Took a quick trip to Grand Marais yesterday, saw the Sage Thrasher east of the green Dog Pound building at the northeast end of the Rec. Park area. Believe it or not, we hadn't found it on a previous trip. One great blue heron flew over, headed west along the shore, saw one shrike (probably northern) in trees along the shore, but didn't get a close enough look to determine species. Good enough look to eliminate gray jay or mockingbird. We didn't chase the mountain bluebird since birders we met hadn't found it. DUH!
A male red-bellied woodpecker visited our feeders late afternoon, but has not been seen today. This is the first one we have had here in the yard. White-breasted nuthatches are increasing in our neighborhood. We see at least one male and one female regularly, as do other local feeder watchers. We had a huge influx of black-capped chickadees in late September/early October, but have not heard of them showing up south of here yet. Seems to me there are more at the feeders, so maybe they are staying around. The first pine grosbeaks to visit our feeders since winter of 2001-02 showed up this morning. No redpolls yet, but a few pine siskins have been here sporadically. Most Lapland longspurs have moved south, but there are still flocks of snow buntings with the occasional horned lark or longspur among them. Earlier this week we had small groups of rusty blackbirds, and one lone immature male red-winged blackbird about the same time as the one reported on the Gunflint Trail. A lone meadowlark just turned up on the lawn. I saw feathery remains of likely meadowlark at Rec. Park in Grand Marais yesterday, also. Are yellow-bellied sapsuckers scarce this summer and fall, or have we just missed them? Jim & Carol Tveekrem, Schroeder
