January 10th, 2009 The Elusive Snow Owl

Posted on January 10th, 2009 by Chris White.
Categories: Cool Stuff.

On our way back from Ft. Snelling State Park we stopped at the airport on cargo road.  Now as we were passing Ft. Snelling National Cemetery Alison described an almost perfect Snow Owl with it’s back facing the highway but, it was well inside the Cemetery, and with the turnaround from 494 it would have been a 15 minute journey but, she had seen an Owl.  We took the 24th avenue exit, and drove around the side of the airport, underneath a runway to the fed-ex building where a snow owl has been spotted daily since early December.   We watched the airplanes for a few minutes but, short of spotting the owl we were not really expecting to see anything so we headed to Black Dog Road.  I have not seen a large number of owls this year as I usually do but, they have Eagles.  This was a quick trip, we did not go as far as the East outlet from Black Dog Lake.  The kids had gotten their fresh air for the day and were not afraid to express it.  Once I arrived home I noticed I had a text from Bill D that their were not any Snow Owls at the airport with a timestamp dated before we even stopped (opps).  After I got home I saw that someone had reported one in Dodge County, I don’t think that is going to happen.

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January 10th, 2009 Winter Trails Day with REI at Ft. Snelling State Park

Posted on January 10th, 2009 by Chris White.
Categories: Cool Stuff.

I took the kids to “Winter Trails Day with REI” at Fort Snelling State Park.  They had a large number of demo’s, groups (Everyone from the Minnesota Rovers, to Skijoring groups with huskies).  REI brought every pair of rentals it owns, along with a couple of snowshoe vendors, and about half the visitors packed theirs for naturalist guided tours.  Most people strapped on a pair and walked around from station to station.  Some of the stations were geocaching, cold weather camping, animal tracks, building snow forts, cross country skiing, along with various vendors.  We hit about every single station, I can’t name one we did not hit.  Ali very impressively got every single animal track correct where she would match up a mold of an animal track to the animal that made it and they were not the typical squirrel/dog tracks either, Ali initially had the Eagle/Turkey tracks reversed but, recognized their the eagle’s talons.  I grilled a ranger if they had any snow owl’s in the park but, he had said about the only thing he could offer since he worked St. Paul is they picked two off of streets/highways last month (snow owl versus vehicle, never would have thunk it being an issue).  The naturalists were pretty busy giving tours and being mobbed by people but, they had the stations laid out pretty well.  Inside the shelter was a large fire, hot chocolate, and an impressive array of stacks of brochures and maps.  When we arrived home the kids threw themselves down on the ground in front of the new but temporary Christmas Tree we have planted out in our front yard.

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