Minnesota Birds...

 I'm going to try something new and keep a list of birds that we see throughout the year at our feeders.  There's over 800 birds in North America, 400 of those have been seen in Minnesota and 300 of those are considered regulars.  So how many species can we see at our feeders?

We currently keep six feeders full stocked.  We serve a variety of foods:  three different types of seeds, corn, four suet cakes, peanuts and grape jelly/fruit/sugar water seasonally.

Here's the birds we've seen through 5/11:

1.  Black Capped Chickadee 

2.  Blue Jay

3.  Purple Finch

4.  Northern Cardinal

5.  House Finch 

6.  House Sparrow

7.  Red Bellied Woodpecker

8.  Dark Eye Junco 

9.  White Breasted Nuthatch

10.  Downy Woodpecker

11.  Mourning Dove 

12.  European Starling

13.  American Crow (didn't eat, but was near feeders)

14.  American Robin (didn't eat, but was near feeders)

15.  Northern Flicker

16.  Mallard (male and female in the yard)

17.  Red Winged Blackbird

18.  Baltimore Oriole

19.  Ruby Throated Hummingbird

20.  Wild Turkey

21.  Rose Breasted Grosbeak

***I expect to update this list somewhat regularly if/when new species come to the feeders.                                                                                      

New Years Day Hike...

 Happy New Years to some of you today.  We took a hike this afternoon to the Carver Rapids on the Minnesota River with our new snowshoes...

The last normal thing I did last spring before the world went to hell and everything was cancelled was take a snowshoe lacing workshop at Gooseberry Falls.  I laced a pair of Ojibwa snowshoes and planned to take another workshop this fall making a pair of urban shoes.  Well that workshop was cancelled but I decided to lace them on my own...then I decided I should lace three more pairs for Christmas presents to the kids...

It was the first time that Lex's pair had seen snow...

The pairs I laced for them are sized for their later adult heights/weights...so these should last and have plenty of opportunity for usage in the coming years...

We went to the lower rapids on the Minnesota River...when the river is low you can see the Jordan Sandstone that forms the rapids, historically, the rapids were a major impediment to travel up the river and certainly play a role in why the towns of Carver & Chaska are located where they are.  In 2011, I did a post on my geology blog (which I haven't added to in years) on the rapids that can be found here...

 

Of course we needed to grab one quick selfie near the end of the hike...

It was a fun day...and tiring as well...