Reports from at Home and Away (1 Viewer)

[marianna]

I have just a little update on the eagles in La Crescent, Minn.....my daughter called a short while ago to tell me that yesterday she counted....95 bald eagles!!!......in a smallish ice-covered 'bay' off the Mississippi....there is still ice in some of the inlets off the river, while the main river is now ice free.

I can't imagine that many eagles all in one spot! She said they were lined up 5 across in one tree....and nearly shoulder to shoulder standing on the ice. Also soaring over the highway frequently. The locals are saying this is an unusually large number of eagles congregating on the river this spring.

Apparently they are eating fish with happy abandon!
And providing great enjoyment for all who stop to feast their bird-lovin' eyes.

 

[snowyowl]

While this has nothing directly to do with birds I would like to share something from yesterday.
Yesterday was one of those wrecked days for me - dentist in mid-morning, a physio appointment messing up the afternoon, however, since there was a gap between the two, and I live too far from town to go home, I decided to do a little urban/ semi-urban birding. I didn't see anything terribly exciting, just one Iceland Gull mixed in with a bunch of Herring Gulls and Great black-backed Gulls.
While I was driving up one road that runs between the hosital grounds and the river, I saw movement beside the river. My first thought was dog, then coyotte but in fact it was a jet black fox, something I had never seen before. I've seen lots with black or gray on them but this one was an honest black except for the last four inches of her brush, which was white. I watched through binoculars for a few minutes, even though I didn't really need binos, it was only about 50 yards away. After a little while, I happened to glance around and was surprised to see another fox on the other side of the road, this one a more normal red colour (although on closer examination, it had black ears).
Another car came along and the red fox left walking off up a side road. The black fox continued to hunt along the side of the river until I lost sight of it.
There was a time when foxes were farmed extensively here - "The fox is king!" was slogan at that time but eventually the fur market crashed, around 1930, I think, and many fur farmers could no longer afford to feed their animals so they opened the cages and let them go. the result is that both Red and Artic Foxes were loose and cross bred until today it's common here to see varied coloured foxes. I had just never seen an all black one before.
Sorry to ramble on, but I found it exciting to see and just wanted to share.

 

[amasara]

Nice time passer - a black fox! What is a physio appt? I know the dentist one - my husband is one - wish I could get him to work on me!! Haven't seen our red/grey fox for a long time (did see one road killed 6 mos ago) but there must be more...

 

[snowyowl]

Nice time passer - a black fox! What is a physio appt? I know the dentist one - my husband is one - wish I could get him to work on me!! Haven't seen our red/grey fox for a long time (did see one road killed 6 mos ago) but there must be more...

Physiotherapy, I'm sure you've been through those in the past year.

 

[amasara]

as in physical threapy - I get it - funny how we change words from place to place.

 

[Celeste]

I enjoyed your story Dan. I have yet to see a fox on my place. Its a pretty wild area, and I know red fox are around. Maybe their population is down with all the building they are doing in my town. I heard on the radio today that the frog, snake and turtle populations are way down due to expansion. Something else that interested me-the winter has been so long and cold we have not heard the "spring peepers"(tree frogs) yet. Sorry for the rambling.

 

[marianna]

Boy, you sure stirred a longing in me to hear the spring peepers in "my" pond, Celeste! I always call each of my two daughters and have them listen over the MILES to "our" first peepers of the year! They are always properly thrilled. Ha!

However, almost two weeks ago I heard the peepers down at Muscatatuck Wildlife Refuge on a Monday morning. Love 'em! That's about 120 miles south of where I live....and they are usually about two weeks ahead of me with spring awakenings. So I will have my ears listening in the next couple of days....it is supposed to be warm and rainy tonight and tomorrow morning....maybe....?

 

[snowyowl]

Boy, you sure stirred a longing in me to hear the spring peepers in "my" pond, Celeste! I always call each of my two daughters and have them listen over the MILES to "our" first peepers of the year! They are always properly thrilled. Ha!

However, almost two weeks ago I heard the peepers down at Muscatatuck Wildlife Refuge on a Monday morning. Love 'em! That's about 120 miles south of where I live....and they are usually about two weeks ahead of me with spring awakenings. So I will have my ears listening in the next couple of days....it is supposed to be warm and rainy tonight and tomorrow morning....maybe....?

Spring Peepers? What a thought! We've still got 18" - 24" of crusted snow on the ground. I've started cutting next winter's firewood and I am walking around and working on top of the crust then have to throw the wood down onto a blown out path so that I can move it by wheel-barrow. The path is so narrow that I can't turn the wheel barrow , it's strictly either go in frontwards and back out or back in and go out forwards.
It's hard to believe that this is the first day of Spring.

 

[marianna]

So sorry, Dan!! )

The first spring my daughter lived in Sackville, N.B., she nearly cried when she heard Indiana peepers over the phone! It was much as you described today at that time, too!

Now she lives in Minnesota, and things are not quite as far behind spring-wise as she got used to in New Brunswick. There is still ice on some of the inlets of the Mississippi, however, so there are still lots of eagles about to catch fish.

 

[amasara]

What contrasts we live in - n.Ohio had 10" snow Tues -which one of my daughters is still dealing with - while the other two are gathering their clans in N.ville TN and all is abloom!! BUT - they are currently under a Tornado watch!! We have buds here in s.Ohio but no peepers yet - I'll know when my old cat goes out to his "hole" (drainage ditch) and sits for hours hoping to "gig" one!!

 

[amasara]

puddle ducks

testing - trying to attach a photo

 

[amasara]

Practice makes perfect? This is a copper crane I found for $9.99 at our local Big Lots - looks like a work of art to me!!

 

[amasara]

Seamore and friend/Ocean City , MD

and try again -- can't get copper crane (too big) trying an old one of a friendly seagull we met once.

 

[marianna]

Oh!!! The spring peepers are in full chorus tonight in the pond below my house! Hooray! I called both my daughters (one in Minnesota, the other in southern Indiana) to listen over the phone!

The windows are open, the peepers are peepin' and life is good! )

 

[amasara]

My peepers are "singing" too - the old cat has taken up his post at the "pond" - hoping to gig a few!

 

[snowyowl]

When I went to the barn this morning, I saw a flash of movement in the next field over. I went back to get my binos and was able to watch a coyotte hunting the field. He/she was heading towards the road when I first saw it but then doubled back towards the rivier and the woods. I watched for about ten minutes before it finally disappeared. I was surprised because it's only a week or so back that I saw fox in the same field. Usually the coyottes squeeze the foxes out.

 

[amasara]

I heard Ellen DeGeneres (comedian) telling her tale of trying to rescue a "dog" on the interstate only to hear a passer-by yell "that's a coyote lady" to which she shut her car door quickly!!

 

[snowyowl]

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to East Point. Three of us are going and are target bird is the King Eider. It's very much a long shot but they are sometimes seen in the ice leads at this time of year. Even if we bomb out on the King eiders, there is a good chance at getting something interesting. This is the location where we got the Dickcissel last year and the Swainson's Hawk the year before.
East Point, as the name implies, is the most easterly point of the Island. It marks the meeting of Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The waters are almost always turbulent and it's always cold and windy. It points directly at Cape Breton and to the north there isn't much until you hit Labrador. It is definitely my favourite spot for birding.
This will mark my first series outing of the year. Depending on ice and weather conditions, it could be great or it could be a total bust. The forecast is for cloudy and very mild, about 13 C, the warmest day so far this year. I'll post our results, good or bad.

 

[snowyowl]

Tuesday afternoon got home to find a voice mail telling me that a Glossy Ibis had been sighted near East Point. Even though we had a trip to there palnned for the next day, I left immediately for the point. I'm delighted to say that I saw the bird in exactly the place that had been described. It's always great to get a new lifer. While I was there I took a quick look out from the Point. There wasn't much going on , only Great Cormorants flying by and six Long-tailed Ducks out between the ice flows. There were several seals up on the flows. I had left home so quickly that I forgot gloves so I didn't stay more than a few minutes.
I went back yesterday with my small group of birders (and gloves). That whole end of the Island was fogged in. We did see the Ibis again, sort of appearing and disappearing in the fog.
We headed back to a clearer area. My count for the day was 31 species, which considering fog and ice, I thought was not bad. Among the species seen were Bald Eagle, Red-breasted and Common Mergansers, Common Goldeneye, Ring-necked Ducks, Greater Scaup, Belted Kingfisher and Great Blue Heron.

 

[amasara]

Sounds like a great trip - enticing me even more to trek your way in the fall! The only avian species I saw this past weekend were some pitiful ducklings being over handled by kids at an Easter Brunch. I tried to talk my son-in-law into rescuing them for his kids to put in their creek! No luck! Hate to think of their outcome!