{"id":7783,"date":"2018-05-02T15:30:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T20:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/?p=7783"},"modified":"2018-05-03T15:23:03","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T20:23:03","slug":"hidden-gem-coon-rapids-dam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/?p=7783","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Gem – Coon Rapids Dam"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have lived in the Twin Cities for 30 years and have never visited Coon Rapids Dam until last weekend. What a treasure! A lot of birdwatchers, photographers with ultra long lens, families, and bicyclists. Many thanks to Jane Ball and Celeste Rouse who contributed their beautiful photos.<\/p>\n

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White Pelican with the “horn” on the top of the beak that develops during the breeding season.\u00a0 Photograph by Larry Wade<\/p><\/div>\n

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The White Pelican has one of the largest wing spans (9 feet across) in North America, second only in size to the California Condor. White Pelicans nest in Northern Minnesota, North Dakota and Southern Canada.<\/p>\n

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There were 4 or 5 loons at the dam, possibly because most of the lakes in the area and north are still frozen. Photograph by Larry Wade<\/p><\/div>\n

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Loon eating a crayfish. Photograph by Larry Wade<\/p><\/div>\n

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Most of the birds that were at the dam were migratory. I came back next day and 50% of the birds had left. The wind had changed from a north wind to a south wind. Spring migratory birds usually move when the wind is from south because they can get a free ride and not have to expend as much energy.<\/p>\n

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Red Necked Grebe in breeding plumage. Photograph by Larry Wade<\/p><\/div>\n

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Eared Grebe with a grub.
Photograph by Celeste Rouse<\/p><\/div>\n

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Eared Grebe is on the left and a Horned Grebe is on the right. Both are in breeding plumage.
Photograph by Jane Ball<\/p><\/div>\n

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Male Ruddy Duck or “bluebill”.
Photograph by Larry Wade<\/p><\/div>\n

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Male Northern Shoveler. The bird gets its name because of its large beak that it uses for filtering plankton.\u00a0 Photo by Celeste Rouse<\/p><\/div>\n

Both the Northern Shoveler and the Ruddy Duck nest in the pothole region of Northern Minnesota and North Dakota.<\/p>\n

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Male and Female Blue Wing Teal. Blue Wing Teals nest throughout Minnesota.
Photo by Larry Wade<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hooded Merganser is a fish eating bird. It has a serrated beak and is sometimes called a “sawbill”. Photo by Larry Wade<\/p><\/div>\n

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Male wood duck in the foreground and the female in the background. Wood ducks nest in the Twin Cities.
Photograph by Larry Wade<\/p><\/div>\n

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Great Blue Heron\u00a0 Photo by Celeste Rouse<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Great Blue Heron is 4 1\/2 feet tall. They use their sharp beak for spearing fish, frogs, mice and insects. Blue Herons nest mainly in trees.<\/p>\n

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Osprey\u00a0\u00a0 Photo by Celeste Rouse<\/p><\/div>\n

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There is an osprey nest on the\u00a0 west side of the Coon Rapids Dam. On Sundays there is an osprey watch volunteer monitoring the nest. He has a very large telescope for interested people to observe the birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have lived in the Twin Cities for 30 years and have never visited Coon Rapids Dam until last weekend. What a treasure! A lot of birdwatchers, photographers with ultra long lens, families, and bicyclists. Many thanks to Jane Ball … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7783"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7813,"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783\/revisions\/7813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldnaturalist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}