Springbrook Nature Center: Birding Banding

Nicole Willms

Story #5

            I arrived at the Springbrook Nature Center, located in Fridley, Minn, not knowing what to expect but was looking forward to learning about bird banding. As I pulled into the parking lot I could not believe the amount of cars that were parked. I thought to myself “there is no way all these cars are here for this”, I was wrong; there were quite a few people inside the Center getting ready to help learn and handle the birds!

Springbrook is home to many different types of birds that land in the boundaries of the Nature Center for example, the Snowy Owl, Spotted Sandpiper, Eastern Blue Bird and the Bald Eagle. As I entered the Nature Center I walked into the room where people were listening, talking and handling the birds. Ron Refsnider, a retiree from the United States Fish and Wildlife Services, was the fellow in the front of the room speaking. Ron has been volunteering for the Nature Center for 20 years and it’s his responsibility to gather all the information on the birds and put it into the National Data Base for others to see.

I was eager to start learning what bird banding was about. Bird banding refers to the capturing of birds and placing a band on their legs to help them determine their mating occurrences, to see whether or not they come back after flying south for the winter, to help determine disease or changes in the birds. The volunteers that help are people within the community, bird lovers and employees from the Nature Center.  The volunteers help capture these birds and bring them into the Nature Center for Ron to check. Ron checks out the feathers shape, length, color, sex, height, weight, length, eye color and the legs of the birds.

 Many of the birds we saw had been captured many times over the last 5 years. It was interesting to see the information collected from previous captures and how they have changed so much in a short period. Some of the volunteers said the reason behind bird banding is to help see how various things such as weather, disease and hibernation affect the birds.

 After the information is entered into the system, they proceed to take the birds back outside and release them. The capturing of the birds is harmless; the Center has several metal enclosed traps set out along with several tall net like traps. Once the bird has gone into the trap, they take a cloth bag and put the bird inside and transport it back to Ron. People go out every 30-45 minutes to check and see if they have trapped any birds. The group of volunteers figured that the traps were light because of the changing in the seasons. The volunteers said the prime time for bird catching is June and July because of the warmer temperatures and the birds will migrate south before winter starts.

             

The Minnesota State Fair

The Great Minnesota Get Together

A Minnesota native embarks on the adventures the great Minnesota State Fair brings to her life. The Minnesota State Fair has been around since 1859. The site for the fair changed annually with stops in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Winona and Red Wing. It was not until the early 1870’s and early 1880’s when a group of civic groups worked to get a permanent spot. The Ramsey County Commissioners decided to donate their 210 acre farm land to the state. The fairgrounds has grown from 210 to 320 acres over the last 151 years and has missed opening five times due to the civil war, scheduling conflicts with the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, war time fuel shortage and the polio epidemic. The early years of the fair were dominated by agricultural exhibits and competitions, reflecting its original purpose of encouraging farming in the state. While agriculture is still the main focus of the fair, the activities have broadened to include large scale entertainment, technological and industrial exhibits, education and its long list of food stands.

Ashley Brueske, a Minnesota native, grew up attending the fair yearly and she enjoyed the music and seeing the horses. One of her first memories when she was six years-old, was going on the Bumblebee ride at the Kidway. She had all kinds of pictures of herself on this ride and bumblebees were her grandma’s favorite. I asked Ashley what makes the fair so exciting to her and she replied, “it’s a tradition my family has plus I get my dad’s full attention.” The fair is two weeks long and Ashley said she attends the fair twice. Since her parents are divorced, she goes once with each parent. When going to the fair, Ashley tries to do something different every time she goes to build memories with each parent. They start out at the same pronto-pup stand each year. “It’s a must have” says Ashley, that’s the one thing she needs to have right away when she enters the fair. Ashley hopes when she begins to start her family, they will continue this tradition. She hopes her family will enjoy the fair just as much as she does.

The Great Minnesota Get Together Interview!!

Interview was done with Ashley Brueske

      Q: What are your first memories of the fair?

                  A: -Uhm, first memories would have to be going with my mom, dad, sister, and
gramma when I was probably about 6 and going on the little bumble bee ride
in the KidWay. I remember this because bumblebees were my grams favorite
animal.. Plus, There was always pictures of us on that ride at her house.

      Q:What makes the fair so exciting for you?

                                    A: -The fair is exciting because it is one day a year that I know my dad will
spend with me. Its a tradition, and one of the only tradtitions my family
has.

          Q: When you go to the fair, is there are particular order of what you do first ( eat, shop, see animals, etc?)

                                    A: -The first thing we do is go get a proto-pup from the same stand near the
side enterance. Then, its generally headed towards buildings and the
midway. (:

          Q: The fair is a few weeks long; during those weeks how many times do u usually go to the fair?

                                    A: -I use to go only once, but now that my parents are divorces, I go twice,
once with each. Yeah, its basically a repeat each time.

           Q: If you go multiples times to the fair, do you do the same things each time you go?

                                    A: because I go several times I try and spilt up things I do with each of my parents so that I am not doing the same thing with them both.

                        Q: As you grow older and begin a life of your own, is attending the fair going to be something that you will make sure your family Is apart of?

                                    A: -Most deffinatly. I love the fair, and I hope my kids will too!

                                               

A young man involved in a motorcycle accident

Last Wednesday, Carmen Foucault got the news no mother wants to hear, that her son was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle. After the police gave her the news, they took her to Mercy Hospital to see her son James. James, 23, enjoyed being on his Harley motorcycle. His mom feared something like this would happen and tried to convince her son to get rid of the bike but he refused, and now she is looking at him lying unconscious in a hospital bed unsure what is going to happen. Carmen asked the doctor if they were going to be able to help her son. The doctor told her he has brain damage with a serious head injury and would not regain consciousness. Carmen was given so much information that she could not take it all in. The hospital staff convinced her to keep her son alive a little longer so they could donate his organs. Carmen said “James was always helping people and I believe this is what he would have wanted.” His organs were donated and helped save the lives of five other people. James was pronounced dead around noon on Thursday.

Days later while Carmen was grieving the loss of her son and setting up funeral arrangements, she received an unpleasant registered letter in the mail stating she owed $41,000 because they kept James alive an extra day to be able to donate his organs. Carmen was upset she was never told donating her son’s organs would cost her out of pocket money and she saw her son after they removed his organs and could not believe how they butchered his body. Nobody told her it was going to be like this and then send her a bill for it. Carmen couldn’t use James’s insurance money due to a lien that was placed on his estate by the hospital. She didn’t have the money to

cover funeral expenses or buy a nice headstone for her son. Christina Snyder, a spokeswoman for the hospital said “a lien is a standard procedure to ensure the bills get paid. Legally we have to file a lien ten days after a person’s death or discharged from the hospital. 50% of all trauma patients who come into this hospital do not have insurance so this is all standard procedure.” Irwin Greenhouse, the chief hospital administrator stated, “the bill was sent out to Mrs. Foucault in error and we apologize dearly.” The lien has been taken off her house and the bill will go directly to the Division of Transplantation. Mrs. Foucault will be responsible for the emergency care that was given to her son but the rest of the bill will be taken care of by the donor bank. We are checking our billing procedures to make sure this does not happen again.”

Carmen said losing her son is not easy and the situation that happened with the hospital is very frustrating. She would like to meet the people who received her son’s organs to see what good things came from this tragic accident.