I Got an Award!

Over 3 weeks ago, I received this neat little award from Red out in California (thanks Red!). Amazingly enough, this award originated with Patricija at her Wisdom of the Heart blog and has come all the way around the world from Slovenia to Minnesota by way of California! Now I'm finally getting around to the acceptance/acknowledgment and passing this award on to some other excellent blogs I love reading.

To Marsha--a fellow biker woman (and Minnesotan!), birdwatcher and fabulous gardener.

To Deb--building her own house and enjoying her family, pets and nature in the Minnesota northwoods

To Richard--who's learned more about birds in 2008 than he ever thought possible and also has time to enjoy and photograph the various other wild critters visiting his backyard habitat.

To Ruth--sharing birds, nature and stories of her life, family and work in Ontario, Canada.

To Jayne--a wonderful woman who loves her backyard birds, her family and caring for others with her faith and her job as a nurse.

To Cindie--mom of a teenager, wife of a farmer, loves dogs, cats and nature.....she's living the good life in southwestern Ohio.

To Julie--a fellow fiber artist, nature lover and weather geek. I hope to get the chance to go birding with her in Kansas some day.

I hope you all enjoy this award and will also get a chance to pass it along to other blogs you love.

Time for Another Auction

Gosh, is it Monday night already? That's what happens when you take a couple days off work and try to cram a week's worth of activities into 4 days! I always wish my days at work would go by as quickly as my days off!

I meant to do this post over the weekend, but finally got caught up just tonight to take some photos of the shawl I'm going to auction off for October's "worthy cause." I'm sure most of you know Mel, our sweet blogging friend from Peru. She's been quite busy with other things in her life and job right now, so you probably haven't seen many posts or comments from her, but back in August, she posted a story about her friend Rita Lucia. (And if you read Spanish, Mel has also created a blog just for Rita and her recovery efforts).

At Mel's request for ideas from creative people, I decided to do my part with a handknitted shawl. The auction proceeds from this shawl will go directly to Mel who will put it into the bank account for expenses related to Rita Lucia's recovery efforts.

This shawl is 100% wool. I admit these pictures don't really do it justice, but hopefully when you click to enlarge them, you will get a better idea of how this shawl looks. It's not a huge shawl, but would be very warm over your shoulders on a chilly evening while still leaving your lower arms free for sitting at the computer and blogging! The front edge folds back into a little "lapel."

Front View

(blouse not included)

Back View

Although this shawl would hang very nicely over your shoulders without having to be secured, you may also want to think about getting one of these lovely handmade shawl pins from Romi. I found her website (Google!) early one Saturday morning. I had been looking for some new shawl pins and penannular brooches and Romi has a nice selection of both.

(shawl pin not included)

So, on to the auction! The auction will be open until 8 PM (CDT) Friday night (Oct. 10th). I realize finances are tight for everyone right now, but I hope you can find a little extra in your wallet (and heart) to contribute towards a very determined young lady (and in return you will get a beautiful red shawl to wear this winter!). Please leave bids in the "Comments" section of this blog post or if you're not comfortable with that, you may also e-mail your bid to me (rjknits at msn dot com). Bid high and bid often!

Some Things You Don't See Every Day

Fall has arrived......my furnace came on this morning and we have a little frost predicted for overnight. I got my final glimpse of a hummingbird at my nectar feeder last Sunday afternoon. I'm finally caught up at work after another end-of-quarter and it's time to get caught up again with my blog and blogging friends. I've been taking a few pictures here and there in the last couple weeks and today I'm cleaning out my photo files and sharing some of these pictures with you.

We took down the trail cameras on September 20th. But before they came down, we did manage to get several photos of the 12-point buck that's been seen in this area. I love this picture! This camera has a woven fabric strap that secures it to the tree and I'm sure this strap and camera are covered with "Ruth scent" from all the handling.


Here's another good shot of this magnificent buck. This is the biggest buck we've ever captured on any of our trail cameras.

In the same area, there's still a doe with her triplets and here's one of her little babies--still covered with spots!

My buddy Mike at work shot a bear in northern Minnesota a few weeks ago. I begged him for some bear steaks (because we've never tried bear, but heard it was very good). Mike obliged with a package of 4 steaks for us. It was so good! Mike told me he likes it better than venison and Mr. Johnson and I agree.

Bear........it's what's for dinner!

More goldfinch-palooza! When the level of seed goes down in the tube, more finches congregate in the seed catcher tray.....
......and in the platform feeder on the deck below the tube feeders.
Aren't they fun? I love these little birds!

A gray catbird visited early Saturday morning a couple weeks ago. This bench sits very near my little pond with the fountain and I think the catbird was trying to decide whether to "take the plunge."
The same morning (9/21) this migrating yellow warbler also stopped by the pond for a quick drink.

No red-breasted nuthatches yet, but I was surprised to see this little female purple finch stop by the nyjer feeders last Friday (9/26).

I'm in the process of choosing a shawl for the October "worthy cause" auction. I hope to get that posted by Saturday, so be sure to check back then.

UP Challenger No. 3985

We interrupt this birding and nature blog to bring you............a train! But not just any old train, this is Union Pacific's Challenger No. 3985 Steam Locomotive, "the only operating engine of its class in the world today – the largest and most powerful operating steam locomotive."

This train was originally scheduled to be in Minnesota during the Republican National Convention, and I had been anticipating that event since I first heard about it in April. Then in late August, we heard the train had been cancelled. About 3 weeks ago, Mike (my train buddy at work) told me this train was re-scheduled to return to Minnesota at the end of September, and as luck would have it, I didn't have to work today and was able to see the train up close and personal!

(I had another really great video that I wanted to insert here but Blogger absolutely refuses to let me upload it. I tried at least 8 times, even tried resaving the video in Windows Movie Maker but nothing's working. UPDATE: I finally got this video uploaded, but in a separate post......please click on this link or just go down to the previous post and you can view the video there.)

There was a wide variety of people in Owatonna to see this train, but mostly older folks. I spotted this lady with curlers in her hair as I was making my way through the multitude of "train enthusiasts," but didn't realize till I got home and processed my photos that she appeared in my photo too. I'm always amazed when I see ladies who still wear curlers!

OK, back to the train.

I think these are tender cars that carry the fuel to run the train. Although the engine is still powered by steam, that power is now generated by diesel fuel and not coal like years ago.


Here are some of the other cars that make up the train. Each car has a name on it. I didn't notice that until I spoke to Brother Phil in California (who works for Union Pacific).

This is a huge engine. I think I read on the UP Website (link is above) that this engine and tender together weigh 1 Million Pounds!
This plaque was on the side of the engine. She looks pretty darn good for 65 years old, don't you think?
Here's another photo of me with the Challenger engine in the background.

And here's a similar photo of my Brother Phil and Nephew Charlie with the same Challenger engine in California.

This train is going to be in St. Paul, Minnesota for the rest of the weekend at the South St. Paul Union Pacific Station (a link to the schedule is here). If you're going to be in that area and don't have any other plans, take time to go over and see this magnificent steam engine. Or better yet, take the morning off Tuesday and go over and see the train leave the station. There's nothing quite as exciting as being able to see and hear a train like this in person!

Here's a video I shot of the train departing Owatonna on its way to St. Paul.

UP Challenger 3985 Steam Locomotive Video

Old Dog Learns a New Trick

Remember a couple weeks ago when I was so frustrated with my inability to upload videos to my blog? I asked for help in my comments and Larry from The Brownstone Birding Blog mentioned that he was having good luck using Windows Movie Maker. So this afternoon, after searching my hard drive and finding out that I do indeed have this program on my computer, I did a little bit of experimenting. Results are shown below:

Now hopefully I'll remember what I did for next time!

Thanks Larry!

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

I'm getting so far behind in my blogging activities, so I need to show you the highlights of last Saturday afternoon spent at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge (NNWR) so I can move on to the other great stories and pictures I have to post for this week.

I hope you all get the chance to visit NNWR some day. I would love to see them offer a 3-4 day birding & nature workshop where participants could go out with the naturalists and study all the diverse habitats, plants, animals, and birds. The 90 minutes spent on the bus in the morning and several hours I had in the afternoon gave me only a small sampling of what this >43,000 acre refuge has to offer. They're currently in the process of building a large new visitors center, with a projected completion sometime in 2010. Maybe we should start planning now for a bloggers get-together that summer. They will arrange special field trips for birding groups......

Welcome!

At my first stop in the refuge, I was treated to a fly-by from this squadron of sandhill cranes.

Here's another look at a pair of Sandhill Cranes. We have them in Minnesota too, but usually closer to the Mississippi and I don't get down that way very often.

Here's a look at one of the juvenile Red-Headed Woodpeckers I saw. You can see from the back there's a lot of white on its wings. When they're flying, there's also a large white spot on their back, just above their tail. It's quite distinctive and makes them really easy to spot and identify when they're flying.

Here's an even worse picture of the adult woodpecker that the juvenile shown above was hanging around with. I'm guessing this was one of the parents. I know I said it in the previous post, but it was just fantastic to see so many Red-Headed Woodpeckers in one afternoon. I bet I saw at least 20 all over the refuge. The habitat (with its many dead or dying trees) was ideal for these birds. They're on the Audubon WatchList as records show this bird has seen a 50% decline in overall population since 1966.

Here's a story about Whooping Crane restoration near one of the viewing platforms in the refuge.

This was a little road to another viewing platform. It was in a native prairie area and I was trying to give you an idea of how tall the native grasses were growing right along the road. I was in Mr. Johnson's Tahoe and the grass was 4-5 feet tall. I also saw lots of Monarch butterflies all over in the refuge.

There was quite a bit of fall color starting to appear. I like the way the colorful maples, oak and sumac contrast with the dark colors of the evergreens.

Just another fall color shot with native prairie grasses in the foreground.

There was just one blemish on an otherwise lovely afternoon...... For whatever reason, there are certain roads in the refuge that are open to ATV traffic, and this was one of the groups I encountered. I could go into a huge ATV rant here, but I won't because Mr. Johnson owns one and he reads this blog. Suffice it to say that I do think ATVs have a purpose--on the farm or for work-related hauling and chores, etc. However, there's no way anyone's going to convince me that the folks in this picture above were out on their ATVs to enjoy nature because #1-they were going too fast to see much of anything; #2-you can see how dusty it was--after the third rider, the rest of the riders weren't able to see anything; and #3-any wildlife you might have been able to see would be scared off by the sounds of these ATVs coming up the road. OK, 'nuff said (deep cleansing breath and back to nature)

As I was crossing one of the roads, I happened to notice a large black chunk of something down the road to my right. It kind of looked like a blown-out tire, but as I watched, it started moving. I quickly changed course and headed up the road to investigate. By the time I got there the "black chunk" was in the grass next to the road. Getting out of the truck for a closer look revealed the HUGEST snapping turtle I have ever seen. Isn't this guy a monster? There was a drainage ditch from one of the lakes that ran under this road and this large snapper must have just crawled out of there. I felt really privileged to see such a creature.

Here's a pair of Trumpeter Swans. Caitlyn told us on the morning tour that there were several pairs in the refuge. (Lifebird #224 for me!)

Great Blue Heron (juvenile)

Belted Kingfisher

Goodbye for now......thanks for the memories......please come again!

Whooping Crane Festival

I pulled out of the driveway at 5:30 this morning on my way to Necedah, Wisconsin for the 8th Annual Whooping Crane and Wildlife Festival. I got down to LaCrosse, Wisconsin around 6:30 and had the chance to capture this DWOO (driving while otherwise occupied) shot--out my speeding car window--of pre-sunrise over the Mississippi.

I arrived at the festival shortly before 8 AM.

Uh-oh, looks like there's already a pretty good crowd!

As I was walking to the entrance gate, I noticed that there was a variety of license plates (in addition to the Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois visitors you would expect).

I was able to hop aboard the 8:00 tour bus. Our trip leader was Caitlyn, who's been working at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge (NNWR) as an intern this summer. She's also been leading lots of other groups this year and was really knowledgeable about the whooping cranes and everything that goes into raising them here at NNWR, not to mention all the additional information she shared with us regarding the other plants and animals within the NNWR.

Hey, what's that bird over there?

That's no bird.....it's one of the ultralight aircraft that Operation Migration uses to help the whooping cranes make their migration trip to Florida. The pilots were just finishing up their early morning flight training sessions. If I had gotten an earlier start and made it on the 7:30 bus, I might have been able to see the whooping cranes flying along with this aircraft.

Could you imagine flying all the way to Florida in one of these? Caitlyn told us that the program will continue until approximately 100 whooping cranes have been raised and followed the ultralight aircraft during fall migration. She said they're currently at just over 60 whooping cranes that have been taught to migrate this way.

Here's one of the enclosures where the young whooping cranes are being raised this summer. It's in an area of the refuge where the general public isn't allowed to go, so this bus tour gave us a chance to see it when normally you wouldn't be able to. You can learn more about the whooping crane project by clicking on this link for the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership.

I did manage to catch a fleeting glimpse of one whooping crane flying. They are a striking white color--especially when you compare them to the sandhill cranes which are quite common and in some fairly large flocks within the NNWR.

This is just another view within the refuge. On our bus tour through the refuge we were treated to the sight of many red-headed woodpeckers. I've never seen so many red-headed woodpeckers in one place!

The festival had several speakers lined up throughout the morning and afternoon, but since I was anxious to get back out to the NNWR, I only stayed to listen to Keith Kennedy give a talk about nature photography. I picked up a few pointers but came away with a longing for a new camera and longer lens (yes, size does matter!)

I then visited the big tent featuring informational booths on whooping cranes and also vendors selling a variety of goods. I resisted the urge to purchase another t-shirt or sweatshirt, but couldn't resist some new whooping crane "bling" for my binocular straps and my earlobes.

It was a fun day for me, but I realized after I got to the festival that it wasn't quite what I expected. It was a festival celebrating the whooping crane and I went expecting it to be more of a birding festival. I believe I was the only person there with a spotting scope and must have looked like a total dork walking around toting all my birding gear! Caitlyn did mention that NNWR has field trips geared more towards birders where we would actually be able to visit viewing blinds and see the cranes, so next time, I'll have to check out that possibility if I want more of a "birding" experience.

Stay tuned for my next post where I'll be taking you through the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge and sharing some of the amazing things I saw there on my own.