Star Tribune
How did Rochester save the giant Canada goose?
The giants weren’t really all gone, however.
While ornithologists argued about whether they existed, a flock was growing in Rochester.
In the 1920s, Dr. Charles Mayo purchased 15 Canada geese in North Dakota. He brought them to Mayowood, his more than 3,000-acre family estate in Rochester. At least some — maybe all — were giants. The flock attracted wild birds and began to grow exponentially.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt rode in a car with Dr. Charles H. Mayo, center, and Dr. William J. Mayo in 1934.
The birds got more help in the 1930s, when the city damned the Zumbro River and created the 20-acre Silver Lake. For decades, a power plant discharged warm water into the lake, keeping it from freezing over in the winter. Canada geese started coming by the thousands to make their home in Rochester.
Because Canada geese pick out mates based on size (called assortative mating) and then stick together for life, the giants among them maintained their subspecies. They became the dominant type of branta canadensis in Rochester.
Hanson, a bird expert who worked for the Illinois Natural History Survey, often came through Rochester during fall fishing trips. He was “perplexed” by their seemingly large size, he wrote, but could never be sure just how much bigger they were. Maybe he was misremembering what the Canada geese looked like in Illinois, he wrote.
Skygazers in Minnesota and around the U.S. will enjoy one more chance to see a supermoon before the end of the year.
The supermoon, also known as the Beaver Moon, will appear fullest on Friday, November 15, at 3:29 p.m CST., NASA said. That’s before sunset in Minnesota, but the moon will appear full for about three days around this time, until a few hours before sunrise on Sunday morning.
The stunning moon occurs when it is as close to Earth in its lunar orbit as it ever gets, while also being full. Supermoons only happen three or four times per year, and always appear consecutively.
The name Beaver Moon comes from the Maine Farmers’ Almanac, which began publishing Native American names for full moons in the 1930s. NASA said Mid-fall during the November full moon was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze to ensure a supply of warm winter furs, NASA said. Another theory is the name comes from the busy pre-winter period for beavers, according to the space agency.
November’s full moon is the last of four consecutive supermoons, slightly closer to Earth and brighter than the first of the four supermoons in mid-August.
The next supermoon won’t be until October 2025.
Star Tribune
Fired for drunken driving, Minnesota DNR waterfowl specialist cites hallucinations and wants his job back
Steve Cordts has been a respected DNR duck and goose manager for the last 20 years.
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Star Tribune
WI cop quits after allegedly re-enacting George Floyd’s murder while sub at Woodbury HS
A one-time substitute teacher who was banned from a Minnesota school district after being accused last month of re-enacting George Floyd’s murder in class has now lost his job as a police officer in western Wisconsin, the city’s mayor said Monday.
Prescott Mayor Robert Daugherty told the Star Tribune that the City Council on Monday reached a separation agreement with Steven Dwight Williams, 48, and accepted his resignation effective Friday in lieu of his termination.
Students reported to Principal Sarah Sorenson-Wagner that Williams, teaching on Oct. 14 for the first time at Woodbury High School, wanted them to know about his life as a police officer. According to the district, he put a student on the ground as part of a re-enactment of Minneapolis police actions that led to the murder of Floyd in May 2020.
Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes, contributing to Floyd’s death. Chauvin and three other Minneapolis officers were convicted and sentenced to prison in connection with Floyd’s death.
In addition, Williams mimicked holding a gun and pointing it at students, stated police brutality is not real, told sexist jokes and engaged in “inappropriate and racially harmful behavior” during English classes for sophomores and seniors, according to a letter Sorenson-Wagner sent to parents.
The statement added that Williams had been in law enforcement for many years in his native Wisconsin and Montana and had been on Prescott force for about two years. He was immediately put on administrative leave from the Prescott force in the wake of the allegations.
In March of this year, Williams was granted a three-year, short-term substitute teacher’s license for all grades, according to state records. Following Williams’ alleged conduct at Woodbury High School, a report was filed with the Minnesota Department of Education. As of Friday, public records show no disciplinary findings by the department against him.
Staff Writer Tim Harlow contributed to this report.
