National Get Outside Day

House Wren

I spent the day outside today.  My chapter of Master Naturalists had a bird hike in North St. Paul at the Southwood Nature Preserve.  We saw 29 species: goldfinch, great blue heron, red-winged blackbirds, oriole, robin, great egret, mourning dove, crow, cowbird, song sparrow, common yellow-throat, chickadee, blue jay, mallard, catbird, red eyed vireo, phoebe, house wren, cardinal, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, great crested flycatcher, tree swallow, broad wing hawk, chipping sparrow, Canada geese, wood duck, bluebird, and red bellied woodpecker.  It was fun to see the place where three members of our group spend a lot of time and energy.  One woman monitors the bluebird houses there. She took us to one house and held the three baby bluebirds in her hands for us to see.  There was an unhatched egg in there too which was a real pretty blue color.  In the next bluebird house, she intended to show us the coral eggs of a house wren.  When she opened it up, one of the eggs had hatched.  She had looked at the nest yesterday and none were hatched so this was a bird who was very new to the world. We looked at the helpless, featherless creature in her hand and said, "Welcome to the world."  It's photo was taken by two cell phones. Poor thing - it probably felt like it was probed by aliens.  After lunch we went to the St. Paul brick yards to look for fossils.  We were shown around by people who have been there many times before and who know some of the history.  We saw an old kiln.  These brickyards made almost all the bricks used in buildings in St. Paul and Minneapolis up until WWII.  We saw some caves that were gated so no one would get injured and sue the city.  We saw another cave that they said goes on for 100 yards and comes out at another location.  I was tempted to go through it but it was a low cave and I would have had to crawl through it.  I just wasn't dressed to crawl through a sandy cave.  Plus I would want a headlamp.  I found a rock with a fossil right away which wasn't good because I had to carry that dang rock around for the next two hours.  I ended up taking 3 small rocks home.  My companions had so many rocks that multiple trips to the car were required. One of my friends put her rocks in the pockets of her sweater.  With each fossil found, her sweater grew lower and lower.  I told her once the pockets got below her knees I was cutting her off.  I'd rather look for birds than fossils but Lilydale is such a pretty area that I still had a good time.