Shy Cormorants

I stopped by the Superior Drive pond between picking up kids from school this afternoon, and saw the flock of cormorants that Brendon had reported seeing there recently. I like the way their heads stick up out of the water! They sit very low in the water, and their bodies easily disappear from view while their long necks remain very visible. They are easily spooked, however, and as soon as I approached they took flight. I was rather impressed that the photo below caught their "footsteps" on the water as they took off -- something I couldn't see with the naked eye and wasn't aware I was capturing with the camera. (Click on the photos for greater detail.)

Just Us Boys: Mallards in Spring

These four male mallards came enthusiastically up to me as I got out of my car today, and then wandered away again when I got out my camera rather than some nice breadcrusts.

Tuesday night while walking out Division Street toward the high school, I saw a pair of male mallards repeatedly jumping on top of a lone female on someone's front lawn; she would totally disappear under them. They seemed very into it but I wasn't so sure about her, as she tried to waddle away whenever she was able to emerge from under the ardent pair. I was running late, so I didn't linger to see which one, if any, won the lady's affections.

My Favorite Tree

Christopher Tassava picked up on another blogger's query about favorite trees. This is a blog topic I've meant to start myself, as I think of it every time I drive south on Water Street toward Woodley and see this magnificent elm. Winter or summer, it's a beautiful sight. But Christopher, some of the oaks on the Carleton campus are right up there for me too -- I love their gnarled intricacies.

A Powerful Swimmer

As I was leaving work today at about 6:30 p.m., I saw a large black bird come in for a landing on the river, and soon saw another like it already on the water. These seem very likely to have been double-crested cormorants. Last summer I regularly saw one perched at the top of the large cottonwood tree that was taken down later in the season, but I hadn't seen them on the water before. Look at the wake this one leaves as it swims, and how the water is cresting up around the bird: now that's a powerful swimmer. (Click on the photo for better detail.)

Coots and Gulls

I was out for my new favorite walk around the Superior Drive pond again today, between rain showers. The loon was prominent once again at the center of the pond, and Brendon Etter, who opened his window to chat, reported having seen a pair of them now (see his comment to yesterday's Loon in Northfield post). I also spotted a swimming muskrat, which was smaller than I'd expected. By this time I'd already been around the pond and the only other waterfowl to be seen were a little covey of coots, or whatever the proper collective noun for coots might be:

Behind that pond is another, still half-frozen, on the very edge of town, where there were quite a few gulls (below).


I'm not expert at gull identification, but I think these are likely to be Ring-billed Gulls, based on the pale wings with black tips and the fan-shaped tail. Click on either photo to see more detail.