News from the park

Friday Nov. 22.
What are these black spots on the Mendota bridge abutment by the Minnesota river boat launch?

On closer inspection it is a horde of box elder bugs and one lady bug. They were alive, though they moved mighty slow. I went back today, Nov 25, to see how they were doing after those single degree nights we had and there was only a few I could get to move but that may not mean the others are dead. No lady bug this time. There were a lot of new raccoon prints in the mud and some scat also so maybe they are eating the bugs.

Interesting tree a beaver has been gnawing on by the bridge to Pike Island. Drops of sap were falling from the icicles. Didn't taste sweet, just like an icicle should.

And finally the barred owl was back in the woods across from that large gnarly cottonwood tree along the road just south of the fishing pier parking lot.

The swans are back also even though there isn't much if any open water left.

Doug

I see the posted otter pic, by Kristi, on the challenge page and I tell Mary. Mary says we need to find those Otters. Of course I did not pay attention to when the photo taken until today. But the animal gods were with us and we found a family of Otters right off the Picnic Island causeway on Sat. Go figure Dan

Why is this deer running around with velvet on it's antlers in Nov?  We may have an abnormality that bears further investigation here. Does anyone else have any photos of this animal? I found some facts that I posted on our blog at: http://www.wildlifephotographybymhd.com/blog.html

Two of the half dozen bucks that now are on Picnic. At this time of the year, Pre-rut, the bucks roam the area looking for does. The more dominant ones establish territories that they may have to defend from their rivals. The upper image is of Freeway, who at the moment is the major player and the other one is Zorro.