Birders Who Blog, Tweet & Chirp Event

Saturday, August 15th marked the first Minnesota gathering of Birders who Blog, Tweet and Chirp, and I was thrilled to be a part of this inaugural celebration of all things birdy. The event was attended by a good number of fellow Minnesota nature lovers and bloggers.....some who were new to me and some who were old friends

Here I am with my blogging friends Lynne (Hasty Brook) and Richard (At the Water). Lynne and I have been on previous birding adventures, but this was the first time I met Richard in person and I was really surprised and happy when I saw him in the parking lot because I didn't think he was going to be able to come.

We all met at the Carver Park Reserve near Victoria, Minnesota where Roger Everhart (Minnesota Bird Nerd) and his assistants were conducting a bird banding program at the Lowry Nature Center.
The birds weren't exactly cooperating, but Roger's enthusiasm and knowledge of birds was amazing and we enjoyed spending time with him even though there weren't any birds to band.

We also got to see a couple of raptors that are permanent residents at the Lowry Nature Center due to injuries they received in the wild. Here is a pretty little female Merlin.

And this is a female Barred Owl. Both of these birds are used for teaching purposes. The handler was taking them out for their daily weigh-in and feeding.

We finally got started down the woodsy trail to do some birding and were lucky enough to find this Northern Red-Bellied Snake on the trail. This was a reptile "lifer" for me. I never knew we had snakes this small in Minnesota.

Virginia (Bees in the City) caught and held the snake for me while I took this picture and then I got to hold the snake so she and others could take pictures. Honestly, I've seen night crawlers bigger than this snake. It was so neat!

We had a another surprise for this event when Hap from New Hope showed up to bird with us. Some of you are probably familiar with Hap if you're a regular reader of Lynne's Hasty Brook blog, and we were all thrilled to meet him in person, including Dawn and Jeff (Dawn's Bloggy Blog).

Before leaving Carver Park Reserve, we stopped to check out the Trumpeter Swans on the big pond. While not a life bird for me, this was the first time I'd seen them in Minnesota, so it was good to check them on my Minnesota list! (sorry, this is a crappy picture of a beautiful bird)

Of course, the Great Blue Heron is a pretty common bird, but I loved the way this picture turned out with the bird's reflection in the water.

After a stop for a delicious meal and fun conversation, it was time to head over to Hyland Lake Park Reserve and the Richardson Nature Center. After some discussion and study of the maps by Richard, Hap, Mike and Lizette (Mike & Lizette's Travel & Thoughts), we decided to head down the Prairie Trail for more birding.

We got as far as Wood Duck Pond where oddly enough, we spotted a large number of Wood Ducks perched in a dead tree that had fallen down in the pond. Jeff and Dave both brought their scopes so we all got good looks. I've never seen so many wood ducks altogether in one place!

Farthest to the right in the picture above are Penny (Penelopedia blog) and her husband Dave and just to the left of them (in the black shirt) is "Other Sharon" (aka Hellziggy).

While walking the Prairie Trail, we spotted this industrious male Goldfinch gathering thistledown for nesting material. (Another thing I've never seen before!)

Watching turtles and hooded mergansers from the observation dock.

All too soon, it was 4:00 -- time for me to brave the freeway traffic and construction detours and head back to Rochester with memories of a wonderful day spent birding with old and new friends. It's always fun when you get a chance to meet bloggers face-to-face and spend time with people who share your interests. The other great thing was that all of these folks (except for Dawn and Jeff) live only a couple hours from me, so there's every likelihood that we'll be able to get together in the future for more birding adventures like this. Thanks everyone for a fun day.....I really enjoyed meeting all of you!