Steel toes and awning woes

Today I chose to work the Wauboose Lake sector for the breeding bird atlas.  Most of the back roads I can access lead to lakes.  I took the rustic trail to Little Egg and Big Egg Lakes first.



Most of the roads also traverse through deciduous forests to get to the lakes.  The woods were just bursting with bird song, so it took me several hours to go just a couple of miles.  I kept track of each singing species and ticked off each time I heard them in a different location.  Five different singing males of each species heard on one day constitutes moving them up from possible nesters to probable nesters.  I had at least 15 species that I verified as probable today.  One of those �probables� was the chestnut sided warbler.

�Please, please, pleased to meet-cha� is what this bird sounds like if you have a good imagination.  I�m sure he�d be pleased to meet a gorgeous little lady friend. 

Marsh marigolds are beginning to blossom in some of the wetland areas.  Even though it�s been wet and chilly, I guess spring is here� finally.

I think we finally made it up to 60* today, but I was still wearing a hooded sweatshirt and insulated jacket over that.  Cold weather doesn�t seem to bother the ticks, however, as they were out in full force.

I kicked up a pair of adult bald eagles once again today at the same spot I saw them yesterday.  I�m thinking they may have a nest nearby, but I haven�t been able to find it yet.  However, I was able to confirm my first breeding species for this sector.  That�s a male tree swallow in the photo.  Can you see the old woodpecker�s nest whole in the bottom of the pic?  Well, Mrs. Tree Swallow was busy sitting on eggs inside.  Tree swallows readily use nest boxes because they are cavity nesters.  Not many nest boxes around here, so they chose a natural cavity that had already been made for them by a woodpecker at some time in the past.  No, I did not climb the tree to verify that mom was inside.  She just flew into the hole and stayed� an excellent indication that she�s setting on eggs.

When I stopped for lunch along a lake shore, I heard several warbling vireos singing away.  This one actually sat still long enough up in the tree canopy for me to get a shot.  They�re a rather plain looking little bird, but what a set of lungs.  They sing almost non-stop.
Had an email message from Janice, the volunteer coordinator, this afternoon stating that I would be required to wear steel toed boots for doing my lawn mowing chores.  I don�t have any.  Best part of that email was that she suggested a store in Detroit Lakes, L & M Fleet (where I bought my fishing rod), to go to and pick out a pair of comfortable boots and put them on hold.  The refuge will go in on Monday to pay for them and pick them up.  I can live with that.  Looks like I have a mission for this weekend.
Then I got a phone call just before 5:00 this evening from Wold�s RV.  They were supposed to come out on Tuesday to fix my awning, but never showed.  I called them yesterday to complain that the least they could have done is call me about not coming so I wouldn�t have had to wait around all day.  Did the awning get fixed?  No.  The RV techs worked on it for a while, made some adjustments and are pretty stymied as to why it won�t work properly.  They will be calling Dometic to get suggestions as to what to do.
So it was a mixed bag of tricks today.  Some good news, some bad news.  It will all even out eventually.

                                                                              THE END!!
Thanks for stopping by� talk to you later,  Judy

Some roads less traveled

Robert Frost (1874�1963).  Mountain Interval.  1920.
         The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
       
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
       
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I�
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

There were two major reasons I decided to spend some time volunteering at Tamarac NWR in Minnesota that were of equal importance to me.  One reason was the fact that this refuge required 24 hours/week/site.  I�ve grown tired over the years of having to put in 32 hours/week in my retirement.  Seems too much like a job to me.  The other reason was the opportunity to participate in doing the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas project that is in its last year.  That would afford me the chance to traverse roads that are closed to the public on the refuge.  In the name of science, I would be on some of those roads less traveled� and it does make a difference to me.

 
Even though the skies were overcast with a light rain all day, I set out to become familiar with the three blocks of habitat for the atlas that are located on the refuge.  During the next month or so, I will be documenting what birds are here, and their breeding activities.  Over twenty years ago, I was a contributor to the New York Breeding Bird Atlas, and found that to be my kind of birding.
It�s just not ticking birds off on a list, but watching their every move to determine if they are breeding here.  Things like the males singing and defending a territory, finding a nest with eggs or young, seeing adults with nesting materials or food for young in their beaks, or carrying out fecal sacks (baby bird poop in a bag).  This kind of citizen science study is not for everyone, but it purely gives me joy.  I�ll be covering as many habitats as I can in each block as different habitats support different bird species.   One of the truths of doing this kind of research is that after several hours in the woods and back roads, there are some biological needs to take care of.  I�m thinking it�s a lot easier to be a guy at this point that can just pull down a zipper.  You ladies will understand.  Can I just say that the emerging mosquito hatch found some nice fresh territory, and I walked away with several itchy welts down under?  TMI??

I may be looking for birds, but I couldn�t help but notice the first columbines are just beginning to bloom in the forest.  Columbines have always been my favorite wildflower.  I hope to get some better photos on a day when the sun is shining.

Today was just a day spent getting familiar with my study areas, but I just couldn�t pass up this shot of a male American redstart singing to his sweetie.  �? Oh Sole-A-Mio ?�  It warmed my heart.
Thanks for stopping by� talk to you later,  Judy

Mother Nature vs. Human Nature

When I went in to work this morning, I was given a rather exciting, to me, assignment.  One of the biologists was going to blast out a beaver dam that was threatening to flood a major county thoroughfare.  I was asked to photograph not only the explosion of the dam, but document how other volunteers would close the road while the blasting took place.  In stepped Mother Nature.  Seems with all of the recent rains, half of the dam was washed away, so no blasting was necessary. So that assignment was cancelled.



That left Student Conservation Association intern (SCA) Rachel and I with an assignment to spiff up the Woodpecker walking trail that leads to an overlook on Blackbird Lake.  Thankfully, she is young and strong enough to operate the weed-whacker while I cleaned the interpretive signs along the trail.  We both had all the required safety equipment with us�hard hats, safety goggles, and ear plugs.  We ended up making three different trips to this short trail today trying to fix a problem with the signs.  We weren�t totally successful, so it will take another trip.

We had several other stops around the refuge to clean up viewpoints and trim vegetation.  At the Balsam Lake Kiosk we were able to document the nesting site of a pair of common loons.  The biologist will be interested in that.  We enjoyed watching mama sitting on the nest site while dad loon brought her dried vegetation to build up the nest.  It was quite a ways away, so we did most of our viewing through the scope at the kiosk. 

After lunch, we were off to tackle the job of dealing with the results of Human Nature along several refuge roads.  AKA: litter pickup.  Skies had once again clouded over which posed a problem with picture taking.  The beauty of litter pickup is that we can stop whenever we want to observe wildlife we encounter along the way like this little song sparrow.


Surprisingly, we found an Eastern wood-pewee willing to pose for a few seconds along one of the lakes.  They�re usually high in the trees along forest borders.  Most of our time was taken up with plucking beer cans from the roadside, but we progressed to wine cooler boxes and then on to hard liquor bottles.  Seems a lot of folks like to drink and drive the back roads, and toss their beverage containers out the car window.  I remember doing that once in my youth, but only once.  Rather disgusting if you ask me.

We found this large animal bone stuck in a tree surrounded by all sorts of cans and such.  I�m thinking people go down the road and try to hit the bone with their rubbish.  Get a life, people!
There was a massive trash pick-up day on the refuge just before I arrived, but that didn�t stop us from gathering enough trash to fill three big black bags.  It�s so sad that people disrespect our wild places.  I�d like to pop all those folks in the nose.

                                               I think I�ll mentally fly away instead�. THE END!
Thanks for stopping by� talk to you later,  Judy

National Trails Day

Yesterday, June 1, was National Trails Day and was celebrated country wide.  It was an extra special day here on the refuge for two reasons.

First it was the grand opening, and ribbon cutting ceremony, for the Tamarac NWR section of the North Woods Trail.  This trail is similar to the Appalachian Trail and covers 4800 miles from the New York/Vermont border to the middle of North Dakota.  Over half of the trail has been officially completed at this point, and Saturday was the official opening of the 14.5 miles of the trail that traverses the refuge. 

Secondly, it coincided with the 75th Anniversary of the establishment of the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge.  What cold, wet, windy, and generally miserable weather we had for two such auspicious occasions.  After listening to too many speeches by visiting big wigs, the ribbon was finally cut, and the anniversary cake was served.  We did have about six brave souls who did a through hike of the entire 14.5 miles during the day.

My assignment for the afternoon was to help with the three hour photo hike.  When I�m helping with a hike that someone else is leading, I generally bring up the rear to keep any stragglers moving forward.  We had two places along the North Woods Trail that we would be hiking, and were bussed to each location.  At the rear was a good place for me especially on the first hike.  It was a very up and down hike.  One of the things about the type of hip surgery that I had in January is that they cut some of the muscles during surgery.  I�ve found that the most challenging thing to get back is the ability to easily go up and down stairs.  A steep up and down hike is similar to doing sets of stairs.  Needless to say, I was the last one back to the bus by a long shot.  However, I�m happy to report that the only straggler was me! 

For the second hike, I told the group to go ahead, as I didn�t think I could keep up.  My muscles were telling me that I could most likely make it to the destination, but getting back might be iffy.  My total hike was probably two miles, and I�m happy with that at this point. 

One important thing I learned on this excursion was to identify poison ivy.  It�s quite common in the woods here.  One of the participants pointed it out to me.  That�s about all I learned.  I don�t know.  Somehow I was expecting to learn something about photography on a photo hike, but the leader was too busy taking pictures of his own to be bothered with talking to the participants or give any hints or pointers.  Guess I was a little off base on my expectations.

The sun finally came back today, so Emma and I returned to the second hike location from yesterday to complete it on our own.  The woods were just alive with singing birds.  Emma continues to have patience with me when I tell her I want to take a picture.  She stands still until I�m done.  That is so out of character for her it always amazes me.

Once again, there seemed to be American redstarts in almost every tree.

We also found lots of mushrooms this afternoon, but sorry to say none of them were morels.  We sidetracked into the woods in several places to see if I could find some, but no luck.  Oddly, Emma is not a good shroom hunter.  Were I to let her off of the leash, she would zoom around all over the woods, but on leash she just wants to get back to the trail. 

We stopped at one wetland area on the way back from our Sunday drive to admire this preening trumpeter swan and male wood duck.  It was so nice to have a calm sunny day, and further along one of the roads I stopped to pick a bouquet of fragrant lilacs.  I�m sure years ago before it became a refuge the place I stopped may have been a farmhouse location as the row of lilac trees was impressive.  The smell of lilacs is now permeating the rig.  Lovely!

Thanks for stopping by� talk to you later,  Judy

Latrine duty?

Yep.  That was on my work list for this morning.  At least there were three of us working on that detail.  Remember all those hundreds of kids that have been visiting out at the Chippewa Picnic Area the last couple of weeks and all the rain?  Use your imagination to picture what this does to a pit toilet bathroom with five stalls.  Yuck! 

Add to that the fact that there is no running water there.  We had to haul in two of those big yellow 5 gallon water coolers that you see strapped onto construction trucks so we could wash the floors.  Apparently the mops have disappeared so we had to use a toilet brush and rags to clean the muddy floors.  Did I mention these were pit toilets?  P-U!!  After the picnic area, there was one other pit toilet to clean several miles away.  It was only a one holer, so we thought it would be a breeze.  Ha!  Turns out someone had gotten sick and spewed their guts all over the throne.    Our clean up crew consisted of myself, an intern, and a staff member, but I�m sure glad I won�t have this assignment very often.  It may be hard to believe, but the three of us really made the most of this chore and had a good time.

I had a much more pleasant assignment for this afternoon; driving around to make sure the seven refuge information kiosks were well stocked with brochures.  Tomorrow is National Trails Day, and the refuge is celebrating by having the grand opening of the 14.5 mile section of the North Country Trail that weaves through the refuge.  I�m sure you�ve all heard of the Appalachian Trail, well the North Country Trail will be similar offering over 4000 miles of hiking from one end to the other.  I�ll get more information on it tomorrow at the celebration. 

Because of all of the big wigs coming for the ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow, making sure the kiosks were well stocked and spiffed up was on the priority list.  That�s my kind of assignment!  I could be that mallard duck in the sign above.  I�m sure glad that Rachel Carson woke up the world to the plight of our wild things.  She is one of my heroes.

Of course, I grabbed my cameras before going out into the rain and driving to the kiosks.  With the dismal skies, the red-tailed hawks were hunkering down.

                                               That is until I stopped to admire this beauty.

                                                It decided to move on to a more remote location.

I also found out where the white pelicans were spending this day� on Height of Land Lake.  This afternoon�s journey covered most of the roads on the refuge, and I was able to now feel comfortable with where things are at.  It takes a couple of weeks to get familiar with each different refuge.

Tomorrow I�ll be attending the National Trails Day celebration, and helping with the Photo Hike in the afternoon.  It�s supposed to be only in the 50�s with a brisk wind out of the north, so I�m really hoping the rain gets out of here over night.  I�m yearning for some warmer temperatures and sunshine.

                                                                              THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by� talk to you later,  Judy

It�s official, mosquito season has begun!

As of 7:00 pm this evening, I declare that the mosquito season in Minnesota has begun, and I�ve got the first two bites to prove it.  So now I�ll have to deal with ticks and mosquitoes.  Uf-duh.  I haven�t been to a National Wildlife Refuge yet where I didn�t have to battle biting bugs.  I guess it just goes with the territory.

                                                                  Red-bellied woodpecker

The other 120 fourth graders from Moorhead, MN, cancelled their field trip to the refuge this morning.  It was a good thing they did because overnight and throughout the morning we had another inch of rain.  Kids and adults would have had a miserable time of it had they come.  That wraps up the school groups for this spring.

<-----/--^            Male purple finch.

Since my work for the day was cancelled, I decided to head to Detroit Lakes to take care of several errands.  Rainy weather really doesn�t matter when you need groceries, new windshield wipers for the rig, and scheduling the awning repair.

                                                                      Female purple finch.

First off, I headed to Wold�s RV where I was able to order the new wipers, a set of throw rugs, and talk about the awning repair.  Two mobile RV techs will be coming out next Tuesday to get the awning restrung. 

                                             Ruby-throated hummingbird visiting the oriole feeder.

Paul Dahl had a question about having the awning restrung, and I�ll try to better explain that with photos as the RV techs get it done on Tuesday.  Basically, the awning hasn�t ripped, but has started to come out of the groove on the roller bar at the bottom near the front of the rig, and at the top where it attaches to the roof in the back.  I�m sure that is the reason the awning arms where out of whack for closing properly.  I did check the motorized awning recall site, and my awning is not covered by that recall.  I feel it was those awful winds in the Dakotas that were the culprit. 

                                                                 Female American goldfinch.

The skies cleared in the afternoon, and Emma and I were able to sit outside this afternoon so I could get these photos at the bird feeders.  It was a brief respite from the rains.  They have now started up again. 

Emma on her thirteen-striped ground squirrel watch.  One of them has a tunnel right beyond the Hard Rock Bird Caf� pole.  That squirrel drives her to distraction. 

Thanks for stopping by� talk to you later,  Judy