Eclectic travelers

GOING NATURE’S WAY By Kate Crowley Several weeks later than planned we have finally begun canoeing the uppermost part of the Mississippi River. Mike had hoped we’d start at the end of April, but I knew ‘the winter that wouldn’t quit’ was going to make that impossible. Most of May wasn’t much better weatherwise, and when the forecast called for continued chance of rain this week, we decided we couldn’t wait any longer.    Along with our neighbor Dick Glattly and another friend, we put our two canoes in the water just 50 feet from the line of low rocks  people love tiptoeing over so that they can say they’ve walked across the mighty river. When we arrived at the famous spot, there was much splashing and squealing coming from the water as a large group of middle schoolers braved the chilly temperatures in the exuberant freedom of a spring field trip. The four of us set our boats in the stream, donned our life jackets and set off into the unknown.  We could only...

WINGIN’ IT By Kate Crowley When you see a Baltimore oriole, there is no doubt this bird comes from the tropics. But you may be surprised to learn that this beauty is from the same family of birds as grackles, red-winged blackbirds and meadowlarks.  In coloration and nest type it more resembles the Old World Orioles, but genetically, they are not closely related. Each spring when we see the first Baltimore oriole in our yard, we rush madly for oranges and fruit jelly (grape being the preferred).  Then we quickly slice the oranges and dash outside with it and the jar of jelly to entice the beautiful orange and black birds to stick around. For awhile we even had a special plastic oriole feeder that looked like (sort of) a large orange.  This we filled with sugar water. But even this failed to convince the birds to stay.  Inevitably we went out the next day to collect the orange which was starting to shrivel and the jelly coagulating into a solid mass.  With ...

WINGIN’ IT By Kate Crowley We are as surprised as I imagine some of the returning birds are to discover this much snow on the ground in mid-April. When we left for the south for three weeks on March 23 I skied our trails ‘one last time’, or so I told myself.  And now it looks like I may be able to ski for another week, based on the extended forecast, although the snow is very sticky.  We discovered dark eyed juncos, the so called ‘snowbirds’ because they leave every autumn before the snow falls and return when its gone (or nearly so), and purple finch  which we did not see in all the previous five months at our feeders.  That was rather unusual, because they typically are winter visitors.  I’m not sure where they went this winter, but we are happy to see them back in our yard.  While we were gone, we believe the raccoons came out of their winter dens because one of our best feeders that our neighbor Dick kept filled for us was thoroughly dism...

Returning north on the Mississippi River on the Paddlewheel - Queen of the Mississippi we were able to observe two weeks of change.  What we found was that the peak of Azaleas had moved north to Vicksburg and Memphis - the beauty of the southern cities had changed to more green. Lesser scaup were still in the lower river The live oaks had fewer flowers among them Cardinal in still leafless shrub Amaryllis now fuller flowered  Brown thrashers sand along with Mockingbirds The floodplain at Baton Rouge fully leafed out At St Francisville the flowering had increased Spider lilies legumes buttercups fleabane spring beauty Happy dog Brown Thrasher camillia crayfish chimney Primrose - which had been in NO in previous week Red Headed woodpecker Ducklings in Natchez Azalea and Camilla in Vicksburg - peak had shifted north Floodplain below Memphis fulled leafed out White pelica...

When we left our Northern MN home March 22 to fly to New Orleans and begin our Full Length Mississippi project we were leaving at the very beginning of spring.  Snow was still deep in our lawn - maybe a foot and we thought this would be gone and it would be greening up by the time we returned April 14.  We did not want to miss the excitement of spring migration and blooming. In New Orleans, Natchez, St. Francisville, and Memphis on our first paddlewheel north we were finding that the cold spell that was up north was extended far south and the migration was not proceeding rapidly, but it was definitely spring.  At Oak Alley near New Orleans. At oak alley the leaves are out Redwinged blackbirds sang Iris in bloom Azaleas at their peak Amaryllis in flower Fox squirrels active Flower beds full A recent hatch of dragonflies was out Bluets in flower Fleabane in flower Flock of white pelicans Spring beauty Yel...