Better in 2022

 

Birding, Wood Lake, 31 December 2021

Taking a Breath in November...

So, it is sunny and 21° outside (windchill has it at 8°)and I am glad to have the opportunity to take a breath and clean up a little. Yesterday, I worked on the garage, and today I am moving indoors and I am going to tackle my office space a bit. The first part of the cleaning was to go through pictures I have taken recently and see if any of them are keepers. Here is what I found...

Flying squirrel waiting for me to leave.

It is always a delight to see the flying squirrels in the maple tree. I try to keep their feeder filled, to increase the chance of seeing them around. Here is another look...

Should I stay or should I go?

And finally...

Finally okay to return to eating.

Last weekend we went for a long walk at the Old Cedar Trail Bridge. There were not a ton of birds to be seen. A hairy woodpecker, a bald eagle, and some swans, Canadian geese in the far distance. But on our walk back toward the north side of the Minnesota River we saw a ton of sparrows and here is my best sparrow shot.

I believe this is an American Tree Sparrow. So that is the update on the birding/photography part of life...

And here I managed to capture a red-bellied woodpecker flying.

Red-bellied woodpecker

Birding In Minneapolis - Late Summer

Murphy Hanrehan Park

Last weekend we tried a new location and while it was beautiful, we arrived a bit late and didn't see many birds.

My birding companions...

Yesterday at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge in Bloomington.

An Evening Grosbeak - immature

American Goldfinches all over the seed...

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was this morning at Wood Lake Park in Richfield.

Early May at Wood Lake

Golden-winged warbler - May 1st - SW corner of Wood Lake.  Hat tip to the birders who had found him and shared their find.

First of May and the geese have families going.

Yellow rumped warbler - there are a ton of these at Wood Lake right now.

Palm warbler - usually the second warbler to arrive.

Bal

Birding at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge

 Normally August can be a little slower on the birding front.  On my lovely wife's suggestion, we journeyed to a new spot - the park at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge, and oh was our trip worth it.  Over two days we saw a ton of birds, and added the famed "Least Flycatcher" to our life list.  Here are a few of my best shots.

The pictures don't really do justice to the joy of being out in nature with a loved one sharing a great experience.  Breathing deep in joy.

Least Flycatcher

    

Indigo bunting

Great Crested Flycatcher

American Redstart

Eastern Wood Pee Wee

Barn Swallow

Common Yellowthroat

Red Wing Blackbirds

Red Wing Blackbirds

More Common Yellowthroat

Minnesota River Bottom

American Goldfinch

Kitchen Floor Replacement During Vacation

 So after 20 years, it is time to update the kitchen floor.

So here is the cool tile floor we started with.

Shiloh was a big fan of the tile floor.  Excellent for cooling down on the hot days of summer.

So on Monday we started by taking out the tile.  Here is what the kitchen looks like before we moved the fridge and stove out.

So tile out, now the cement pad below.

So Monday night and somehow Karyl has the energy to go to band and I started working on the cement board that was below the tile.

This is the layer where I should have worn a mask.  Lots of cement dust in the lungs, which is not a great approach to longevity.  So we worked until 10 pm and had about 1/4 of the cement board up.

Sub floor below the cement board.

  So Tuesday morning, at 8:20 a.m. Ethan from Dave's Floor Sanding shows up. Ethan tells us that not only do we need to take up the cement board, but we need to take up  the sub floor below.  So Tuesday we worked from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.   Around the middle of the afternoon we finished with the cement board out.  We kept hoping that the next layer would be easier.  No so much.  So the sub floor needs to be sawed into chunks and then pried up with a huge pry bar.  We did not have those tools, so our progress was more modest. 

This is what the floor looks like on Wednesday morning when Steve shows up to install our new wood floor.  Dave's said, "No" and Steve was off to another job.  Fortunately for us Jeff at Dave's got a demo expert, John to show up Wednesday afternoon and in 90 minutes he got the rest of the sub floor out.

Post John, and with a Karyl clean up.

So finally, by Thursday morning this is what the floor looks like.  Fortunately for us, Jeff at Dave's was very patient, and despite us note being ready for work on Wednesday morning, Jeff had someone queued to show up Thursday morning and install our new floor.

Our new oak floor.

  Thursday morning Adam shows up and gets to work and does an amazing job of transforming our kitchen floor into a wonderful space.  No more walking on nails, sticking out of the floor, just a beautiful red oak floor.  Well done Adam and "thank you" to Jeff for patience.

Hale, Hale, the Gang's All Here...

 So it is mid-May and Wood Lake is swimming in bird life.  We have a family of great horned owls that are growing like weeds, and surviving being harassed by a murder of crows, baby geese, and then the surprises...

Today we saw our first yellow-headed black birds, which fun.  We also saw redstarts, palm warblers, yellow warblers, and there are rumors of prothonotary warblers in the area.  Here are some of today's winners:

Hairy woodpecker

Yellow warbler

White throated sparrow

Yellow headed black bird

Two fledgling great horned owls

Screen Shots of Wood Lake on April 17, 2021

Brown creeper

Nuthatch

Cardinal

Wood ducks

Goldfinch?

Canadian Goose landing

Downy woodpecker

Song Sparrow

Grackle

Eastern Phoebe

Hermit Thrush?

Tree sparrows

Red Wing Blackbird