First and most exciting for us today, A small flock of about 20 Meadowlarks flew across the road in front of us and landed in a picked cornfield. They were not singing so don't know if they were Eastern or Western. Location was Northwest corner at the intersection of NW 110th AVE and NW 121st Street. west of Jester Park, west of Saylorville. At Jester Park we saw Red-Tailed Hawks, Redheads, Common Mergansers, Pintail Ducks, Bald Eagles.
It was snowing hard enough to compromise our view of waterfowl at Saylorville. Also, everything was quite far away. We did enjoy a visit to the feeders at the visitor center. There were 2 Common Redpolls, numerous White-breasted Nuthatches, Goldfinches, Juncos, Cardinals, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Chickadees, and Tufted Titmice. >From the Saylorville Dam, we saw 3 Bald Eagles, Mallards, and a Wild Turkey >off the spillway. One of the Eagles was being harassed. by Gulls as it swooped down to catch a fish. 7 miles NW of Granger on 141 or 1 mile SW of Exit 138 on 141, on the west side of the road were about 200 Greater White-Fronted Geese in a picked cornfield. Just south a short distance, close to the road on the west side is a small pond. There were 7 White Fronted Geese among a flock of Canada Geese, (including Cackling Geese) were a pair of Scaups and a pair of Ring-Necked Ducks. Yesterday we made the long trek up to Moorehead park at Ida Grove where we met Don Poggensee. He graciously helped us find 2 Saw Whet Owls. He is a wonderful teacher and gave us much information about their behavior and how to find them. Thanks Don, we really appreciate your assistance. There's a small lake around the Pizza Hut across from the Moorehead Park sign. There were 2 Snow Geese swimming with the Canada Geese in this lake. On our drive to Ida Grove, we saw several Kestrels and 2 Female Northern H arriers. --- 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]
