White/Blue Violet

The overlooked and lowly Violet has a beauty of its own.

PEREGRINE FALCON BANDING DAY AT THE MAYO CLINIC

Just beyond the far edge in the photo is the nesting box of the Mayo Clinic's Peregrine Falcons.  Thanks to organizations like the Mayo Clinic and the Midwest Peregrine Society the once endangered Peregrine Falcon has made a strong comeback.  I was lucky enough to witness the banding of the chick this year.  The next 9 photos document this great event.

Tom Berhrens, of the Mayo Clinic, a Mayo assistant, and Jackie Fellon, of the Midwest Peregrine Society reach over the Clinic edge and into the nest box to capture the chick.

The parent Peregrines protested loudly as the chick was removed from the nesting box.  No attack.

Proudly showing off the healthy female chick from the 2019 hatch at Mayo. 

Loading the chick for safe passage to the subway area for banding.

Three of the four eggs laid in the box failed to hatch this year.  Spring here was cold, snowy, wet and likely led to the failure.  The eggs were collected for further study.

Tom Behrens, of the Mayo Clinic, about to take the long elevator ride down to band the chick.  Tom is a Spring Valley grad.  To view more of the banding, go right and down and click on May 2019.

Banding of the lone chick from the 2019 hatch.

After banding she was presented to an appreciative gathering.

After the banding a name was drawn from a box of suggested names.  Her name is "Blizzard", a fitting name after the spring we have had.  May she live long.  Welcome back from the edge of extinction.

Shooting Star. Hayden Prairie.

Shooting Star.  Hayden Prairie.

Puccoon. One of the first prairie flowers to bloom.

Trillium, a late blooming woodland flower.   The woodland wildflowers will soon end their run as the sunlight is blocked from the forest floor by tree leaves.

Whip-poor-will, Trempealeau National wildlife refuge.  First one we have seen or heard in years.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Wild Geranium

Bluebells have had a long run this spring.

May Apple patch.

Indigo Bunting at our feeder.

Brown Thrasher.  The Thrashers have been singing their long and bubbly song for about three weeks now, but this is the first one I got a photo of.

Harris Sparrow.  We see one or two of these most springs as they head north.

Painted Turtle posing for a photos.

Scarlet Tanager at our feeder this evening.

Cape May Warbler at our grape jelly feeder today.  The Cape May is a member of the warbler family, a family of small and colorful woodland birds that spent the winters in Central America and migrate north to nest in the forest of Minnesota and Canada.  Most Mays we see about 20 species in Fillmore Co.  A few nest here but most head farther north to nest.

Baltimore Oriole, arrived May 4th, had 8 today(May9).

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, arrived May 4.

Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak, arrived May5.

Male Ruby-throated Humming bird, arrived May 4th at our place, which is about the average date at our place for the first ones.

Yellow Bellwort, a woodland spring flower of the uplands of Forestville.

Spring Beauty, a small woodland flower of the forest floor.