More Flood Damage

I hiked down to the Spring Creek aqueduct today in hopes of photographing some tracks after the flooding.  I was quite surprised to see the at the water levels were still quite high, and the debris from the cornfields has blocked up the underside of the aqueduct.  I normally walk underneath, but it is going to be awhile before I get to do that again.  It will take a few more milder rains to clean out the debris.

Regardless of my disappointment of not finding any tracks, I still got a couple of nice wildlife shots on the way back.

Squirrelly Peek-A-Boo

Hooded Merganser in Flight

After the Floods

Yesterday, our seasonal monsoon ripped through the area giving us 4-5 inches of rain in a 24 hr. period.  The creeks overflowed, some streets flooded, and even the Green River levee broke in an area.  I spent last evening cleaning up water from the basement.

Today, the cold came back and we even had a bit of snow fall.  Regardless of the crappy weather, I needed to escape so I took the fat bike out to see what the weather had done to the canal over by Annawan.

Yes, another fat bike pic:)  I can't help myself!

After a couple of miles, I reached the aqueduct right outside of town.  The creek was certainly up, and I would have loved to see what it looked like yesterday, but instead, the aftermath.

While there, I spotted a new bird species for myself.  I captured both male and female yellow-rumped warblers.  They were feeding below the aqueduct on the flotsam and jetsam that had accumulated there.

Female Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Male Yellow-Rumped Warbler

One final surprise awaited at the aqueduct.  An otter had visited here just today, so I'm hopeful that I may soon get a good closeup of it. 

Otter Tracks

I rode down a couple more bridges, but my ride was cut short by a flat on the way back:(  This will be a new adventure.  This will be the first time I've changed a flat with these monstrous tires.

A Weekend of Flighty Firsts!

I have and do spend so much time on the canal, I often wonder when I will stop seeing new things.  Luckily, that hasn't happened yet:)  Honestly, I don't think it will ever happen.  I used to think "new" had to be species, but now that's certainly not the case.  There are so many animal habits that I have never seen, and those are pretty much endless.

Saturday, I took a nice long bike ride over to the Feeder Canal Basin by Sheffield.  This is the area where the north/south feeder canal empties into the east/west channel.

ONce I got on the southern trail, I spotted a very large bird swooping down around a flock of ducks that were in the water.  I could tell it was a raptor.  It was too big to be a red tailed hawk, so I started to think eagle.  Right after I thought that, it let out its call and I knew what it was instantly, but I really couldn't believe it.  It was an osprey!  The only place I've seen osprey is in Florida on vacation.  I know they migrate up and down the Mississippi River, but I've never seen them.  This osprey flew directly over me twice so I got a good look, and heard its call several times.  No mistake at all.  The downside to this moment.....you guessed it......I didn't have my good camera, just the point and shoot:(  I wanted to kick myself.

On the way back, I could see two large birds sitting right on the path.  I was hoping for osprey, but I had a hunch about what it was.  I rode my bike slowly closer, and then got off to walk it slowly.  I got my tiny little Nikon ready and took a new photo every 5 yards or so.  By the time I got closer, I already knew they were turkey vultures, but they were showing an interesting display.

They stood there like this for quite some time, and to me, it seemed territorial because they usually fly away on first sight of me.  These guys were standing their ground a bit.  I kept moving closer, and they finally got nervous and flew away.  It was evident what they were guarding when I got there:

Two new firsts!  A new species for the canal and a new behavior!  I sulked a bit that night, angry at myself for not strapping my camera to my back.  Stupid!  Stupid!  Stupid!  Someday I'll learn.

Today, I decided to leave the bike at home, strap on the camera, and take a hike in the same area.  I really wanted that osprey.  Just as I was pulling up to the parking area, I spotted 10 turkey in the field.  Nothing new here, but they were fun to photograph.

Not long after getting out of the car, I got a nice shot of this red-winged blackbird.  Nothing new here either, but I love to get them when they are calling.

Now for something new!  I spotted two northern flickers doing their mating dance!  I've never seen this before and it was absolutely fascinating!

I wandered down a couple of bridges and spotted pintails, northern shovelers, and mallards, but couldn't get any decent shots.  I decided to move and head back over by Atkinson where I had seen the otter in the last post.....you know, the other time I forgot to bring my good camera!

The otter has been busy marking up the exact same spot with his scat.  The last time I was here, I only found one old pile, but there were four new ones marking the trail from the canal to the little drainage ditch.

Not seeing the otter, I wandered down a bit further and came across another first!  Two great white egrets were sitting on the path of the canal!  I've seen them on the rivers, but never on the Hennepin.  Very skittish birds, they are.

A long winded post, lots of photos, and several "firsts" to add to my Hennepin Canal experiences.  The setting of dusk drove me back to the truck reluctantly, but I just had to get one photo that wasn't a bird!

 

A Pleasant Surprise!

Man, have I gotten fat!!  I weighed myself about a month ago and found that I weigh more than I ever have.  Time for diet and exercise habits to change drastically!  I've set a 50lb goal for myself, and so far I've lost 10lbs through rigorous racquetball and lots of biking.  My nutritional habits have changed considerably.....I miss McDonald's so much:)  I have to say that I feel so much better already, so hopefully I can make this a change rather than a diet.

So what does being fat have to do with the Hennepin Canal?  Well, nothing other than the fact that I have replaced my photography endeavors with biking for awhile.  Not permanently, but less photography, more exercise!  I love to ride the canal, and although I've been leaving the big camera at home, I still bring my point-and-shoot along with me.  Of course there won't be any detailed closeups of critters, but instead, photographic evidence of animals better than most bigfoot sighting photos:)

Today I biked past Atkinson, and it was quite a brisk ride.  As I'm cruising along, I spot what I strangely thought was a black garbage bag blowing across the ground on the other side of the canal.  Have you ever had one of those optical illusion moments where you aren't seen things correctly, and then all of a sudden reality slaps you upside the head!?  This was one of those moments.  After adjusting my eyes, I realize it is an otter on the south bank sniffing around!  This is only the second otter I have ever seen on the canal.  I dropped the bike down, got the little point-and-shoot out of my pack, and proceeded to slowly stalk a little closer.

The otter wandered down the bank toward the ditch creek, so I jumped on my bike and hauled a## to the bridge and onto the other side (what a great workout).  I stopped and abandoned the bike about 50 yards from where I had last seen it and proceeded to quietly creep forward.  When I was about 20 yards away, I was spotted and he dashed across the path and back into the canal.

Thinking I had seen the last of him, I just stood on the edge peering into the water, but apparently, this guy was quite curious and cautiously swam around the area looking at the ugly beast that had just disturbed him.  He even vocalized a bit at me!  It was more of a chuffing sound, which was really awesome.  Shortly after, he disappeared out of sight.

I walked the rest of the way to where I had seen him first.  There was a nice path going from the canal down into the drainage creek.

I was hoping to find some tracks or sign.  I did find some old otter scat, but nothing fresh.

This little surprise made a bike ride definitely worth it.  I'll be revisiting this spot later in the week with my good camera.  Despite the point-and-shoot camera and super cropping, I'm happy with the otter evidence collected today.  It's great to see otters in the Hennepin, and hopefully we will be able to enjoy them for years to come!

Stalking Mergansers

I've been seeing a lot of common and hooded mergansers on the canal lately.  Today I went on a short hike and spotted one through my lens about 100 yards away.  It was unusual to see just one, but it was the perfect opportunity to stalk up to it and see how close I could get.

It was diving, so I started to time how long it was under.  On average, it would go under for 6 seconds and then pop up.  Soooo, every time it dived, I sprinted to the count of four and got on the ground.  I did this until I got about 20 yards from him.  I can't believe I got that close.  I belly crawled for 5 more yards, and when he came up, I knew he spotted me, so I just let the shutter fly:)  I got two good side shots and the rest was it high-tailing it out of there!

It was great fun to see how close I could get, as they are very difficult to get close to.  I hope nobody was watching me:)

Possums and Trains Don't Mix

It has been a pretty long week for me.  I've been sick most of the week, and actually still am a bit.  I've slowly gotten a bit better each day.  I don't stay down well!  I've been laying around watching TV and movies and thought I was going to go mad today, so I decided I was going out!

I went over to the Hennepin Canal Museum area and did a short, sloooowwww bike ride.  I didn't want to take too much out of myself.

My favorite bridges are the railroad bridges that cross over the canal, so I headed to bridge #4.  I haven't been here for quite some time.

I decided to ride instead of walk.  I tried a bit of a hike yesterday and felt pretty crappy when I got back.  The bike was perfect.  I just kept it in granny gear and kept it at about 2 mph:)

Once at the bridge, I wanted to go up top to get some photos.  I love black and white photos of old bridges.  I like how these came out.

I could see something on the tracks on the other side, so I crossed the bridge.  The sight was not a good one:(

Opossums were lying everywhere.  There were actually four carcasses of varying ages lying around.  All four were in the same spot.  I missed the best shot of the day shortly after this.  When I was done inspecting the carnage, I was going back to cross over the railroad bridge.  I took one look back and a coyote was sprinting down the center of the tracks headed right for me!  I was so surprised, I didn't even think to raise my camera!  That would have made an awesome photo, but as I finally decided to raise the camera, he bolted off the tracks and into the trees.  I'm pretty sure he was planning to scavenge a meal.

On the way back I did find some living wildlife.  A lone goose was hanging out on the ice and didn't seem to startled by me.

It was also nice to see a living opossum on this little trip.  This was a young one!

By the time I got back home, I was pretty worn out, but felt better that I got some blood circulating!  Finally.  I hate lying around.

A Bit of Winter Biking!

I spent the weekend biking in the snow on the canal trail.  I put in quite a few miles and really had a blast.  Below are some of the things that I saw:

I went to the Lock 21 area by Wyannet and found a great area where the water had not frozen.  There were 6 eagles there that all flew away as I rode closer.  There were also crows everywhere!

 American Crow Print

A not so great photo of an American Eagle print.  Had a little trouble getting focused because I fell thorough the ice:)  It'll have to do until next time.

Sunday, I rode to the Lock 26 area down to the Green River foot bridge.  I love this area and always find something of interest.

I found some pretty strange tracks and need some help with identifying (Trailblazer, are you there?).  Basically, this slide print was in the aqueduct 15 feet down, so I couldn't get a closer look.  I only had my point and shoot camera and couldn't zoom closer, and the tracks around the slide were not identifiable.

The only critter around my area that I can think of that slides like this is an otter.  Not sure what the little dug-out area is.  Just outside of the bottom of the picture is open water.

On the way back, just as I got back to the parking area, I see this big furry butt sticking out from a tree:)  It made me laugh as it was shifting back and forth trying to get further into the tree hollow.

I made some squeaking noises with my mouth and finally got the raccoon to turn around.

After a couple of shots, he took off higher into the tree.  After his hollow in the tree was revealed, I couldn't help but laugh even more.  He was really trying to fit a lot into a little tiny hole!

I look forward to a bit warmer weather so I can bring my good camera with on my bike rides.  It was just too darned cold to take it this weekend.  I have to admit the little waterproof Nikon point and shoot still gets the job done.