Frozen River
Ever since the Prairie Island Nuclear plant became operational in the early 1970's. the warm water discharge at the plant has kept the river open even at the coldest temperatures. The only time it seems to freeze over is when one or both of the reactors has been shut down. This year on the weekend of January 18th, the river was frozen all the way to the Head of Lake Pepin. Interestingly enough, both reactors were running. I have yet failed to hear a good explanation for this situation. The river was running about 2.5 feet higher than winter normal. Was this enough extra water to dilute the warm water discharge causing the freeze over? I have yet to hear an answer.
Three Year Old Eagles
Even though the river was pretty well ice covered the third week of January, the warm water discharge at the XCEL plant on the east end of Barn bluff was keeping the bay at Colvill Park wide open. This attracted numerous mergansers, goldeneyes and bald eagles. On successive days, I counted over 60 bald eagles feeding on gizzard shad and perching in shoreline trees.
At one time, bald meant white not hairless. Bald eagles are sexually mature and ready to breed at about 4 to 5 years of age. White mottling with their plumage is an indication the bird is about 3 years of age. Eagles with all black plumage are most certainly 1 or 2 year old birds.
KIte Skiing
Living in Wacouta always offers up new surprises. One Sunday afternoon, we looked out our living room window only to discover a beautiful blue kite flying by in the adjacent field.
Kite Skiing
Upon closer examination, we discovered our neighbor Dave McDougall skiing across the field propelled by the colorful kite. The conditions were excellent with 20 mph n.w. winds and hard packed snow the result of warm weather followed by a significant cold snap.
Ice Shelf
As I have mentioned in recent posts, the river has been running 2 to 3 feet above normal off and on again most of the winter. This makes for interesting if not problematic travel with cross country skis in the backwaters. If the water drops after a cold spell, there can be a significant air space between the ice and the new water level. This is fine as long as the ice doesn't break causing a rapid heart beat.
New Beaver Lodge
Because of the unsafe ice conditions early in the winter and much slush after our first significant snowfall, I didn't do any ski travel on Wacouta Bay until January 30th. My morning of skiing offered up some very interesting observations. The first sight was a newly constructed beaver lodge. The very large lodge that had been in the area for years was totally washed away in the long flood of last spring and summer. Unfortunately the new lodge was built next to very shallow water. Beaver prefer deep water next to the lodge allowing for an underwater entrance to the lodge. In this case, the entrance was above the ice making them vulnerable to predators like coyotes.
Beaver Scent Mound
At this time of year, two year old beavers are pushed out of their lodges and strike out on their own. This is mostly due to the fact that the food supply surrounding the lodge can't support more than one family of beavers.
Beavers are very territorial and don't allow wandering young to get close to their established lodge. One way to warn house hunting beavers is for the resident beavers to build scent mounds. Then they smear castoreum, a substance that comes from castor sacs, around the area. Chemicals in the castoreum warn young wandering beavers to stay away.
River Otter
On my ski trip across the bay, I encountered a considerable amount of otter tracks, slides and evidence of them eating fish along open water near the shoreline. As I approached open water near the mouth of Bullard's Creek, I indeed observed an otter resting on the ice.
Incidentally on Saturday, February 15th, I observed fresh otter tracks and slides on both sides of Wacouta Road near Highway 61.
Trumpeter Swans
My last thrill for the morning was getting up close to two well camouflaged trumpeter swans standing on the ice. These swans are becoming more and more commonly observed in areas of open water in the Red Wing vicinity.
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