Monday in Linden Hills

I am on holiday and I am spending it close to home.   A good choice.  The afternoon weather has turned a bit overcast, but it doesn’t feel like heavy weather.  That’s almost a disappointment, actually.

I have the propensity to rally behind over-the-top weather.  If we’re experiencing a streak of snowy weather, I want more snow.   Heavy rain?  Why not some more?  Let’s go for a record.  Same for bitter cold, high winds, wild thunderstorms (a favorite), and dense fog.  Make it something to talk about.  That weather is best.

There’s something exciting about extremes.  In fact, other than stretches of heat, sunshine, and drought, I like extreme weather streaks.  And I only find heat and sunshine uninteresting because I lived in Tempe, Arizona, for ten years.  Droughts simply are not a good idea unless you live in a desert.

When I see the last bands of persistent heavy rain disappearing from a weather radar with only clear skies behind, I feel disappointed, almost a sense of loneliness.  So I hope for maybe just one more deluge before things calmer, more tepid days return.  Maybe some lightning and thunder, too.

Until then today has been nothing less than a decent one away from work.

Should I tell you about my walk in the woods?  Why not.

I notice from time to time deer tracks that appear to show a deer dragging a leg a little.  I have seen this before, not just recently, so I wonder if it is a way deer walk.  I doubt it.  More likely one of the deer is somewhat lame.  Although it is more common to see this dragging print in the snow.  Perhaps deer just get a little lazy and shuffle along like a bored kid impatiently trailing behind busy parents.

Not a warbler. It’s a cardinal.

The birds were out and so were the birders.  I chatted with two.  The first birder told me he was watching some sort of warbler.  I just nodded, pretending to know exactly what he was talking about.  He also corrected my owl identification.  I have been seeing — and hearing — barred owls, not great horned owls.  Although I do know for a fact that I have spotted great horned owls more than once in the woods and heard them in the back yard.

I took quite a few photos.  My camera works great!  But I need a tripod.  When on deep zoom, my ability to steady the camera doesn’t last long and with uncooperative birds that is proving to be a problem.  Still, I get a semi-decent picture from time to time.  As they say, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

Going down the trail I noticed some bright white stuff on the ground beneath a tree.  I got excited.  It looked like egg shells.  Here was my chance, I thought, to find a hidden nest and earn some birder bragging rights.  Surely above these broken fragments of egg shell there was something special.  The pieces looked large, like potato chips. But no nest.  It made no sense until I got closer and saw that my discovery was a torn up styrofoam cup.

Barred Owl

Nonetheless, I think my instincts and logic deserve a compliment.  It could have been what I thought it was.

The second birder I encountered had a camera bigger than some beer coolers I own.  He had a tripod out of simple necessity.  (Have you ever tried to hold a beer cooler steady?  It isn’t easy.)  He told me he was photographing some bird nesting in a hollow tree.  Instinctively he seemed to know that the species would be irrelevant to me.

I did show him a couple of my pictures, however, and he seemed to be more than polite about them.  Feeling smug and chatty, in the whispering birder sort of way, I also commented on the “morning” warblers I learned about from the other birder.   When I came home and looked them up in my bird guide, I discovered they are mourning warblers.  I suspect the guy with the giant camera wouldn’t have noticed my mistake.

I do have a Sibley Guide to birds.  It is great, however I can’t really carry that in my back pocket.  I am thinking of getting a field guide, but I’m not sure if I really have the patience to stop and look up a bird.  And none of the serious birders seem to have a guide stuck in a back pocket.   I don’t want to look like a dork.

I wonder if I should get a photojournalist’s vest instead.

I’m not sure how I will finish my holiday.  Perhaps I will find time to embark on my Big Ambition.  I should probably check in at the bar, however, and make sure nothing has changed.  And I do have a couple clients I want to call.  Strangely, I tend to like making calls on my days off.  Those calls seem so unworklike.  I like that.

Whatever it is, I have to decide soon.  The afternoon is running fast and I have a very acute obsession with time, recently, especially the lack of it.  That Big Ambition can wait no longer.  To make something of a high art reference, these are indeed the days of our lives.

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Crows, Owls, Woodpeckers, Turkeys, Loons, and More…

Good birding in the woods today.  Ubiquitous wrens, sparrows, robins and warblers are everywhere with another year of many, many cardinals throughout the woods, too.  Back in the rushes the red wing blackbirds are loud and clear.

There was a first today.  A turkey in the woods, walking in stride with a young deer following behind a pace or two.

Woodpeckers seem to be common this year, too, and they don’t easily spook.  Unusual.  I got fairly close to what might have been a yellow bellied woodpecker before it flew off into the woods.  The real treat was a large pileated woodpecker.  I got within two yards of the bird which was feeding on the ground.  I spooked it, but it didn’t go far; it just hopped up the trunk of a nearby tree seemingly unconcerned about me.

And a Great Horned Owl is back in the woods.

Often the best way to find birds is to hear them first.  A year ago I explained how to use a form of audio triangulation to locate owls.  But let me suggest an even better way.  Let the crows to the work.

Great Horned Owl

Crows don’t seem to care for owls and they make an enormous fuss when an owl is in the woods.  I thought I heard the soft hoots of an owl, but I couldn’t tell for certain because the owls were causing such a fracas.  That’s when I put two and two together…

Off the trail a bit a dozen or more owls where gathered in a tall tree and if my hunches were right, that’s where I would find the owl.  Sure enough, there he was.  Spotting an owl can be tough, especially when the trees leaf out, but you want to look for something about the size of a basketball perched on a branch.

If you’re lucky, as I was today, the owl will be very active and move about, spreading his wings and grooming.  This behavior surely is nothing but taunting behavior.  The crows hate it.  As long as the owl remains still, the crows remain relatively quiet.  As soon as the owl does so much as twitch, the crows lose it.

Crows are cowards.  They won’t get within 10 feet of the owl, but I can’t imagine the crows are much fun for the owl.

Today was double-lucky day.  The owl chose to fly to another tree while I was watching.  As he glided off the branch a string of noisy crows, like a string of tin cans tied to a car bumper, trailed behind.

Crows are fairly large birds, too, and it is amazing to watch the owl and these large crows move through the branches so easily.  Ducks are a little less skilled at flying through clutter.  I saw one more or less crash through low branches last year.  He appeared unhurt, even a bit smug about his less-than-graceful flight, so I figure it’s just what ducks do if they find themselves in the woods.

It is well known that crows are fairly intelligent birds.  Eventually a few of them got bored with the owl and flew off to find something else to harass, perhaps some road kill or something.

I took pictures of these birds with my phone.  Unfortunately they show nothing.  I really do need a better camera.

Out on the lake a pair of loons is back.  I didn’t notice the migrating loons this year though.  In recent years a group of a dozen or more loons would appear on the lake for a few days.  Not this year.  Or I missed them.  In the back of my mind I cannot help but think about that oil spill…

Thanks for wandering with me.  I am just killing time.  I am not sure what you’re doing, but you should be scrolling through this blog and finding better things to read.  Tell your friends and family what you find!

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Weekend Review

The Cast of All Creatures Great and Small

With a gusty cold wind still blowing steadily outside, it feels like a perfect night for hot chocolate, toast, and an episode or two of All Creatures Great and Small.  It has been a while since I looked to Siegfried Farnon for tips on smart and prosperous living and I’m guessing I am overdue.  And Sunday nights are good nights for taking stock in such things.

Frankly, that’s about all that I have for you anyway.  Uneventful weekends doesn’t make good blog content.

This was a quiet weekend.  Lovely, cold weather though.  And I did get for an early evening walk into the Roberts Bird Sanctuary where I heard and then eventually I spotted the Great Horned Owl that has been lurking there.  He was high in one of the cottonwoods.  Dusk was settling in so he wasn’t very easy to see, but when he called his body puffed and moved with each hoot.  It was fun to watch, but as I have mentioned in earlier posts, the bird sanctuary starts to get a bit spooky with druids, elves, and creepy men roaming about the woods.  So I moved on.

I guess I did get out for a short time with coworkers Friday night and then went to a party Saturday afternoon.  But that’s about it.  Of course I treated myself to lunch and a beer in Uptown today before going grocery shopping.  (Don’t shop on an empty stomach.)  But who wants to read about that?  I don’t even want to write about it.

So I’ll wrap up the weekend with All Creatures, a book or two (One Man’s Meat, E B White, I think), and that toast I mentioned.  You should scroll down this blog and find something better to read.

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A Break from Politics

Springtime Foilage

Watching reckless GOP obstinance ruin Minnesota is depressing.  So I am going to back away from it for a while and share a pleasant distraction.

I have been walking the neighborhood and watching Cold War-era science fiction as a means of escape.  You should try it, too.

(Watching Phantom from Space at the moment.  Great film, but lousy use of day-for-night photography and a space alien who runs like a pansy. )

Let’s start with some neighborhood updates:

First, the owl chick appears a few days away from fledging.  Still a lot of down, but it is maturing quickly.  I see only one young bird.  I thought there were, too, but I might have been seeing one of the parents in the nest.  The mature birds are magnificent and easily seen as they stand guard over the nest.

Bread and Pickle is open at the Lake Harriet bandshell.  Good burgers and sandwiches.  Modest but sufficient servings.  No gut busters.  Perfect, though, for taking the edge off of an hour watching Minnesota legislative proceedings on television.  No Coke machine yet at Bread and Pickle, but they’ll gladly serve an Arnold Palmer.

Flowering Trees, Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, MN

And the trees and shrubs are starting leaf out.  Even caught my first whiff of lilac today — although that happened near the old Faribault House in Mendota.  Lilac will be a good cover for the stench of what has become Minnesota GOP politics, by the way.

Oh, I should mention Tilia in Linden Hills, too.  I haven’t been there in a while.  Too many strange dreams.  I am convinced I have been sleepwalking and strolling in at closing time and ordering a beer, but it would be rather awkward to go in an ask if that is in fact the case.  So I’m hiding my cash when I go to sleep and checking my pockets in the morning for a Tilia charge receipt in my pocket.  If I found a Tilia receipt, that would be a good clue affirming my sleepwalking.  (I hope I dress right…or at least dress.)

But don’t let my little quirks and transgressions influence you, you should check out the good people and excellent food at Tilia.  If you stay late you might meet me!  (Finding their website is quite a challenge, by the way.  I have linked it here.)

So yes, back again…the state of politics in Minnesota really has me down.  A very, very sad state of affairs, indeed.  It is one of those things I never believed I would see.  Smart, progressive Minnesota held hostage by people who are anything but smart and progressive.  It is like an invasive species polluting your favorite lake.  In fact Koch, Zellers, and Michel et al have the sense and personality of bottom-feeding carp so the thought isn’t that far off the mark.  But it really is sad…it is like a once pristine water being polluted and you wonder if you’ll live long enough to see things set straight again.

That’s why I go for my walks.  The Roberts Bird Sanctuary is a good spot to put things in perspective.  In the trees are birds oblivious to it all …

Lake Harriet, West Shoreline, Linden Hills, Minneapolis.

(Although expect the GOP to propose raising money by selling special hunting permits to hunt Great Horned Owls any day now…that wouldn’t surprise me one bit, god forbid we pursue tax parity and fairness.  That’s crazy talk.  Little stunts like selling off state assets is what counts for smart politics in the whacky world of today’s conservatives.  Shooting owls can’t be too far fetched.  Damn owls are freeloading on the “job-creating” millionaires anyway.  Blast ’em!  And get the freeloading granny, too!)

…and in the adjoining Lakewood Cemetery are better Minnesotans who have passed to the Other Side believing their once-great state would be forever a strong leader in smart politics and civic pride.  We must look like a ring of Dante’s hell to them now.  Why do the worthy and the just have to suffer with the likes of our soi disant GOP leaders?  Heaven knows and isn’t giving up the answer.

Time to finish my movie, go for a walk, and hide my cash.  It feels like a sleep walking kind of a night.

Now scroll down and read a better post.  Tell your friends and family to do the same.

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Great Horned Owl

This about captures what I saw...

A little natural history for you tonight.

A Great Horned Owl is in a tree outback tonight.  I leave one of my bedroom windows open at night and I am glad I do.  The cold air is great for sleeping and occasionally you discover something nice in the city…like an owl.  I wonder what he could be calling for this time of the year.  It is a very nice sound, especially in the city.

This isn’t nesting season for owls, but I hope that hearing the owl outside now is a good omen for the coming year.  They usually nest in February or March.  The trees here have plenty of old squirrels nests and hollows for an owl.  Perhaps this owl will hang around and find this place suitable for settling down when the time comes.  Plenty of owl food around here, that’s for certain. 

When I was a kid we would find owl pellets scattered beneath a large dense spruce tree in our backyard.  They were very odd wads of mouse fur and skeletons about the size of a little boy’s thumb and looked as if the owl had sucked everything that wasn’t fur and bones and spit out the rest.  (He wasn’t spitting, we found out`.)  Great Horned Owls can eat 4,000 mice a year.  I don’t recall hearing that owl very often, but it was there.

I went outside tonight to see if I could get a look at the owl now that there are not any leaves on the tree.  He hooted hoo hoot hoo hoo on a pretty consistent interval, but when I got below his tree, the hooting stopped.  I thought I could hear some other clicking sounds again, but that might have been dry branches hitting each other in the wind. 

I did see the owl.  There is not much to report.  There is just enough overcast tonight to capture the ambient light of the city.   The owl was a dark silhouette that moved slightly once or twice.  Earlier this year the bird flew off when I was looking for him in the tree, and while I could not see the owl in the dark, I could hear it and that was an impressive sound.  I decided not to wait for the owl this time; I seemed to have disrupted his routine well enough as it is.  And I was getting cold.  So I came back inside, but haven’t yet heard the owl again.

I do hear a few ducks on the lake, however.  Shouldn’t they be heading for Louisiana?

Great Horned Owl

Bonus Entry: Owls

Great Horned Owl

 

A Great Horned Owl was in a tree outside my bedroom.  A treat!  I went outside to hear him better and that was well worth it.  The owl might have been twenty feet up in the tree and I could hear him very clearly.  He seemed to rehearse his call in a low, almost clucking, tone before hoo hoodoo hooo hoo.  The owl called every minute or so, maybe quicker intervals than that.   

Eventually he flew off, seemed to fly off mid-call.   I could not see the owl, but I could hear him fly.  He sounded big and he seemed to hoot with his wing beats.   

I waited a while to see if the owl might come back.  I really wanted to see it fly in the night sky.  And while I waited, I heard another owl down the block!  I have heard this owl before.  It has a higher pitched call and when I first heard the owl earlier in the year I determined that it likely is a Barred Owl.  It has a “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all” call.   (I keep my Sibley Guide to Birds nearby always.)   

It is a beautiful night.   

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