Andy's "Green Birding" 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...

It's been a while since my last post, but there has been some good activity in the area, despite not great riding conditions. There have been some good south winds here and there, and anytime they've been blowing from that direction, I've tried to pay attention to movement around the yard.  Shortly after my last post, a pair of Sandhill Cranes showed back up in the marsh, which was really great to see. This species makes such a wonderful, primordial sound which is fitting given that they are one of the oldest known species of extant bird. Fossil evidence dates them back at least 2.5 million years, and maybe even as far back as 10 million years. Pretty amazing. I'm wondering if this is the same pair that tried to nest last year back there, I hope so.  Some new waterfowl showed up too, including some new "yard birds" (birds I've never seen in the yard before). American Coot and a single Snow Goose mixed in with some Canada Geese flying overhead was a nice tr...

  March has certainly come in like a lion here lately. Whiplashing between blizzards and abnormal warmth, it's been an interesting run as of late to put it mildly. Birding had been pretty slow though and the mess from the blizzard made biking not terribly appealing, so I focused on the area around my yard and neighborhood. With the warmer temperatures post-blizzard, I had hopes of getting some short-distance migrants, especially Red-winged Blackbird, which has been a longtime first sign of spring for my family.  On Saturday it was windy, but warm, and I was itching for a walk. White-winged Crossbills had been popping up all over the place, and I was hoping maybe I could snag some. I hooked up the dogs and walked around the neighborhood. The melting snow and mud were full of great smells for them, and they had fun. We dodged meltwater and thawed rotten things along the road. Other than the usual suspects, not really a whole lot of birds on the first half of the walk. Then I hea...

  It's been a while! The temperatures have been really cold here through much of February - day after day below zero, which makes doing anything beyond yard birding pretty much a non-option. I did add Great Horned Owl and Golden-crowned Kinglet from the yard over the last several weeks, but not much else beyond that! I've been itching to get back on the bike.  Finally, temps got a little warmer and with forecasted highs in the 40s on Saturday, I locked myself in for a bike ride. My friend Caleb found a Northern Saw-whet Owl recently at a nearby park which was my main target. It would require a longer ride, but I was feeling highly motivated and wasn't going to let anything stop me from getting out! After a nice breakfast and warm drink I loaded up and hit the road.  Temperatures were around 25F to start and it was a beautiful sunny day. It felt so good to be out in it! With lengthening days, the local birds have really started singing too - Black-capped Chickadees, Northe...

The weekend rolled around at last, which I have been very much looking forward to - the weather forecast looked much more amenable to a nice bike ride - highs in mid-30s, which sure beats -21, which was our low earlier in the week. Unfortunately, once the weekend did get here, it wasn't quite as warm as promised, and it's been quite breezy. The plan was to ride over to nearby Cleary Lake Park to look for owls and a recently reported American Goshawk (!) that my friend Caleb found earlier this week. We'd meet there and try to find the bird again, along with owls, hopefully.  Well, four degrees at 9am this morning plus a little breeze did not excite me for a 25 mile ride through open agricultural land, so we shifted plans, and instead decided to meet at nearby O'Dowd Park, where I'd found some nice conifers and "whitewash" from a likely recent owl resident. A 15 minute or so walk back and forth was quite doable, even with a bit of a breeze.  Lovely bright, b...