Doing aerial waterfowl surveys is hard work. It’s a lot like shorebird identification, you can’t just rely on colors, it’s more general size, shape and impression–that’s right giss birding! I’m told that the hard part for many on these surveys is not getting motion sick in the plane. I can’t imagine being motion sick and [ Read More ]
I was planning on Monday being a busy day: wake up and meet the pilot and fellow counter at the small airport at 7am, count ducks for 2 hours, tweak an article due that day, take our new Kia in to our mechanic for the final approval, edit photos, have all my lines memorized because [ Read More ]
So, once a week throughout the fall I will be going up in a plane to do aerial waterfowl surveys for the National Park Service. It is equal parts fun and frustration. For one thing, ring-necked ducks look very snazzy in profile, but from above, they’re very dull looking and hard to id from scaup, [ Read More ]
Saturday I had to go put in a ranger appearance at an event at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary for an open house they were holding. It’s a great little park that still needs some work, but as more people hang out there, cool things will be found. This park has such interesting features–a closed up [ Read More ]
I’m in the process of trying to film some videos and in the midst of bird walks, banding, counting ducks, so there’s been a lull in blogging. Hopefully, I’ll have some video snippets up tonight–or at least a photo of a purple finch! Meanwhile, if you are not faint of heart, check out this link [ Read More ]
I had a fun ranger assignment today. We periodically use heron decoys for some of our birding programs at the park. We have two, but one went missing and a new one was purchased. However, when the ranger went to purchase a new great blue heron, all that was in stock was a sandhill crane. [ Read More ]
Blackpoll warbler chips outside my bathroom window. I look through the screen. It chips and flies away as if to say, “You just got served!” I did? I got served. Holy crap, is it on? According to Mike McDowell’s blog, it’s on. Fall migration has totally hit and from looking online, some of the hottest [ Read More ]
Watch out! It’s the world’s angriest indigo bunting! Last weekend’s MN Bioblitz was great fun–if you don’t know, a Bioblitz is an event where people try to document as many living species in a 24 hour period as they can: birds, fish, mammals, insects, plants, fungus, reptile–everything that is alive. I was sorry that I [ Read More ]
We have a new activity we’re offering this summer at the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area called Ranger River Walks. We meet at different parts of our park and show whoever is there around. There’s an asterisk next to the list of parks that denotes if it’s a specific birding ranger walk, but if [ Read More ]
This year’s Minnesota Bioblitz is at my National Park (The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area) in the Crosby Farm Park area. The Bioblitz is a 24-hour survey where the public can help scientists find different plants and animals. The event is coordinated by the University of Minnesota Bell Museum of Natural History, is free [ Read More ]
