Thanksgiving day, Nov. 27 (apologies for the late report): juv Northern Goshawk at Hyland Lake Park Reserve, Bloomington. Seen just as the sun was beginning to burn through the fog, 8:20-8:30 AM, when it flew in and began hunting pheasants in the small field on the south side of the main park entrance on E. Bush Lake Road. It made short sallies from its perch low in the shrubs at the top of the field. I wish I'd been doling out parking permits in the little shed on the entrance drive because those would have been some unbelievable close looks. I still had nice looks from the bike trail about 150 feet away. I couldn't relocate the bird Nov. 28th despite three hours of searching. There is plenty of Gos food around, though; I counted nine pheasants in that area alone. Also several young Red-tailed Hawks in the park, and a Northern Shrike, which was present both the 27th and 28th in the Sumac Knoll camp area.
My earlier November (possibly repeat) metro shrike observations: Nov. 16 shrike sp. (backlit and rather distant) Cliff Road/SNA area of Black Dog in Burnsville. Nov 20. shrike sp. (again, too distant and ill-lit for species ID) along the trail between the Old Cedar bridge and Hwy 77 in Bloomington. Was that Loggerhead still around then? I haven't spent many winters in the metro area; are Northern shrikes normally so common right in town? Chris ===== Chris Mansfield Richfield, Hennepin Co. MN [email protected] __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now http://companion.yahoo.com/
