Ice cover at Cone Marsh is almost gone, and waterfowl numbers and diversity have both increased markedly from last week. The highlight was a group of about 10 trumpeter swans, and I am grateful to another birder who was there with a scope. Quite a few common goldeneye, lesser scaup, ring-necked ducks, and common mergansers (and smaller numbers of hooded and red-breasted mergansers) in addition to the usual mallards and Canada and white-fronted geese. Single redhead in a flooded field adjacent to the marsh, along with a few snow geese. Didn't see any Ross' or cackling geese.
A sandhill crane flew over at one point, and there are several flocks of icterids around the marsh, one of which included at least one rusty blackbird. Christopher A. Brochu Associate Professor Department of Geoscience University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242 USA phone 319-353-1808 fax 319-335-1821 email [email protected] --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/membership.asp. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
