Andy's Green Big Year

After a long time thinking about it, I finally decided to ride my bike into work this week - and what better day to do that than Earth Day! The weather forecast was really nice so I locked myself in mentally and set the alarm for 04:30. I wanted to start early to 1) Try to get displaying American Woodcock and 2) Get into work a t a reasonable hour - it was going to be at least a 2-hour ride, each way.  I managed to leave the house the next day just after 05:00. It rained a little bit in the evening previously, but not much. The wind was mostly calm, which was good. It was a pleasant ride to start. Not much traffic at all along the roads. Singing American Robins were all over, as were the calling Western Chorus Frogs in every little puddle, ditch, or pond. Always enjoyable to be out and about as the natural world wakes up.  It quickly became apparent however that I had left too late. Sunrise is much earlier now - around 06:14, and I grossly underestimated how long it would tak...

  Welcome Spring! Some bloodroot blooming in the woods.  It was a blustery week this week. Pretty much every day was windy, which made for some somewhat challenging bike rides. Nevertheless, spring is here, the birds are returning, and I managed to get out on the bike on both Saturdays since my last post. Nearby Spring Lake, which I've posted about before, had quite a few good birds reported on it by other birders - including Canvasback - so we headed out to hit it on Saturday the 12th. Winds were out of the south that day, however I wanted to check the southern half of the lake first, as last time I was there, that's where most of the ducks were. Riding into the wind was...challenging. And the south end of the lake didn't work out like I'd hoped. Other than a raft of American Coots and few Pied-billed Grebes, it was quiet.  Nothing but mudhens here We shook off the disappointment of the extra few "wasted" miles and headed to the park on the north side of the ...

  After what has seemed like forever, I took advantage of the first decent forecast in some time to finally get back out on the bike. As fun as it has been watching stuff arrive in the immediate vicinity of my yard, the fun of exploring new areas and covering some miles on the road and trail has been calling to me. My plan this time was to split the ride up into two separate trips, one to nearby Spring Lake for loons, waterfowl, etc., and one to the nearby Louisville Swamp unit of Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge for both waterbirds (hopefully Tundra Swan) and songbirds, and maybe even a first American Woodcock? It was a bit cool to start early on, but a nice day overall. So great to get out and ride under blue skies and sunshine. In order to avoid more busy roads, I took a route through farmland and woodlots, even though it was a little bit of a longer ride. I got an American Kestrel right away, which was good. I'm yet to get one from my yard, but there is lots of good op...