My Driveway Robin

This bright-eyed, boldly colored little fellow has been hanging around the court in front of my house lately. It may be he who has been singing so consistently from the oak tree by the side of the house, marking his breeding territory with the easy-to-recognize "cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up." I assume it is a "he" due to the intensity of the brick-colored breast; females are very similar but not quite so strongly colored. I recognize this bird in particular because he seems a little on the scrawny side. Sometimes the scrappy little guys get the girl because they just try harder.

Storm Clouds From Hwy 19

I felt compelled to stop and pull out my camera while driving back to Northfield from an errand to the Twin Cities this afternoon, as the cloud mass I driven through a few minutes earlier loomed dramatically to the north. This sequence was taken from just south of the intersection of Hwy 19 and Baldwin Road looking north and northeast. I've boosted the contrast a tad here, but only to the point that the photos gave me the same visceral reaction that the reality had. Don't you love the lone tree shown in the final view? In checking my location on Google maps, since I hadn't noted the name of the cross street, I was able to confirm the correct location in part because I could see that tree in the satellite view.

The Sounds of Humboldt Bay NWR

I took this short video clip mainly to capture the constant bird sounds we were hearing -- Canada and Cackling Geese (a smaller subspecies) in particular -- at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex. It was a beautiful place. We saw many marbled godwits, gulls, herons, and a gorgeous northern harrier (aka marsh hawk) flying low over the saltmarsh. At a distance across a field away from the marshes, we also saw to our amazement something that we concluded must have been a bobcat.

River Otter Eating a Fish

The photos below show a river otter eating a fish on a creekbank along the Shorebird Loop Trail at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex south of Eureka, CA, at the end of February. The refuge is situated on an estuary, where freshwater streams meet ocean waters in a slough. We had hoped throughout our northern California trip to see an otter, and it was on our last day in the north that we were alerted to the presence of this one by a friendly wildlife biology student from Humboldt State. Alas, my camera battery was just about out of power, with the backup back at the car, so these were the best I was able to get in the few shots I had left. We followed the otter's bubbles as it swam underwater to a couple of other spots nearby, and were utterly delighted to have such an extended opportunity to observe this charming animal. For someone raised on The Wind in the Willows (which, in case you don't know, is about so much more than the adventures of Mr. Toad), it was an especially nice treat.

Skywatch Friday

I so love the photograph I took of the pearl-gray sky over the Cannon River in Northfield, Minnesota, earlier this week that I am reposting it for my first-ever offering for Skywatch Friday. This is the scene I see from the river's edge in front of the building where I work, and I have photographed this view numerous times in different seasons and different weather. I never tire of it.

The tall building is the historic Ames Mill, which produced prize-winning flour in the 19th century, not too long after the founding of Northfield. It is still in use today as part of the Malt-O-Meal cereal company's production plant. The golden dome visible just above the left (west) side of the bridge belongs to the State Bank Building, built in 1910 in the Egyptian Revival style and now home to a local law firm that has done much to restore it. In the violent hailstorm of August 2006 (another video here), the dome was damaged and remained covered with tarps for months, but it has now been restored to its golden glory. The not-so-lovely green plastic fencing visible at the lower right is a temporary part of a riverbank relandscaping project designed to encourage taller grasses and discourage Canada geese.

Northfield is best known for being home to two fine liberal arts colleges, Carleton College and St. Olaf College, and for being the site of the defeat of the Jesse James Gang when they tried to rob the First National Bank and were routed by stalwart citizens. The anniversary of the occasion is celebrated with a major community festival, the Defeat of Jesse James Days, each September.