HAWK RIDGE

Its fall! 

I love love love fall! 

The cooler weather, scarfs, hoodies, fleece and warm drinks. 

Oh and its MIGRATION season!!! 

Katie, Frank and I at the top of the ridge

Here in Minnesota we have Hawk Ridge, which happens to be one of the best migration spots for watching raptors right in the city of Duluth. This past week I was lucky enough to head up to the ridge and watch some birds. Katie and I also were able to catch up with some friends! Of course, on our way home, we swung into the Audubon Center so I could see some folks and critters. What a fantastic way to spend a couple days off.

Katie and I holding hatch year sharp-shinned hawks after they were banded

I adopted a Merlin!!! I was able to release this beautiful bird after it was banded

Saying Hi to Spike!

Dakota Gatherings

Angel and I teaching in Winona

The last 2 Fridays, I have spent the day teaching 3rd graders about eagles as part of the Dakota gatherings here in Minnesota. In total, I saw nearly 1,000 school children across 3 twenty minute programs! These gatherings are great for the local children to learn more about the Dakota culture and I always enjoy presenting :)

Angel enjoying the sun during the program!

 

 

Septoberfest has begun in Wabasha! So my co-workers and I took some time to race horses

Was'aka loving the wind in Mankato

GO BADGERS!

Last weekend I got to have a girls weekend! We did some tailgating and a Badger football game. Good food, good game and lots of laughs. Hard to believe I met these ladies nearly 17 years ago! How time flies :)

Minnesota State Fair

It that time of year again! Minnesota State Fair which means I got to hang out with friends, eat a ton of food and find a new stupid hat. This year was no exception :) As a bonus, the weather was so fantastic that the fair had record attendance they day we went. Over 236,000 people were there!

Bird nerds with the U of M Rochester Raptor!

Trying a new ice cream & espresso duo. AMAZING!

Phone books

This past week I decided to give an old phone book to one of our resident eagles. He seemed to enjoy it!

Huber Wedding!

I spent the past weekend in the Wisconsin Dells for the Huber wedding. Before the festivities began, Katie and I headed over to the International Crane Foundation to see some birds. The rest of my weekend was filled with wedding - setting up, getting ready and cleaning up. I was so happy that I could be a part of my friends special day and wish them a lifetime of happy happy years in the future!

Katie and I in front of the Brolgas

The wedding party!

Katie and I!

BUGS!

There are a lot of little hidden away places to go hiking here in the river valley. I took a walk the other day on the refuge. The area had lots of tall grasses so I got to enjoy an abundance of dragonflies and damselflies as well as some beautiful sunshine!

Sandstone Visit

A couple weeks back, I went up to Sandstone to hang with friends and teach a raptor program like the old days.  For me it was great change of pace - teaching about multiple species of raptors and a different program. Of course I had to get a couple pictures of me and an amazing little falcon along the way! On a side note, I was never too far from the eagle center. While looking across the pole barn, I noticed a calendar that had Columbia's (one of our female eagles) picture for the month of July.

Isis and I!

Isis and I teaching about falcons!

COFFEE!

As you might have guessed by the title of my blog, I LOVE coffee! I recently gave coffee up. It was super difficult because I enjoy pretty much everything about coffee - the smell, the taste, the feeling of the warm cup in your hands. But I had a theory that I was drinking too much and it was contributing to my headaches. I went without until I was no longer getting caffeine headaches.

My first cup of coffee in 2 weeks :)

Yesterday, I had my first cup in two weeks. It was AMAZING! I am only drinking half of what I used to and am not making my morning brew as strong so fingers crossed I don't need to give up my addiction anytime soon.

DC - Part 3

After Georgetown we headed over to the National Mall to check out a few of the other memorials. We checked off the Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial and Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. It was the first time that I walked around the tidal basin which was beautiful! We hung out so long that we stayed to get some great pictures of the mall at night. While I had been to the mall several times, this was the first I got to see them all lit up at night :)

Jefferson Memorial

Hanging out at the tidal basin looking toward the Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument

Martin Luther King Jr Memorial

FDR Memorial

Lincoln Memorial at night

Capitol and Washington Monument at night

DC - Part 2

Georgetown is a cute neighborhood in DC. I had never made it in my previous trips to Washington so I was excited to explore a little. We even did the complete touristy thing and waited in line at Georgetown Cupcake - a cupcake shop featured on TLC's DC Cupcake. I would definitely like to go back and spend some more time checking out the shops in the future!

Waiting in linen for cupcakes!

Still waiting....

About 40 minutes later - We Made It!

As seen on TV :)

Cute little garden in Georgetown - perfect place to relax after lunch

Baltimore!

An easy day trip from DC is Baltimore. And since I was traveling with a girl that LOVES baseball, we decided to head to an Orioles game. We even scored free jerseys!!

Giant bobble head oriole!

The group and an oriole

View of Camden Yards from our seats

Baltimore Harbor

DC - Part 1

I recently flew out to Washington DC to hangout with some friends! It was great to catch up with the girls and of course we did the typical touristy stuff along the way. The first day - Amanda and I hung out at the National Mall and did some of the museums.

Hanging out with the giraffe!

The museum of Natural History has halls of awesome skulls and skeletons :)

Amanda, the capitol and me

Lincoln

Willow River State Park

Wetland along the trail

Got out and hit the trails earlier this week! For the first time in awhile I had a day off where the weather cooperated and I did not have prior plans. Drove up to Willow River State Park to explore. I ended up hiking a good distance through several habitats and even found a beautiful waterfall to cool off at! I would definitely recommend stopping by this park your next trip through the Hudson area!

Worth the hike!

Close-up of the falls

Red-tailed Hawk Release

Went to The Raptor Center today with a couple of our birds that needed a check up. I left with more birds than I came with! Transported a peregrine falcon back to its home and got to release a red-tailed hawk.

Long-eared Owl

Awhile back, the center had an injured long-eared owl come in. It was transported up to the U of M Raptor Center for treatment of a wing injured. Today, it returned to center and I was lucky enough to release it! Here is a short video of the little one returning home :)

Malpica Wedding

Drove down to the Minnesota-Iowa border this weekend to see my friends get married. It was a beautiful ceremony and I had great time catching up with some of the Audubon folks.

Wishing the Malpica's a lifetime of happiness :)

Summer has arrived!

Its been a busy couple weeks! Here are a couple of my work highlights.

Tackle bags for the fishing for eagles program

The Fishing for Eagles program started up again this week. I am running the program this summer so I've had to check all the gear and get ready for the kiddos. Every Wednesday and Thursday through August, kids can go fishing on the public dock here Wabasha. We provide all the gear and the bait, they get the chance to catch some dinner for our bald eagles. They even get a free bag of tackle goodies just for participating! If you know any kids, send them my way :)

Now that school is out, the center is getting busy again. Our birds get to go outside each morning and its molting season. Some of the local wild birds have figured out the eagle feathers make good additions to their nests. The house sparrows in particular keep stealing the feathers the eagles drop before I can grab them. I think its a little funny that the non-native is not following the laws when it comes to feathers...

House Sparrow stealing eagle feathers - Harriet is not amused!

My training is still moving forward with Donald. In fact we got to go down to the beach for a little while to enjoy the weather. He did amazing!!! However, apparently he has been having busy nights as well because he keeps falling asleep in front of visitors :)

Donald and Harriet at the beach!

Donald catching a nap while the mew is full of people.....