Hello Birders, Out for an evening program at Jeffers Petroglyphs with my lovely Katherine we saw a Red-headed Woodpecker on Cty 45 just to the east of the MN Historical society site. It was on a utility pole in front of a homestead with a small woodlot on the S. side of the road. I saw another woodpecker on the next pole but it flew away before I could ID it. About the same size as the Red-head.
I thought this may be unusual as this is such an overly developed agricultural area (very little woodlots,dead trees or unmowed field edges or fallow fields along our route) of Hwy 14 to Cty 5 to the first E-W road S of the Brown Cty line. I also saw several suspicious doves that I could not ID (we were going quickly and I was not driving) The tails looked broader and squarer in flight than Mourning doves, but there were so many I doubted they could all be Non-Mourning doves. At the Jeffers site we heard Field Sparrows, Western Meadowlarks and Dickcissels. Could not see any of them! We did see a number of first year Ring-necked Pheasants, and at sunset we found ourselves surrounded by suddenly cackling birds (again could not see a one). A great program of storytelling about the sky followed, as we watched Mars through a telescope and they lay on Buffalo robes watching shooting stars and satellites. Jim in St. Paul 'If all the animals were gone, we would die from loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the animals soon happens to us. We are part of the earth, and it is a part of us. This we know: all things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.' Chief Seattle, 1854 _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
