Yesterday at the TCAAP WVA, I met Mary of the MN Army National Guard

Raising the House DSC_1522, a photo by Mully410 * Images on Flickr.

Yesterday, I was at the TCAAP Wildlife Viewing Area with a friend when Mary from the MN Army National Guard drove up. She opened the small gate in the WVA and let us in to so we could examine the nests on the other side of the fence. She lowered the purple martin house because I was skeptical that the tree swallows had nested in there. Sure enough, there were 6 baby tree swallows in one of the nest cavities.



Of all the options, they picked the lowest hole facing west for their home. They were a little annoyed when we opened it and flew off.

After that, Mary offered to give us a key for the day so we could investigate the whole of the Arden Hills Army Training Site...formerly the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant. We jumped at the chance to drive back into the site to look for birds and other wildlife.   I made about 900 clicks that day and finally got through all them this afternoon.

Mary showed us a great horned owl nest...but no owls...and a red-tailed hawk nest with two young in it.  We also went to the top of the highest hill and saw tree that woodpeckers just love.   Later that evening, I staked out the osprey nest (the one I can barely see from the WVA).   That was cool.

Here is a whole slide show of the best of my clicks from that day.



Be sure to click the full screen button on the lower right to embiggen.