The Deluge in Northfield - Video

The big event of the week in Northfield and the nearby region was the six to eight inches of rain -- even more in some spots -- that came down on Thursday. Wave after wave of heavy rain passed through the area throughout the day and well into the evening. The Cannon River flooded in Cannon Falls, along with the Little Cannon, but did not (at least not to any significant extent) in Northfield. However, creeks overflowed, soccer fields turned into lakes, farms were underwater, several roads became impassable, and many people had wet basements.

I have a wet basement myself -- our sump pump failed at one corner of the finished portion of our basement, so water welled up in that area and spread throughout our family room. More water poured in under a door at the opposite, walk-out side of the basement, where there is a badly conceived exterior stairwell. We have a bedroom down there as well, which is also very wet; it seems to have received some water from both sources. We spent much of the night trying to keep up with it all, and quite a bit of time and hard work ever since, trying to get things dried out and assess what needs to be done next. Carpets, baseboards and the bottom of several walls were soaked. It's been quite upsetting, but I know that what we experienced was little compared to some others.

Friends at the small, diversified Seeds Farm and Laughing Loon Farm, just south of Northfield, were indundated. Much planted acreage and some chickens were washed away. Both farms are gratefully welcoming volunteers to help with the clean-up this week. Both have Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/LaughingLoonFarm?ref=ts and https://www.facebook.com/SeedsFarm?ref=ts. I've been following both farms' accounts of their spring plantings, and it's very sad to see so much hope simply drowned, though I'm sure they'll recover in time.

While watching one of the early downpours from the Neuger Communications Group office at the heart of downtown Northfield, I took this short video of water lapping over the curb in front of our building and gushing from a manhole across the street where the storm sewer became overwhelmed. It's funny to think, looking back, that this was only the beginning. At this point in the day, the planners of Taste of Northfield were still hoping to hold the event that evening, "rain or shine." In the end, of course, it had to be canceled.



A couple of local websites picked up this video (which, due to the magic of the smartphone, I had posted to YouTube and tweeted within a couple of minutes of recording it), and when I checked yesterday I was quite astounded to see it's had more than 800 views.

While coping with all the rain, we spared a thought for the close-to-fledging tree swallows in some of our bluebird boxes and hoped that they were staying dry and had not chosen that morning to leave the nest. And I hope our young bluebird fledglings, most of whom are only two or three weeks out of the nest, found shelter and are all right. We checked most of our nestboxes yesterday, and all those we checked seemed to have stayed dry. I'll be posting a bluebird trail report soon.

Update - June 18: We had another bout of heavy rain and hail overnight -- Weather Underground stations are reporting between one and four inches overnight in the Northfield and Cannon Falls areas (3.75 at Stanton airport).

Not-So-Solitary Sandpipers in Flooded Field

Saturday evening, while doing our bluebird nestbox rounds south of Northfield, we noticed that the afternoon's heavy rains had left standing water in many farm fields. Flooded fields are prime habitat for migrating shorebirds, so we were on the lookout. At one particularly wet spot I saw something small and pale, so we pulled over to take a closer look.

We saw one, and then another, and eventually as many as seven or eight medium-sized shorebirds -- not all together, but here and there in ones and occasionally twos. A red-winged blackbird flew at one and flushed it, and we noted that the two birds were of very similar body size, which gave us a useful reference point. When we got close enough to see it, a noticeable white eye-ring confirmed the identification: these were solitary sandpipers. I just checked the comparative body length of the two species, and our impression of similar size was correct: solitary sandpipers are about 8.5 inches and red-winged blackbirds are about 8.7 inches.

We have most often seen these one at a time, as their name suggests, but the Cornell Lab's All About Birds site says, "While not truly solitary, it does not migrate in large flocks the way other shorebirds do," and National Geographic Complete Birds of North America notes that they are "usually seen singly or in small groups." Wet, grassy areas are a common setting for solitary sandpipers. On May 1 last year, in fact, we saw one in a flooded low area of lawn near our house, right in Northfield.

Like most of the shorebirds we see in Minnesota, these are just passing through on their way from their winter homes, ranging from southern Mexico into much of South America, to their breeding grounds in Canada and Alaska.

I was fascinated to learn just now, as I read about these pretty shorebirds, that they actually nest in trees, in the abandoned nests of songbirds, particularly particularly those of the American robin, rusty blackbird, eastern kingbird, gray jay, and cedar waxwing. The Cornell Lab site says, "Of the world's 85 sandpiper species, only the solitary sandpiper and the green sandpiper of Eurasia routinely lay eggs in tree nests instead of on the ground." This nesting habit was not discovered until 1903, 90 years after the species was first described by ornithologist Alexander Wilson.

So here are the things about solitary sandpipers that will stick in my mind:

• White eye-ring
• Same size as a red-winged blackbird (the legs and bills are very different, obviously)
• Flooded fields are likely habitat (this is true for a number of shorebird species, of course)
• They nest in trees!

Worms As Big As Your Foot

After a full day of drizzle and rain and a real cloudburst near the end of the day, my 8-year-old son and I came out of the high school where he'd just finished his Tae Kwon Do class, and found ourselves surrounded by more big worms than I've ever seen in my life. We had to walk carefully or we could easily have mashed one with every step. I couldn't resist taking this photo of his foot next to one of the giants. This was the largest in the immediate vicinity, but many others were nearly as big. Now, let's see, do I classify this as a wildlife post?

Flash Flood Watch: Clear Your Storm Drains

The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for much of this area for tonight and tomorrow morning; heavy rains are expected. With the soil still saturated from all the rain we've had recently, run-off will be heavy. Take a few minutes to make sure the storm drain near your house or office isn't clogged with fallen leaves!

High Water in October

It took me a while to get my camera up and running this week, so I missed getting pictures of the highest water after our heavy rains of the weekend, continuing into the workweek. I have to say I don't remember the river being this high at this time of year before.

Look how little space shows under the Third Street bridge; granted, there is a drop-off at the mill, but normally you can see more under the bridge. Compare it to the photo that lives at the top of my sidebar, which was taken in late July.

A couple of days ago, looking out of the Neuger Communications Group office at 411 Water St., we were pretty sure we were seeing water up to the bench on the west side of the river.

That's a lot of water! The ducks have been keeping a low profile; it's got to be challenging to keep up with the current during high water like this.

On the east side of the river, the vegetation is getting its feet wet. (This plant, covered in tiny little daisy-like flowers, looks as if it might be part of the aster family.)

After the rain

The sudden glut of moisture from Saturday's rain cracked some of my tomatoes, as you can see here. I've suddenly realized that I don't have a lot of tomatoes left. When I'm growing my own from seed, I usually prefer indeterminate varieties that keep producing more fruit throughout the season. This year I bought plants, and while the big, sturdy seedlings gave me a head start on an early harvest, it looks as if I have determinate types, which tend to produce fruit that all ripen around the same time. I guess when my own plants are done, I'll be buying those big slicers from the farmers market until the frosts come.

Rain!

As I lay less than half awake this morning, the first tentative, irregular sounds plinked their way through the hum of the ceiling fan. I'd opened the windows last night to let the cool air in, and through those windows eventually came a welcome sound we've not heard much lately: gentle, steady rain.

I drove up the St. Olaf hill on Thursday and it reminded me a little of California's sun-bleached, oak-dotted hills. The sumac is already scarlet or beyond scarlet to brown in some locations. Lawns all over town are parched. The paper reports grave risk to our corn crops, which at least in this region were thriving so well earlier this season that they had doubled the pace of "knee high by the Fourth of July."

A long day's rain won't cure our deficit, but it's providing a much-needed drink to our plants and animals today, and a cool, soothing balm to our sun-dried souls.