Caribou surprise

September 11, 2023

We have a lunch engagement on the calendar for today, but before then we have a few hours free to wander around and see what we can find. Fort Snelling State park, a spot we biked through two years ago on our way to Rome, looks like it would fill the bill well with its miles of trails through hardwood forests and along wetlands. There’s something for all members of the team - a chance to commune with nature and possibly find a new bird or two, and enough trails to fit in as much walking as time permits.

The walking was fine - Rachael got in her seven miles with her complete loop of Pike Island, and I did reasonably well to put in five - the last mile and a half at a fast pace after Rachael called me from the car and instructed me to hustle if I didn’t want us to be late for our lunch engagement.

Birdwise it was a bit of a flop though, as there were surprisingly few birds out. Some of the usual suspects - herons, egrets, a cormorant, mallards, and a surprising number of wood ducks. Nothing new though, until a cardinal flew across the trail and quickly submerged into the trees. Cardinals are one of the species I hoped to see in our short stay here, so I’m glad of that; but it really would have been nice to get a better shot.

Rachael, who’s gradually becoming a bit of a birder herself, came back with a better report than I had. She saw a flock of wild turkeys on the trail, and remembered before it was too late to break out the phone and bring back evidence. Yay, Rocky!!

Let’s go find some wild turkeys, I’m sure she’s thinking as she races off.

In a complex forest of ash, cottonwood and other hardwoods, the old silver maples are the crown species.

Not a bird, but still nice. Rachael didn’t see one of these.

189: American cardinal. Another terrible shot, but nothing else is possible.

Cut-leaf Coneflowers (Rudbeckia laciniata) were prolific.

As you probably all know already because Greg published His post first, our lunch date was with Greg and Feeshko. We’ve been batting around the possibility of this meetup for at least a month, and we were overjoyed last week when we knew that Greg was back from his road trip and they’d be in town.

We arrived precisely at 1:00 and saw Greg and Feeshko waiting for us in front of the French/American cafe in Saint Paul they’d picked out for us. I immediately ordered Greg to back himself up against the nearest wall, impressed as I was by how well his shirt color-matched it.

Great shirt! Greg is always so well dressed. That Feeshko must take really good care of him.

Next Greg beckoned Rocky and Feeshko into the frame also, having obviously noticed what I’d missed at first - Rachael’s skirt matched the wall even better than his shirt did.

Lunch was terrific, the IPA fine, but the company even better - but then you already know that, because Greg told you first.

This is the third time now that we’ve seen Greg and Feeshko. Six years ago they drove up to Saint Paul to join us for breakfast at the Black Dog Cafe before Greg biked with us down to his home in Hastings at the start of our ride to Duluth and back. And two years ago we had dinner with them at The Lock and Dam in their town at the start of our Ride to Rome.

It was on that tour that this photo was taken, when Greg met us on our way to Hastings. I instantly fell in love with his colorful Caribou Coffee bike shirt, and for the next several months pestered him to cede it to me so I could let it see some faraway places with strange sounding names. No luck though. A stubborn, strong-willed man, that Mr. Garceau.

As we were leaving the restaurant Greg asked us to wait just a minute, taunting me by taking off to his car at a sprint - it’s been at least fifteen years since I’ve been able to run like that. He stunned me when he ran back with a shopping bag and pulled out - drum roll, fanfare - the Caribou Coffee shirt!

But then you already know that, because Greg told you first.

Thanks, Greg! I’ll make sure it gets to see someplace interesting.

So that was the real highlight of the day, of course. We rounded the day out well though by returning to nearby Fort Snelling so we could walk off dinner, especially since we’d already bought our way in with a day pass earlier on. And found two more birds. What an awesome day!

Another wood duck. I’m really surprised at how common these are, now that I’ve learned to recognize them. I must have seen fifteen of them here today.

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2023 Bird List

189. Northern cardinal

190. Wild turkey

191. Eastern Phoebe

192. Red-bellied woodpecker

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Gregory GarceauFort Snelling State Park really is a nice urban sanctuary. And thank you for the retrospective of our past meetings. It brought back some cool memories.
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