Birders, Kevin Murphy and I did a loop around north-central Iowa today enjoying the snow and extremely cold temperatures (-16 degrees F at one point this morning). Our goal was a White-winged Crossbill and we easily located 21 of the ~40 birds at Riverview Cemetery in Algona, previously reported by Matt Kenne (nice work Matt). I say "easily located" because there was a high amount of cone litter on the fresh snow under the tree in which they were foraging. A life bird for both of us. The trip was slow otherwise with the only other highlights being a Merlin 1 mile south of Fort Dodge on Hwy 169 in Webster County, 140 Trumpeter Swans at Beemer's Pond in Hamilton County, and several large mixed flocks of Horned Larks and Lapland Longspurs throughout our trip.
Take care, Tyler Johnston, Polk Co. --- 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/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
