The opportunities for birding have been limited over the past week. Saturday saw all the Hoegs and Reniers gathered to celebrate the marriage of Erik and Katie. However, although the bride had every free moment scheduled for the bridal party including both sets of parents, she did leave me free from 6 to 7 am! Thus, I was able to steal a few birding minutes after a drive to a local park in the Minneapolis area. Perhaps the moments of solitude were more important than the birding! Thankfully, the wedding was beautiful, and the happy couple is now winging their way to Hawaii.

The Sibling Choir!
(The brother & sisters gave this special gift to the bride and groom, their siblings).

Erik and Katie’s Wedding Vows!

A Special Moment!

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A Bird! (Green Heron at Dawn … Plymouth Wetlands)

Three hours of hiking narrow trails through the woods, climbing over logs, pushing my way through undergrowth to get a decent vantage point of logs against the shore of some wetlands … and the end result is I found a new bird, a lifer for me … the Green Heron!

Although green herons occasionally visit the Duluth area, they really stay further south. Thus, given I am down in the Twin Cities for Erik (my youngest son) and Katie’s wedding, I took some time to go birding this morning. I may have to try again early tomorrow morning when there should be better light (dark clouds this morning). I think I now understand some good fishing perches the herons utilize. We shall see.

Lifer! The Green Heron!

Hanging Out on the Log (Great Blue Heron and Wood Ducks)

Eastern Phoebe Kids Waiting for Food!