For New Year’s I stayed with friends in a cabin in the Brainerd Lakes area. It was fantastic. We watched the bird feeders, hiked across the lake with the dog, made a fire in the pit, ate good food, stayed cozy, and celebrated.
Back in the Twin Cities, I did some birding along the trail that originates at the Sibley historic site in Mendota Heights and goes through seven miles of woods and wetlands to the old Cedar Avenue bridge and beyond. This area is part of Fort Snelling but is on the opposite side of the Minnesota River.
It is a great trail. The snow was fresh and powdery, allowing you to reconstruct animal events from the previous hours. The other trail users were almost all fat-bikers. One of them had an akita (dog) bounding along behind him. It looked like a lot of fun.
I was impressed with the hawks and eagles making a living in the snowy valley. I also enjoyed watching flocks of hundreds of robins forage, preen, and yeep, tuk and chirr to call to each other.
In Saint Paul, I once again watched a Cooper’s hawk picking apart a pigeon several feet from my window. It had dragged its prey under a cedar tree.
By the Mississippi bank, I found a reddish deer mouse or white-footed mouse devouring buckthorn berries. It was oblivious to my presence. I suppose they survive thanks to their camouflage and secretive habits and not on their wits alone.
pseudoisaac 