It's been quite a week for storms across the US. We had some excitement of our own over the weekend, including several trips to the basement for weather sirens and an F2 tornado that touched down not very far away from our house. In addition to damaging a long stretch of neighborhoods, that F2 also took out one of my favorite spots in the city - the Heron rookery.
(before the storm)
I drive by the rookery during my commute and have become a habitual 'peeper' - always having to check to see how many nests/herons I can spot as I drive by. During the spring and summer, it's common to see at least one heron soaring overhead and at least one or two visible through the leaves. I hate to think they'll no longer be part of my drive as I REALLY enjoy them. Most of the trees in the rookery are gone, though, so I really doubt the herons will choose to rebuild there. Here's a blog by one of the Park Rangers in charge of the rookery area: Bird Chick . Look for the entries for May 23/24.
All the storms passing through have also meant a lot of water coursing through our creeks and rivers. Our neighborhood creek has flooded neighboring park land for several weeks now and the Doodles have rediscovered how much they love water.
We took advantage of a break in the rain Sunday afternoon and went out to explore. I joined them for a little wading myself, but was chased out by the cold water and cool spring breezes - a little too chilly for me!
It had been one of my goals for the summer to get the boys over to the rookery and the cool park associated with it. They haven't yet developed much of an interest in birding, but tolerate our excitement and find cool rocks or other such things to enjoy instead during our outings. Once the storm clean-up is done, we'll likely still go to that park, but there will certainly be a huge gap - a whole generation of herons lost along with some bare sticks where a grove should be standing. *sigh*
All the storms passing through have also meant a lot of water coursing through our creeks and rivers. Our neighborhood creek has flooded neighboring park land for several weeks now and the Doodles have rediscovered how much they love water.
We took advantage of a break in the rain Sunday afternoon and went out to explore. I joined them for a little wading myself, but was chased out by the cold water and cool spring breezes - a little too chilly for me!It had been one of my goals for the summer to get the boys over to the rookery and the cool park associated with it. They haven't yet developed much of an interest in birding, but tolerate our excitement and find cool rocks or other such things to enjoy instead during our outings. Once the storm clean-up is done, we'll likely still go to that park, but there will certainly be a huge gap - a whole generation of herons lost along with some bare sticks where a grove should be standing. *sigh*
1 comment:
Hello, Laura!
The Doodles look to be enjoying the water, but I am with you - TOO MUCH RAIN here in Minnesota. Flooding again, moss on trees, and for some reason, the weeds in the garden seem to love the rain a lot more than the flowers do.
Happy first day of Summer, may we see some nice sunny days soon.
- Mary
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