Sunday, October 14, 2007

Sparrows, woodpeckers and bluebirds at Wood Lake Nature Center

It was still light out when I left Minnesota River Valley NWR on Saturday the 6th so I decided to run over to Wood Lake Nature Center to see what was going on over there. I started out by checking by the visitors center where I spotted a few song sparrows.
Then I went out on the paths and walked my typical figure eight. On the south side of the park I got a nice view of a woodpecker. I identified it as a hairy woodpecker because I did not see any white spots on the tail like a downy would have.On the west side of the park I found another banded woolly bear caterpillar looking for a place to hibernate. Maybe all of the woolly bear caterpillars that I have been seeing lately are a sign that winter will be here soon. There are people who use woolly bear caterpillars to forecast the weather. Can you imagine your TV weather man bringing up images of woolly bears instead of Doppler Radar?

I also got some nice shots of an eastern bluebird. Unfortunately I was trying to get a bit closer and two walkers passed me by and flush the bird. A while later the mosquitoes started to get fierce and the light got low so I packed it up and headed for home.

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