The chicks are starting to hatch at the Canosia State Wildlife Preserve rookery (and the mosquitoes and flies). Yesterday morning after visiting with my owls, I hiked into the rookery. Most of the nests are still being incubated, but a few have chicks. I’ll have to visit again in about seven days.
Family Portraits
A Flock of Chicks! (video link for email subscribers)
40 years ago while I was in graduate school and dating Molly (now my wife now of 37 years) she asked this outdoorsy guy who loved sports: “Would you want to attend a Broadway musical that was touring the country?”She was afraid I would not enjoy some “culture”. I naturally responded: “What musical”. Her answer was The King and I; Yul Brenner was making his last appearance and would die of lung cancer just five years later. I enthusiastically exclaimed: “Yes!”. Yul Brenner was the ultimate in terms of being both coll and macho. I loved attending the musical, and for some reason this morning as these two Great Blue Herons danced their love at the Canosia Wildlife Preserve, all I could think of was the song … Shall We Dance from The King and I!!!
I’m not sure I ever danced this well when courting Molly, but we had fun! Their dance also reminds me of Snoopy who Dances for Joy because its spring!
Here is the Great Blue Heron Dance!
Here is Yul Brenner … Shall We Dance! (video link for email subscribers)
A few more images from this morning at the Rookery including a pair of Trumpeter Swans
And some videos from my visit.
The Beaver Dam and Rookery (video link for email subscribers)
The Beaver! (video link for email subscribers)
Green-Winged Teal (video link for email subscribers)
Trumpeter Swans (video link for email subscribers)
As you can tell it is a fantastic place to visit, but requires a 2/3 mile hike to get to the best rookery … no trail, just wood ticks!
FYI … I have downgraded the image quality of these photographs a tiny bit for this post. There are so many photos I do not want the content to take eons to load.
Ever want to find a bird and animal hot spot? Find a nice pond without a manicured lawn around it. Here in northern Minnesota I know of quite a few beaver ponds, and sunrise this morning found me hiking into said pond via a snowmobile trail. Now realizing most of you may not have wilderness like me at your beck and call, then search out a golf course or cemetery with a pond. These small bodies of water generate lots of food which means nature on display. Here’s a few photographs from this morning’s excursion …
Green-Winged Teal (one of my favorite ducks … beautiful color)
Beaver! (what else would you expect at a beaver pond)
Osprey (with a Great Blue Heron flying in the background)
Porcupine (seen along my hike in … not at the pond)
And from a golf course pond yesterday afternoon …
Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers “a fighting”
Tree Swallows (love the metallic blue)
Finally … another owl image. I took this photograph yesterday morning. One key item to point out with wildlife photography, often less is more! While I could have zoomed in quite a bit more for a close-up of the siblings, it makes for a much more interesting and artistic image to have the full, rather unique tree bough in the photograph.