My final training ride for our Texas bike tour was snowed out over night. Depending upon one’s location in Minnesota, new snow totaled between 3 and 11 inches of snow. Combine the white stuff with a 25 mph wind, temperatures falling through the 20’s into the teens, and biking was a bust. Thus, I went birding!

If one finds the open water, one finds the birds. I birded a small steam with accompanying wetlands. It was a bird bonanza. Basset Creek as it flows out of Northwood Park in New Hope, Minnesota was full of birds. This morning I saw lots of juncos, redpolls, grackles, blackbirds, mallards, geese, hooded mergansers, wood ducks, great blue herons, and even a woodcock!

All these birds also attracted the attention of this juvenile red-tailed hawk which had vision of duck for breakfast. I was surprised that even when the hawk swooped down towards the stream, then ducks ignored the raptor.

Juvenile Red Tailed Hawk Hunting Ducks

Mr. and Mrs. Hooded Merganser

Goose Fight

Skies eventually cleared … Red Bellied Woodpecker