Published by Richie March 28th, 2007
in Aghaming Birds.
Copyright 2007 by Richie Swanson
The rusty blackbird steps as nimbly as a tightrope artist along a wiry branch, then struts with purpose on a log floating in a half-thawed slough in the backwaters. He drags up a piece of bark longer than he is tall and pecks its underside. He tosses it away and hurriedly pulls apart a tangle of last year’s snakeweed. He eats caddis fly larvae, other aquatic insects and seeds. Frequently misidentified as the Brewer’s blackbird, the rusty has gone so unnoticed Gordon Orians barely mentioned the species in his excellent Blackbirds of the Americas in 1985. Recently, Audubon Society called the rusty blackbird North America’s most sharply declining bird species, due to a 95% decline since 1966. Continue reading ‘Unknown but disappearing, 3-25-07′
Published by Richie March 23rd, 2007
in Aghaming Birds.
Copyright 2007 by Richie Swanson
This morning the loudest, most temperamental hawk on the river arrives silently, flying above a frozen slough. The red-shouldered hawk shows the creamy-rich rufous on its breast, belly and underwing coverts, and the narrow white bands on its dark tail, and then it vanishes above gray-branched maples. Wisconsin lists the red-shouldered hawk as legally threatened; Minnesota, as a species of special concern. Nests have been documented at Aghaming Park and Preserve since 1994. In the past, the red-shouldered has traded nest locations with great horned owls on alternate years. Last year, it appeared to avoid a bald eagle’s nest, breeding deep in woods away from vehicle traffic. Continue reading ‘Red-shouldered hawk, 3-18-07′
Published by Richie March 19th, 2007
in Aghaming Birds.
Copyright 2007 by Richie Swanson
The back channel of the Mississippi has been frozen since late December, but the evening air is about 50 degrees, and the bald eagle doesn’t even glance at me as it glides a few feet past the rail of the Wagon Bridge. It stares seriously down at holes suddenly open around abutments. It circles back and forth, rising and dipping, and a talon skims water, clutching a walleye, and then a great blue heron scrawks overhead, my first heron sound this spring. Continue reading ‘Heron Highway, 3-13-07′
Published by Richie March 12th, 2007
in Aghaming Birds.
Copyright 2007 by Richie Swanson
Two bald eagles swoop low above the Mississippi, mature birds with heads as white as the four feet of snow dumped on the river-ice this week. The eagles dip and rise, looping around each other, and suddenly one stands belly-deep in snow, its yellow glare imperturbable, its legs rigid as if a talon were squeezing a rabbit caught atop the river at dawn. But the eagle flies to a cottonwood and pecks a frozen slab of fish left by the dark-wiggling shapes that slid in moonlight last night—river otters! Continue reading ‘Eagles and Otters, 3-3-07′
