Sunday morning I wandered down familiar routes in Dakota county to see = what I could see. =20
I went down to 140th St and while not spending a whole lot of time there = saw an adult male Orchard Oriole maybe 200 feet past the east end of the = marsh on the left hand side frequenting the trees. A short distance = beyond that I saw 2 adult Red-Tailed Hawks and their recently fledged = Juvenile. The juvenile is still learning to fly and is mostly hopping = around/flexing its wings and making short flights between trees. I tried = photographing it, and was able to take 40 or 50 shots as it sat and posed = for me, unfortunately my focal length was not sufficient to take decent = shots. It was very entertaining watching it hop amongst the branches. = One parent was on a pine tree near by perched enjoying the sun, and = keeping a close eye on me, and the other was on top of one of the = powerline towers. Just past that spot right before you reach emery avenue = saw an immature male orchard oriole. 180th was quiet with just the expected species. No least bittern or = american bitterns heard, though i didn't spend much time checking. Was a = Ruddy Duck on the northern side of swamp in the first pool as you come = down the hill. At and around empire substation on 210th produced Grasshopper Sparrows, a = pair of Clay-Colored Sparrows, Dicksissel, Bobolinks (2), Western = Meadowlark, Eastern Meadowlark and Savannah Sparrows. Just for kicks I checked Byllesby and found the lake at its highest point = i've ever seen it. There was absolutely no shore line as the water level = was probably 2 feet above the shore. Thus there were of course, no late = shorebirds, and there wasn't much of anything on the lake at all. = Disheartened and annoyed at the bugs I left without scanning. Good birding, Chris Fagyal Senior Software Engineer United Defense, L.P. Fridley, MN (763) 572-5320 [email protected]
