Heron rookery…

During the tornado this last Sunday, the Heron rookery was demolished. This is something that a lot of people enjoyed coming to see and take pictures of.  Each spring the make Herons would fly in and try to get the best nest, sometimes we would see them squabbling over one. It was fun to see these huge birds (they remind me of pterodactyls) carrying nesting material in their beaks. There were so many of them and they were so big to be balancing on these skinny little branches so high up in the trees. I kept telling my sisters and my boys to walk on over there and see them. Now they won’t get a chance…there are only a few trees left on the island…all 200 nests are gone…all but seven babies are gone…a lot of the adults are gone, either they died during the tornado, or had to be euthanized because of severe broken legs or wings.  A few are still flying around, but they probably won’t build another nest this year, and they probably won’t be back there next year. Hopefully they will find another island not to far away and start a new rookery. They will be hugely missed.

We took a walk there tonight (Wednesday May 25) to see how much damage there was to the park and the rookery. Quite a few trees, very large trees are either snapped in two or just uprooted and nothing is cleaned up yet. I took pictures, but they just don’t do justice to the amount of damage. We had to climb over or go under whole trees in some places. Most of the path right down by the river is impassable right now. I’m assuming the Minneapolis park board will take care of cleaning up all the fallen trees, but with the economy the way it is..I’m not so sure they will. There is one HUGE old tree leaning over the path and resting on another tree right on the river. That one has got to go so no one gets killed. A person would Not stand a chance if it fell.

We found lots of shingles, siding from a building across the freeway on Lyndale, insulation, and a blanket. Take a look…