Powderhorn Birdwatch: Take heart, the birds are still singing

BY JOHN KARRIGAN

I am still mad about the park board—some of the park board employees, that is—rounding up the Canada geese, and all the crazy people with guns and bombs turning up all over the world, but I will try to find a few good things to write about.
I was wrong last month about the Cooper’s Hawks.  Their nest turned out very well with three new Cooper’s Hawks.  The hawks can be seen quite often by a careful looker around the park.  I was also wrong about Monarch butterflies.  There are now a few around the park almost every day and the Monarch Butterfly Festival is still on for Sept.10 at Lake Nokomis.
Songbirds, baby birds and other modest-sized birds are still doing well in back yards but not very well in the park.  Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets and Double-crested Cormorants are still in the park along with Wood Ducks and Mallards (still some very small Mallard ducklings).
Park trees are again having some problems with more death-marked trees showing up recently— some of the already dead tree stumps are now painted an odd orange color.  I don’t know if this color is to stop us from tripping on the stumps or if it is something to deteriorate the stumps.  Time will tell.
Maybe some good things and common sense will happen in August.  National Night Out is Aug. 2, and the Powderhorn Art Fair is Aug. 6 and 7.
Or maybe the park board will continue its internal fights and continue its complete bureaucratic propaganda about goose kills never happening before.  Several people have come forward to agree with me that goose kills have happened before, one as long ago as maybe 15 years.

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