P" setting on my camera. I can adjust the flash, the exposure, the length of time the shutter is open, and the F-stop. I never knew any of that stuff. My head was spinning with information by the end of the class but I think my pictures will improve because of the knowledge I gained. After lunch we went on a field trip in a school bus. I don't go on school buses often but when I did, I used city school buses. Situations must be different in the country than in the city. Look at the warning sign posted on the bus. If you can't read it, it says, "No Sunflower Seeds On This Bus." Seriously, sunflower seeds are the biggest worry? We saw fields on the way. Some fields had darker richer soil and some had lighter soil. The darker soil is where soybeans grew last year and are now planted in corn. The lighter fields are where corn grew last year and are now planted in soybeans. Soybean roots have nodules that capture nitrogen and add it to the soil and improve the soil. On our field trip we went to a field - the Chippewa prairie. We were sent out on the prairie and given a list of plants to find. Each plant was marked with a numbered flag to make it easier on us. We had the option to try and identify the plants without using the answer key. Yeah, no. I could identify hoary puccoon and wild rose but did not know the other 20 species on the list. We had a lot of fun going from flag to flag and looking at the plants on the tall grass prairie. We were near a pond where a chorus frog was chirping away. We found a leopard frog in the grass and a skink under a rock. I saw a bobolink on the prairie - wow, that is a beautiful bird. Here is a photo I took of a wildflower called prairie smoke. Our bus took us to the Stevens County museum. Passengers collected woodticks and threw them out the window along the way. The museum is housed in a former Carnegie Library and the architecture has been restored and made handicap accessible - no easy feat. After the museum we went to the food coop in Morris. Our final stop was a US Fish and Wildlife plot. We went on an auto tour (in a bus) with a US Fish and Wildlife biologist who showed us the sights. The wind had been blowing strong all day. We had rain in the morning and cloudy skies until late afternoon. The wind was exhausting. After dinner we had another speaker who talked about Minnesota weather and global warming. I had signed up for a star gazing class from 9 to 10 p.m. but the skies were overcast and my eyes couldn't stay open anymore so I went to bed.