BY JOHN KARRIGAN
I will start this month with the item from last month about the very big goldfish school about which some people are wondering. I have seen several more goldfish schools in May but none as big as the one I saw in April.
Yes, the goldfish come from people throwing them in the lake. Probably very few are thrown into the lake but the lake provides the right conditions for them to greatly increase in numbers. There is no other way they (the goldfish) could get there. They are not native to any area anywhere near here. I also don’t think there is any way Snapping Turtles or Spiny Soft Shell Turtles get into the lake except by people dropping them off after ideas for having them as pets don’t work out, as well as the occasional domestic geese or ducks that rarely show up in the park. None of these fish, birds or animals showed up here in natural ways. If any large turtles or other odd creatures came into Minneapolis looking for a home, it would be noted. The boxes of baby kittens rarely but sometimes found in the park did not arrive here naturally either.
So much for this odd subject, but I did see a Great Blue Heron catch and eat a moderate-sized goldfish a few days ago. Often this is a long process depending on the size of the fish and the bird but this one was a very fast downing of a goldfish.
Back to normal—maybe.
For the second year, a pair of Canada geese has nested in a large cottonwood tree on the south side of the lake. I assume it is the same Canada Geese pair that did this last year. This year they succeeded with four goslings and, like many other Powderhorn Canada Geese, seem to be doing fine, even though the goslings had to jump out of a tree, which they did the day after May Day.
A few days after that, the Mallard and Wood Duck eggs began hatching and now there are all kinds of young ducks and geese.
And a few days after that, a good Powderhorn walker found two Mallard ducklings lost in a north-side-of-the-lake sewer drain with a troubled mother duck very upset. The park walker got a passing teenage boy to lift up the sewer drain cover and they rescued the two baby Mallards.
Just before and after that incident, a Sandpiper was on the lake for a couple of days. I did not get a good enough view to know what species that Sandpiper was but I did get a slightly better view of another Sandpiper on May 21. That one was a Spotted Sandpiper.
Between observations of those two Sandpipers, some Green Herons arrived and spent at least a little time at the lake. And the Black-crowned Night Herons that spend some time at the lake in April, returned with at least two immature offspring.
Other middle-of-May happenings included a Bald Eagle over the park on May 12 and two Great Blue Herons (male, I assume) getting into a big and noisy fight on May 16. I don’t think either was hurt much. There are often from three to four Great Blue Herons spending quite a bit of time at the lake almost every day.
Another May event was the mid-month arrival of Chimney Swifts, usually coming from north of the park and returning to the north, and never stopping to rest but diligently, quickly and noisily catching flying insects around sunrise and sunset. The park is, in my opinion, still short of small birds and song birds. Chimney Swifts, while they meet the small bird category, are having tough times because the big chimneys they nest in, in large groups, are becoming much harder to find.
Oh well, there are still all kinds of small birds and song birds in the yard and lots of other people’s yards and all kinds of shore birds and water birds in the park.
One of my big projects for the month was freeing a Canada Goose gosling with one leg caught in some ground netting on the southwest lakeshore. The gosling’s parents and brothers and sisters were all staying with him or her and were not going to let me help it (him or her) out. The stuck gosling and all the family were extremely concerned about the situation.
A nice guy and a nice dog (I did not know either guy or dog) were coming by and I asked them to help. They tried but we did not succeed at all. I thanked him and said I would go home and get equipment, which I did. I came back with big old towels, gloves, scissors and a knife. And flashlights. By now it was getting dark. Then I lucked into finding a good park walker I know, with her very big and peaceful dog whom I also know, and asked for and received their help. With the towels and the big dog, she kept the goose parents away from me and I was able to cut the stuck gosling free. It immediately joined its brothers and sisters into one big yellow pile of baby geese, literally one pile of geese all together and swimming away, with parents of course joining them. I know lots of people don’t like all the geese and all the messes they make, but I like watching them swim, fly or do whatever they do. And I really appreciate the help of the regular park walking woman and her dog.
Comments and observations are always welcome. Send them to me, in care of Southside Pride. Thank you.
