Blooming Bikes and Birds

Posted on February 7, 2015 by RegenAxe

Mature American Bald Eagle

Today’s high was 68 ˚F, which is not too bad considering that on Thursday morning it was only 7 ˚F. That was the morning of the infamous ‘crinkly butt’ incident, but there was no such marital discord today. We launched early, at least for us and drove up to the Riverlands, which was hosting its final winter-birds open house of the season. You never know what you will see when you go there. Today’s haul was one of the better ones, here is our unofficial tally:

Greater White Fronted goose – 100s
Canada goose – ~100
American pelican – ~25
Trumpeter swan – ~20
American Bald eagle – 6

There were numerous other species sighted, both waterfowl and little birds. This is the first time that I’ve seen so many White Fronted geese at the Riverlands. In fact, I’ve only seen one other one there and that was five years ago. Here is a link to a picture that I took then. It was sitting rather forlornly in the Missouri side parking lot of the Mel Price lock and dam. The swans were greatly diminished since our last visit to the Riverlands, they may have been out foraging or already migrated, but on the other hand the pelicans have begun to arrive again, a sure harbinger of spring. As we were headed home, Anne remarked, “When I was first moving to Saint Louis, I never expected that I would see lots of Bald eagles here.”

We weren’t done yet though, not by half. You don’t squander weather like this in February. After a quick-lunch, we launched again, but this time on our bikes. We headed towards Forest Park, but it was mobbed. Everybody who owned a bicycle in Saint Louis was there riding it and if they didn’t own a bike, they were still there. After slogging our way through the park, we decided to leave it behind. We headed over to Tower Grove Park, which mysteriously wasn’t near as crowded. After a turn around that park, we stopped off at the botanical gardens, which is holding its annual orchid show, another great photo-op. I was concerned that the stink of two sweaty cyclist would ruin the scent of these beautiful flowers and that we would be asked to leave. My fear was groundless though. Maybe we didn’t work as hard as we thought that we had. It has been a long time since we were on the bicycles.

A Pair of Mature Trumpeter Swans

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A Pair of Mature Trumpeter Swans

Hundreds of Trumpeter Swans!

Posted on January 19, 2015 by RegenAxe

Hundreds of Trumpeter Swans!

Anne had MLK Day off and I took it off too, just because. The weather for this January holiday weekend has been simply fabulous. Martin would be pleased with it too, but who wouldn’t. Even if we did spend his day eyeing honking honky birds. Sunday we did the old loop-de-loop bicycle ride in Forest Park. We saw Bill the Mad Doctor. He was going the opposite way. Today, we took Joanie to the Riverlands. I don’t think that she has ever been there before with me. It was pretty quiet, except for one small section of Ellis Bay. The main channel of the Mississippi was relatively ice-free and there was no ice to be seen on the Missouri, but this back bay was still pretty much frozen over. Except for relatively small pools that the hundreds of trumpeter swans and some Canada geese have kept open. The trumpeter swan is the largest waterfowl in North America. The bird sighting board in the Audubon Center had sightings of 200+ swans, both today and yesterday. Click on the photo, it really is quite large. Looking at it, I estimate that there were closer to 500 swans. When the Riverlands first opened as a bird sanctuary there were less than a hundred trumpeter swans seen that year. Speaking of the Audubon Center, the Corps has finally gotten around to landscaping the land between the center and the water. It looks great! We also saw one American Bald eagle. After our birding adventure, we headed across the river to Alton, to dine at Just Desserts. All pies are made that day and they calculate to sellout each day by four. We arrived at two and placed our order, just before the wait-staff started to erase the no longer available pies for the day. The first time Anne and I went there, we ordered lunch and then we ordered dessert, much to our chagrin. The pies we had been eyeing were no longer available. We’re older and wiser now. Eat dessert first, because life is short and uncertain, especially at Just Desserts.

Nature Versus Nurture

Posted on October 6, 2014 by RegenAxe

A Pair of Pied-billed Grebes

The phrase “nature versus nurture” relates to the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities, “nature”, as compared to an individual’s personal experiences, “nurture”. This combative view of the relationship between nature and nurture is only one way to look at things. Consider the situation where nature is nurturing. That was certainly the case for Anne and me on Sunday. We started the day with a morning bicycle ride in Forest Park. On this ride we photographed the pictured pair of grebes. This find inspired us to launch an afternoon photo safari to the Riverlands, where we went in search of more photos of waterfowl. We packed a picnic lunch and off we went.

The lunch was fine, our Sunday afternoon’s weather was perfect and there were plenty of birds to see. So what could be wrong? Well, the birds were rather standoffish. They were too far away for very many good pictures. Maybe I need a bigger zoom lens? One of my fellow photographers contends that you can never have too much zoom and when you use a zoom lens it is almost always on maximum zoom. I’ve also noticed that birds in the park are way more comfortable with people than the same species in the wild. The grebes approached us to within thirty feet, plus we here at a higher height than they were, which is always a consideration when your subject’s best means of escape is though flight.

After lunch, the first half of our expedition was spent trolling up and down the road along Ellis Bay in the Prius. Normally, the Prius makes for a great blind, but on Sunday that wasn’t really necessary, because all of birds were so far away. We did see Great White Egrets, Great Blue Herons, American Pelicans, American Coots and Killdeer. For the second half of our adventure, we went into the bush. Next week, in preparation for the winter migratory bird season almost all of the hiking trails will be closed until spring. It is after all a bird sanctuary. We took this last opportunity of the year to travel through the wetlands. It was a nice walk, but on top of our bike ride, our little biathlon left us played out and neither of us were contemplating making it a triathlon by swimming in the Mississippi. Besides the official triathlon for which signs were still up, had long since finished.