A Sunday Afternoon Drive

We were finally blessed with some much-needed moisture in the form of rain (not snow!) overnight and most of today. Because it wasn't really nice enough to do anything outside, Mr. Johnson took us for a turkey scouting/birding drive down to Fillmore County this afternoon. Here are some of the sights we experienced.

Because last week was quite nice, many of the farmers around here have started on their field work. We came across this old cemetery located some distance away from the road and in the middle of a cornfield. I don't remember ever seeing this cemetery before and once the corn gets tall, you would never be able to see it from the road.
I would have liked to walk over and look at some of the gravestones, but the ground was too muddy. I tried to find out more information on the internet, but this cemetery wasn't listed as one of the public cemeteries in Fillmore County. It looks very desolate on this dreary day, doesn't it?

(I was also extremely surprised these gravestones hadn't been vandalized and broken, as is so often the case of these old cemeteries in rural areas.)

We came upon an old dead tree that was a perfect roosting spot for some turkey vultures. Naturally they didn't sit still very long after we stopped the car for some pictures.

This was a lucky shot!

Fly away vultures!

We continued heading south and eventually ended up at Goethite WMA. On one of the ponds near the road, we spotted a large number of Blue-Winged Teals.

These pictures aren't the best, but the colors of their breeding plumage makes them easy to identify--especially the males with their large crescent-shaped white patch at the base of their bill.

While we were watching the ducks on this pond, I looked to my right and spotted another large flock of birds flying in the distance.

I quickly got my binocs on them and was thrilled to see it was a huge flock of white pelicans!

These were the first white pelicans I've seen this year. I haven't had a chance to travel down to the Mississippi yet this spring and I thought perhaps I might have missed the opportunity to see pelicans this year.

I love seeing these beautiful birds soaring in the sky. I only wish the skies had been clear today because the sight of these huge white birds with a blue sky in the background is breathtaking.

I like this picture because you can clearly see the "breeding horn" on the top side of their beak.

Did you know their wingspan is 9 feet? Here's the Wikipedia link if you want to read more about the American White Pelican.

Have a good week everyone!

Goethite WMA

I decided to take advantage of my part-time work schedule this Friday morning and go on a little birding trip. After reading several of Troutbirder's blog posts about Goethite Wildlife Management area in southern Fillmore County, I felt the need to check the area out for myself. Mr. Johnson and I used to pheasant hunt this area in the late 70's and early 80's, but I've never been down there specifically for birding.

Goethite WMA is south of Spring Valley, Minnesota (about 30 miles from my house). After I turned off the main highway, I traveled past several ponds close to the road, and managed to spot these Greater Yellowlegs at one of the ponds.

A couple more miles down the road brought me to my final destination. I didn't remember this area being so large!

(If you're interested in learning more about this area, Troutbirder did several posts in June of 2008 that you might want to look at. I'm feeling lazy tonight and since he's already done the research and written about it, I didn't see the need to duplicate the information and would rather send you over to his blog -- I hope he doesn't mind!)

Here's the first view I saw after parking and getting out of the car -- a big pond that was an open pit iron ore mine back in the 20th century. No waterfowl on this pond, I guess I must have missed most of the migrating ducks and geese that Troutbirder saw last week when he was down here.

Since I was wearing my boots that were made for walking, I took off down a fairly well traveled trail to see what kinds of birds and other cool stuff I could spot. While watching a pair of Eastern bluebirds, I happened to notice this sweet little goldfinch nest that had survived the winter. Isn't it neat how they can fit their nests into little trees like this?

Oh cool, what's this? It looks like a beaver dam on one of the ponds. You probably can't tell from this picture, but the dam is almost 5 feet high and if you click to enlarge it, you might be able to see just a little bit of the pond on the other side (right in the middle).

I could see that the pond on the other side was right to the top of this beaver dam and I wondered if I could get across this little stream by following the deer trail. That little stream isn't very wide and it doesn't look too deep either, does it? OK, let's try it......it's too wide for me to jump across, but maybe just one quick step through the middle of the stream should be OK.

Shee-it! That water was WAY DEEPER than it looked -- and really COLD too! Oh well, I had my wool socks on, so at least my foot didn't get cold (and my pant leg was just about dry by the time I got home!)

So here's the beaver dam from the other side, with the pond right at the top edge. I didn't see evidence of any recent beaver activity, so I'm not sure if they're still present in this area, but it was nice to see that their sturdy dam is still intact.

I was glad I made the crossing to this area because while I was over there, I had the great fortune to spot two sandhill cranes walking around in the tall grass. I tried to sneak up on them to get some pictures, but had no luck with that. I did however, spot this large raptor (juvenile red-tailed or juvenile bald eagle?) with a red-winged blackbird monitor nearby.

I continued to wander around this area looking for birds and I hoped I was traveling in a big circle and would eventually find my way back to the road. After coming out of a little woods, I was relieved to spot the car right where I had parked it (of course, that huge pink arrow in the sky was a big help too!)

Now that I knew for sure where I was, I could continue with my explorations and not worry about being lost. I watched this Canada goose for awhile....I thought maybe it was injured or something because I've never seen a goose lay its head down in the water like this, have you?

After a few minutes, I walked a little bit closer and the goose finally perked up after seeing me and eventually flew away with no apparent injuries. I breathed a little sigh of relief seeing that.

Because Goethite WMA was once an iron mining area, you can still see chunks of iron ore while walking around here. Some are small, like this piece I found on the trail.....

and some are pretty huge, like this big chunk near the parking area......

(I would love to have this chunk of ore somewhere out in my backyard landscape!)

Here's something I've never seen before in the wild: Pussy willows! There were several large plants around the edge of the pond close to the parking area, so I cut a few sprigs to take home.

Some of the pussy willow shrubs had these really large growths that looked like buds on them. Does anyone know what these are? I tried "googling" pussywillows, but couldn't find any information on these large growths. Some of the plants had them but others didn't. I wondered if they were some sort of indicator of a male vs. female plant?

Update: I sent an e-mail to WinterWoman and she confirmed that this growth on the pussy willow plant is indeed a gall--a Willow Pine Cone Gall (Click here for the link she posted on insect galls to learn more about it). Thanks for your help Jennifer!

Back at the car, I watch a black-capped chickadee checking out a possible new home across the road.

Finally around noon, I decided it was probably time to head for home. I could easily have spent most of the day here at Goethite WMA, and I left knowing that what I didn't explore today will still be there next time I come down for a visit.

Here's a list of all the birds I saw (or heard) this morning:

Tree Swallow

Eastern Meadowlark

Common Merganser

Song Sparrow

Golden Crowned Kinglet

Eastern Bluebird

Bluejay

Black-Capped Chickadee

Eastern Phoebe

Greater Yellowlegs

Belted Kingfisher

Red-Winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Canada Goose

Mallard

Red-Tailed Hawk

White-Breasted Nuthatch

American Robin

Killdeer

Sharp-Shinned Hawk

Sandhill Crane

Ring-Necked Pheasant

American Goldfinch

American Crow

Eastern Wild Turkey