Monday Phenology: March 26, 2012

Sorry this is a day late getting out. No podcast this week. Just the bare bones transcript. You can read along and imagine my voice in your head.


Nature's Week in Review

Monday I spotted my first American Kestrel of the year and the spring peepers were calling for the first time of the year as well. It started to rain in the evening. By morning I measured .33 inches in St. Paul by the fair grounds. I saw they got .9 inches downtown so there were widely variable rainfall totals.


Tuesday I discovered the Groundhogs are out. Unfortunately I only know this because I saw a freshly hit one twitching in death throes on the road. Not pretty. Wild Turkey's are displaying in fields.

Wednesday I saw first of the year Great Blue Heron, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and a Field Sparrow. I also spotted my first Brown Creeper. Elderberry were leafing out and I found one plant that was even starting to flower. There was a tiny trace of rain in the morning (0.02 inches.)

Thursday  morning there was an additional .04 inches of rain in the gauge and by the end of the day it was 0.27 inches. We just had a steady drizzle on and off all day. On the way home I saw my first Pied-billed Grebe of the year.

Friday at lunch I took a stroll down to the pond to listen to the Chorus, Wood Frogs and Spring Peepers and was astounded to hear the first of the year Northern Leopard Frog joining in. On a hike in the afternoon saw Red-tailed Hawk and Bald Eagles on nests. A pair of Sandhill Cranes seem to be staking out a spot to nest. First of the year Garter Snake on in the woods.

Saturday and Sunday continued our trend of beautiful weather. I spent the day prepping the garden (bizarre for March) and playing with my son at local parks. While working in the yard a bald eagle twice flew overhead and circled the neighborhood. I'm wondering if this bird is considering nesting at Lake Como. That would be very exciting. Minnesota Birdnerd saw a number of new bird arrivals on Sunday including Peregrine Falcon, Belted Kingfisher, Turkey Vulture, and Yellow-rumped (myrtle) Warbler.

What to watch for this week:
Early tree species are leafing out such as buckthorn and boxelder. Be careful if you are pulling buckthorn this time of year as young black cherry trees look similar and are also early to leaf out. Watch for painted lady butterflies and the return of tree swallows as well. 

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Muskrat Lunch

One of the first Muskrats out in the early spring of 2012 in Minnesota. I went out to record frogs at lunch and this little guy demanded to be photographed instead. Western Chorus frogs are singing in the background and the camera also recorded the call of the first Northern Leopard Frog of the season as well. If you know your calls you might be able to pick it out of the background noise. This is early for Muskrats to be out and early for Chorus Frogs as well. It is freakishly early for Leopard Frogs. This is a very strange spring. Though it almost looks like it has been sped up, this is normal speed. Muskrats use a very fast gnawing motion to eat.

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Hummingbirds are on their way

With our warm weather you may be wondering when ruby-throated hummingbirds will arrive in the twin cities. They aren't quite here yet but we can see via this fantastic map from hummingbirds.net that they are as far north as Missouri as of yesterday. They appear to be three to four weeks ahead of schedule. At this rate I'm guessing we could see them by April 1st, maybe sooner.

~Kirk

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Monday Phenology: March 19, 2012

The sun rose this morning at 7:17 AM and set at 7:25 PM which means we've passed the equilux and there is now more daylight than darkness. Today we got 12 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds of sunlight and we're getting a little over three minutes more each day.What can I say, I love spring and this year it seems to be about two to as much as three weeks ahead of schedule. There's only one word for that. Fantastic.

Here's nature's week in review:

Monday I took a hike and was treated to phenological delights. Spring was coming on and there were signs everywhere. The snow was melting like mad and gopher mounds in the prairie were a muddy mess. Birds were singing and calling like I haven't heard in a long time. Blue Jays were doing near constant territorial calls. I saw American Robins, Eastern Bluebirds, Northern Cardinals, and Red-winged Blackbirds. I saw and heard geese migrating overhead as well as sandhill cranes and Killdeer. There was a barred owl calling in the woods. The crows were very vocal and I even heard a Common Raven. It was a lot of fun just to be outside. We fired up the Maple Syrup evaporator for the first time of the year and started to boil down the little sap we've collected from the trees.

Tuesday was beautiful. I had my window wide open all day. I could hear Common Ravens all day long and at one point got to watch four of them flying in pairs in a thermal while they called. A red-shouldred hawk flew up to join them in flight. Raptors were migrating all day long. I saw multiple bald eagles as well as red-tailed hawks. I watched a red-bellied woodpecker working on a next cavity and we boiled up more maple syrup. At the end of the day I was able to savor my first sip of 2012 syrup and it was fantastic. I saw on one of the listserves that someone saw an eastern meadowlark in Minneapolis. That's the first report I've seen. Started to hear multiple reports of both wood and deer ticks!

Wednesday I took a day off from work to go birding with my mom. I've made a deal with myself to go birding more this year at places other then my work and I'm planning to take some PTO to make that happen. Our first stop was the Bass ponds in Bloomington. There was virtually nothing in the ponds themselves but waterfowl was present out on long meadow lake. Unfortunately when we were there in the morning the sun was back lighting all of the birds which made ID more difficult. Still we raked in a good number of birds. We saw:

Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Wood Duck
Mallard 
Canvasback 
Redhead 
Ring-necked Duck 
Lesser Scaup 
Bufflehead 
Bald Eagle 
American Coot 
Killdeer
gull sp. 
Downy Woodpecker
American Crow 
Black-capped Chickadee 
American Robin 
Fox Sparrow (Red) 
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird 

After an hour we packed up the scope and headed down to Cannon Falls to Lake Byllesby. I had never been there before and it was tricky to find a spot to actually view the birds. We did see a pretty good list though.

Greater White-fronted Goose 
Snow Goose 
Canada Goose 
Gadwall 
American Wigeon 
Mallard 
Northern Shoveler 
Northern Pintail 
Canvasback 
Ring-necked Duck 
Lesser Scaup 
Common Merganser 
Bald Eagle 
Red-tailed Hawk
Killdeer 
Horned Lark 
Eastern Bluebird 

Combined with a few odd birds I saw here and there that was 30 different species of birds for the day and 15 of them were new for the year. I was hoping to see Cackling Geese and Ross's Geese as well but the views were not good enough to tell for sure.

Thursday was colder which seemed to put a damper on migration. There was virtually no sap running in the sugar bush and any prospects for a sap run were disappearing. We emptied maybe 5 gallons of sap out of 50 trees. Not very impressive. All told this season we've collected only 6% of our usual harvest. Stock up on Maple Syrup while you can. The price is about to jump. We're essentially looking at a total crop failure at this point.

Friday was gorgeous again and I saw first of the year Fox Sparrow hanging out under the feeders at work. He was accompanied by the first eastern chipmunk I've seen as well.

Saturday I taught Maple Syruping classes and for the first time in my decade long career teaching about the process I did so in shorts and a t-shirt. Some of the Maple Trees had already started to bloom. Needless to say the trees were not running. I was, however, delighted to hear the first of the year Eastern Phoebe immediately upon opening my car door in the morning. I was decidedly less enthusiastic about the first deer tick I found on my leg at the end of the day. Western Chorus Frogs were calling enthusiastically.

Sunday I drove around my neighborhood a bit to check out what was happening with the onslaught of spring. I headed down to Lake Como to look for waterfowl and enjoy a Belgian waffle. There's really no finer way to start the day. I was surprised to find there was absolutely no trace of ice on Como. When I left the nature center on Saturday the ice on area lakes all looked black and rotten but it still covered something like 98% of the surface. The ice seemed to disappear overnight. I also stopped in at Lake Josephine and McCarrons and they were completely ice free as well.

The Week Ahead:
Stop by your local pond to listen for western chorus frogs. They sound like someone running their fingernail down a comb. They should also be joined this week by Wood Frogs, which sound like a bunch of funny ducks quacking and spring peepers that simply let out a deafening peep quite disproportionate to their size. Watch for all kinds of plant activity this week as well. Lawns will green up substantially, magnolias will bloom and many garden plants will be peeking up from the soil.

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Time lapse of raven stripping fur off a coyote for nesting material

A time lapse video I generated from hundreds of images taken over several days by a motion activated trail camera. The video shows a Common Raven stripping fur off of a dead coyote so it can use the material to line a nest. Images were captured in Northern Washington County, in Minnesota. The video is especially interesting as Common Raven are generally not thought to nest this far south. Special thanks to Paul who set the camera up at the end of last week.  

~Kirk

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Look who's out and about for spring!

This wonderful warm weather has all kinds of animals out and about looking for food, setting up territories and getting frisky.

This Eastern Chipmunk came out of hiding from his underground den and spent most of the day gathering food under the bird feeders at work.

~Kirk

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Monday Phenology: March 12, 2012

Time for my rant about Daylight Saving Time. It doesn't save anything. All it does is shift everything earlier so it feels like the sun stays up later. If you have little kids it is awful as you have to convince them to go to bed at 8:00 at night even though their body tells them it is only 7:00. You then have to wake them up at what their body tells them is 5:00 am. This is a no win situation. Now the little extra light at the end of the day is kinda nice but come summer it is ridiculous when the sun is still up at 10:00 pm. Maybe down south it isn't such a big deal but I tell you up here in Minnesota we're half way to the North pole at the 45th parallel. It feels like the sun never sets in the summer. That's great f you love the sun, and you know I do, but getting the aforementioned preschooler to go to bed at 8:00 when the sun won't set for another two hours requires some form of demonic magic.

Speaking of the sun! Here's your stats. The sun rose this morning at 7:30 AM (6:30 in reality) and set again at 7:15 PM (6:15 in reality) That gave us 11 hours 45 minutes and 42 seconds of sunlight. We're gaining over three minutes a day now. Astute readers/listeners will no doubt remember that it was exactly 14 days ago that we crossed into an 11 hour day. We're now very close to 12 hours of daylight which is of course the equilux. Wait, wha? The Equilux? For those of you that learned that the Equinox is the day of equal light and darkness I'm afraid you were mislead. The day of equal day and night is the equilux. The equinox is actually the day the earth's axis is tinted neither toward nor away from the sun. The equilux will be March 17th this year while the equinox will not be until March 20th. 

Here's your week in review:

Monday it was cold out but chickadees were singing with more enthusiasm. It may be my imagination but they seemed to be more ardent about actually setting up territory. I counted at least 20 trumpeter swans in a farm field near work. I'd seen as many as a dozen all winter but this was a larger number. I had to wonder if some migratory birds might have joined them? Jim Fitzpatrick, the director down at Carpenter Nature Center at the southern end of Washington County sent me a note to say that the Blue Jays were doing their territorial "pump handle" call. Someone at Birds and Beers in the evening told me he'd seen canvasback.
Tuesday Birdchick reported robins, cardinals, house finches & red-winged blackbirds singing territory songs at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary in St. Paul. I heard woodpeckers doing territorial drumming in the woods at work and when we went out to tap all of our maple trees we heard the first Red-shouldered Hawk of the year calling as it soared overhead. We tend to hear them every year when we go out to tap. In the morning my son spotted Canada Geese flying overhead as we got into the car. They started to honk as they flew north. I was surprised to realize they were the first ones of the year I'd seen. White-breasted nuthatches were doing their nasal whe, whe, whe territory call as well.

Wednesday on the way to work I pulled off the road to take in the beauty of the first Eastern Bluebird of the year sitting on a telephone wire. I had gotten reports earlier in the year of a flock of bluebirds hanging out in the forest near work but this was a male that seemed to be on territory. Was it a bird that stayed or a migrant? No way to know. There were also a couple of migrating groups of Canada Geese flying overhead. When I arrived at work the American Robins in the woods were tentatively singing their spring song. It wasn't loud and full force yet but it was a start. A barred owl showed up outside the classroom window at work and was still hanging around when I left at the end of the day. I was able to get some nice shots with my new camera. There was a report on one of the list serves that an American Woodcock was singing on the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota just after the sun set. Go woodcock! Jim Fitzpatrick, the director down at Carpenter Nature Center reported that a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds had shown up down there.

Thursday I was surprised when I let the dog out and opened the door to a beautiful light snow. It coated the ice covered ground and made for a delightfully slippery morning. I taught a weather class which seemed appropriate.

Saturday the day began with a new year bird. A male and female pair of House Finches were at my bird feeders. The house finch was bird number 52 for me this year. It is funny it took this long to see one. They aren't exactly rare. I think it is because I decided to stop using cheap bird food in my feeders. I pretty much only use black oil sunflower seeds now because so much millet was just being wasted on the ground. I recently put out some hulled sunflower seeds and the finches were able to eat those so they finally came around. Elizabeth in Hugo sent me an email about a Northern Harrier and Blackbirds near her home.

Sunday morning was so beautiful I fired up the moped and cruised around Lake Como. There were some small spots of open water near the shore but I only saw Canada Geese. Elizabeth in Hugo heard Sandhill Cranes and Killdeer as well. Migration is really picking up. I haven't heard either of these yet but expect to soon.

What to expect this week:

Migration and warm weather. This is going to be an incredible week. The forecasted LOW temperature for the week is 43°. Large numbers of early migrants will be coming though. There have already been reports of large migrating flocks of snow geese, greater white fronted geese and Canada geese moving into the area and they will greatly increase in numbers during the week. Winds look to be coming generally out of the south all week which should help speed up migration even more. Watch for killdeer in open fields and listen for early woodcocks peenting in the evenings. Enjoy the Equilux on Saturday.

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Migration is ON in Minnesota!

Since it is only mid-week and the next Monday Phonology is still almost a week away I need to share all of the great observations coming in from around the state. The warm weather early in the week combined with winds out of the south are bringing migrating birds into the state. While at Birds and Beers on Monday night people shared reports of Canvasback and Killdeer migrating into the state. There are multiple reports of Red-winged Blackbirds in the state as well now. Birdchick even reported them singing at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary in St. Paul on Tuesday. That same day while tapping maple trees I heard the first Red-shouldered Hawk of the year. I saw Eastern Bluebirds on territory this morning on my commute to work and saw several flocks of migrating Canada Geese as well.

Checking the list-serves I see in the last two days people have also reported Cackling Geese, Ross's Geese, Greater White-fronted Geese, Snow Geese, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Bufflhead, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup, American Coot, American Kestrels, Belted Kingfisher, Rusty Blackbirds, Brown Headed Cowbirds, Eastern Meadowlarks, Western Meadowlarks and Song Sparrows all moving into the state!

Get ready for birds!

~Kirk

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This Barred Owl just landed out the window at work

 I would be great if owls could land 15 feet outside the classroom window every time we teach!

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Monday Phenology, March 5th 2012

We're gaining sunlight fast and furious now. The sun came up this Monday morning at 6:43 AM and set at 6:06 PM. We've gained almost a half hour of sunlight since last Monday! Every day this week will have three minutes more sunlight than the day before.  Go ahead and snow, I don't care. There's NO way it can last with this much sunlight. On Wednesday the sun will for the first time reach 40° high in the sky and creep a little higher each day. That will be more than 10° higher than on the same date last month.

Nature's week in review

Last Monday we got 11 hours of sunlight for the first time since October 15th.

Tuesday we started out with a few flakes and they quickly died off. The giant snowstorm predicted didn't materialize in the twin cities but they had white-out conditions up on the north shore of Superior. At 3am Wednesday morning I awoke to the sound of frozen rain drops hitting the roof.

Wednesday I still made it to work. Why is that any surprise? Some people didn't. There was some very light freezing rain and about 4 inches of heavy snow in some spots but the plows did a wonderful job of clearing it all away. That is what the plows are for. When did Minnesotans become so wimpy? We used to get snow measured in feet and shrug it off. Now we get a couple of inches of snow and they cancel school. It boggles the mind. We've become Seattle only that isn't fair to Seattle. They don't have plows there to handle the snow so it is understandable when they close down the city for snow. We have plows, we're prepared for this. On a cheerful note, my new lens arrived for my camera and there was a large flock of Horned Larks on the way home so I got a little practice with it. I still need more practice.

Thursday the warm-up began and snow melted like mad. Snow fleas were once again out on top of the snow. I wasn't sure in last weeks podcast how to classify snow fleas (springtails). I was fairly sure they were not technically insects. It turns out they are hexapods, so they have six legs but they are not insects. They are a type of arthropod as I had suspected. The warmer weather also melted the last of the snow on top of my rain gauge and I was able to get an official reading on the amount of precipitation for the Tuesday/Wednesday storm. The Twin Cities Naturalist official gauge recorded 1.65 inches of precipitation. Generally snow is 10x rainfall so if all that precip had fallen as snow we would have been looking at little less than a foot and a half of snow. I'm happy we were south of the snow line on this one. The four inches or so we got was plenty. We tapped the first maple tree at work and it was indeed dripping sap. I'm getting excited for maple syrup season.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday I had were just a blur of non-phenologically related errands so nothing to report.

The week ahead:

I mentioned this last week as well but be on the lookout for the first of the season American Kestrels. We usually start seeing reports as early as this week and with our milder winter it would not surprise me to see them soon. While not widespread, we'll probably see a few reports of red-winged blackbirds singing on territory this week. Don't expect them in large numbers yet but early arrivals will start to show up soon.

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