Many toads, no humming birds

BY JOHN KARRIGAN

Last month I mentioned that it seemed to be a good year for toads, basic American Toads. After I finished the column on the last day of August, well after dark, I went for one of my fairly regular late night walks. The first thing I found was a medium-size toad in the back yard. As well as I can remember, this is the first toad I have found in the yard. Then I went to the park and found by far the most toads I had ever found there. I also found a couple of nice young men with a couple of nice dogs who were looking up the toads on one of their modern electronic devices. They agreed the toads were American Toads, which can be found everywhere in the state except in a tiny northwestern corner area (where Canadian toads can be found). There was another good toad night recently and there are probably a lot of good toad nights ahead. A relatively close good Powderhorn neighbor rescued a number of toads found when they (the neighbors, not the toads) were digging to put in a basement egress window. The toads, I found out while reading about them, dig burrows to below the frost line, which they of course use to survive the Minnesota winter.

Another creature that I mentioned I had not found in the yard this year was a Red Admiral butterfly. I found one early in the month and got it to sit on my finger. I was taking it inside to see the house but it left, not wanting to see the house.

Back to the park. Obviously the lake water level declined a lot in September. I believe it is easily the most shallow it has been all year. The tiny temporary sand and mud island in the northwest corner of the lake finally re-appeared late in September, to be used by the ducks, Canada Geese and Ring-billed Gulls. The Canada Geese and gull numbers are increasing as they do each fall. One of the mature and beautiful male Wood Ducks has returned from his normal up-north summer vacation with the boys. I expect the rest of the mature males will soon return, reunite with families, and get ready for migration.

I have been on a number of minor migrations myself in September (one north and one southeast) and may have missed various migrating song birds or shorebirds passing through Powderhorn. But I did see a few interesting things in the last couple of days (Sept. 27 and 28). On the 27th I saw a flock of at least 50 warblers which, I am fairly sure, were Nashville Warblers. They were very active and hard to see while trying to identify them. I saw one of the young Cooper’s Hawks make a pass at them but I think he or she was just practicing and wanted larger birds. The next day I saw both Eastern Phoebes and Eastern Kingbirds; both are birds that sometimes nest and raise young in Powderhorn but I don’t believe either species did this year. I also saw two immature Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. I have seen mature Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers; they sometimes come through in spring, but I had never seen the immature birds before.

A couple of other recent park sightings: One, a ferret. It was not migrating; it was on the end of a bright green leash. The other, a Norwegian rat (in other words, a common sewer rat). It was not migrating either; it was dead, the first dead or alive rat I have ever seen in the park.

On my last good toad night, I also saw a Black-crowned Night Heron.
So far, I have seen no migrating birds passing through the back yard and none of the backyard regulars have left. Once again, a no-Hummingbird year in the back yard, but the regulars are doing well. There is even a new juvenile Cardinal.
Other yard birds: I went on part of the Parade of Chicken Coops on Sept. 10. I didn’t even know about this event until I read about it in the well-respected Southside Pride. I had other commitments that day and could only go to three coops. One was on my block, one on the next block east, and one was a celebrity chicken coop a little way to the north. I hope I can go to more of them next year.

Comments and observations are always welcome. Send them to me, in care of Southside Pride. Thank you.