BY JOHN KARRIGAN
One American Robin—near the lake, northeast corner. That was my park bird for Jan. 31. I also saw three American Crows fly over the park.
I was considering the above paragraph for my complete February column, but I know Editor Ed would not accept that, so I will try to continue.
In most years during this season, I would find a few birds—a pair of Song Sparrows, some Dark-eyed Juncos, Black-capped Chickadees, and a few Downy and/or Hairy Woodpeckers—in the park. This winter there are often no birds at all, or a few Crows or a lot of Crows overhead. There was one “big” Robin day (50 to 100) near the park building early in January and, on Martin Luther King Day (an always interesting and important day), one Canada Goose flew over the lake at about 12:30 p.m. as they sometimes do in winter, looking for open water, which they only find in the rivers.
This has nothing to do with birds, but South High School presented a very interesting MLK program in the evening of MLK Day. The LGBTQ community One Voice, Mixed Chorus along with choral students from St. Paul’s Central High School, sang a new work commissioned by OVMC, about Bayard Rustin, a civil rights activist and mentor to the well-known civil rights leader.
Back to the Park
A few days later, Jan. 20, a medium-sized duck flock flew over the lake, also looking for (and not finding) open water.
Anyone who has spent much winter time at the park will see the two construction projects slowly continuing, with hard work, lots of mess, and no ending looking close. And lots of tree trimming and tree removal is continuing. Plus two trees on the island were recently seriously damaged, probably by weather.
I guess I can put up with the tree trimming, but the large numbers of total tree loss bothers the hell out of me. I have no idea if the park board is doing the right thing with this, or if they are even going to tell us what they are up to.
I’m pretty sure that the birds, insects and animals, In the Heart of the Beast Theater people, and thousands of May Day lovers are going to be quite upset if this continues as a big ugly mess instead of the best park in town.
Back to Birds, Again
The National Wildlife Federation had a nice January 2017 Impact Update encouraging people to feed birds in winter. I like feeding birds winter or anytime, and we get lots of happy birds in the yard often. We get the usuals: Northern Cardinals, American Goldfinches (not gold yet until spring and summer), Black-capped Chickadees, English Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, and a few White-breasted Nuthatches. Attract birds to your yard not only with birdfeeders, but with squirrel guards, water in a heated birdbath (change often), and plantings that keep seed heads throughout the snowy months. See nwf.org/garden for more ideas on making your yard bird-friendly.
The next half of the National Wildlife Federation page was about increasing bison (I like to call them buffalo) numbers. Perhaps we should try to get a herd of bison (buffalo) in the park. The park will be more prairie-like if they keep taking trees. I grew up in South Dakota where they had and still have a lot of buffalo. The ones they were talking about were going to the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, but I think they would work out well at Powderhorn. The park board has said they are getting some goats for invasive species control this year. Why not buffalo for Powderhorn?
Comments and observations are always welcome. Send them to me, in care of Southside Pride. Thank you.
Great Horned Owls in South Minneapolis?
Last night as I was letting my dog out at around 11 p.m. I heard a Great Horned Owl (I think) repeatedly calling from somewhere in Matthews Park. It was very cool.
I’m wondering whether this owl is a frequent visitor to (or resident of) the park, or whether I was just very lucky to hear it. I’ve never heard it before—has anyone else? Here’s a link to Cornell University’s ornithology site, which includes audio clips of the calls:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/sounds
Cheers!
Michonne
We heard it last night as well, one block east of Matthews, from inside!
Andrew and Jessie
John Karrigan comments:
Great Horned Owls are some of the first birds of the year to mate and build nests. The calling that was reported probably is a male looking for a female. Whether he’s successful and whether they are or will be building a nest in Matthews Park is questionable. But it’s definitely something to monitor. Can spring be far behind?
