Though if you looked at the St Croix River today, you would see a much different free flowing water way. However a good month ago, the temps were much colder than today, the river was frozen. Frozen over enough for someone to make a path, a very long path down the heart of the icy river. I didn't get close enough to tell if the tracks in the snow were made from walking or if they were made from a snowmobile.
The Bald Eagle wing span is much larger than my arms spread apart. Seeing it up close gave me an appreciation of just how big it's wings can be. The photo captured the several layers of feathers and one could literally count how many are one of it's wings.
This very large tree was no match for Mother Nature along the shore of the St Croix River. In all honesty, the photo does not show the size of the tree. It looks rather small in the photo, but it was probably the largest tree in the area that I was in for the photo. If you look close, there is a bird house attached to the midsection of the tree on the left of the trunk. The hole for the birds was about the size of a softball, which is made for very large birds that would nest inside.
Almost without fail, as the snow melts away and flows downstream, the St Croix River spills over it's banks. It's only a couple of feet above flood stage as you can see by the large growing trees in standing water.
This has been a very tough spring to take in this year in 2008. I awoke to a little bit of snow here in the Twin Cities on the last weekend in April. Northern Minnesota had nearly a foot of snow in some parts. I can foresee a very late blooming spring, but some of nature is growing green. I found a patch of moss growing on tree roots on the northern side. Moss, as you should know, typically grows on the north side of trees because....why? Anyone? If you said, sunlight doesn't shine on the north side of objects, you would be correct. That is one way to help find your direction if you are ever lost in a forest.
Last photo from the Carpenter Nature Center. This great horned owl was impressive to me. Mainly because I heard them a lot when I lived in St Paul, but never ever saw one. Living out in Cottage Grove, that is one thing I do not hear that often. So to finally see one, wow, larger than I expected.
Yesterday I had a photo of the largest bird in the raptor family, with a wing span of about 6 feet long. Today we have the smallest of the North American Hawks, the American Kestrel. This is quite a colorful bird up close. Not what I would expect to see from a bird of prey. Although, for the birds that make Minnesota their home, it's one of the most colorful birds that I have personally seen around here.
Another photo from yesterday's Carpenter Nature Center. One thing I never realized about the bald eagle....I was very surprised to see feathers covering it's legs. It actually looked strange seeing all of the feathers. Most birds legs are exposed to the elements, but the bald eagles legs were covered with feathers. Perhaps being such large birds with large feathers, one can actually notice their legs. My guess is the extra covering helps the eagles who do not migrate. Not all of them do, which I was also not aware of. When I was awaiting the raptor release, I observed nine bald eagles flying in the sky. I had never seen so many eagles flying at once in the sky. It was quite a sight to see. I know a lot of the bald eagles success comes from the Carpenter Nature Center. I wonder just how many of these beautiful birds call this area home.
Made a visit to Carpenter Nature Center for their annual raptor release event. It certainly was amazing to see if you've never been to an event like this before. They released four birds on this day. One bald eagle, two red tail hawks and I cannot recall the fourth bird they released. This was the first time I had been to this type of event and had no idea that a place like this existed. The short story, they help injured birds of prey back into the wild. They come in to the center for various reasons, broken wing, the bird was caught in a live trap and had a broken leg, etc. To see these birds up close like this was awe inspiring. Today's photo is of a bald eagle that had been injured in some way, but could never be released back into the wild for fear of it not surviving if it was released. Some of the birds just are not able to be healthy enough to make it. The center is run by donations from public and private charities. All of the workers are volunteers, which again is quite amazing in this day and age.
