Today may not have been the best day to be out birding with the highest number of crashes reported in a long time, but it was the day Susan Schumacher and I headed up to Aitkin Co to look for the previously reported Varied Thrush and Great Grays. It took us 4 hours to get to Palisade, and we watched feeders from the car from 1-2, and 3-4 and were not lucky enough to see the Varied Thrush during these times.
We did see a Great Gray Owl on CR 5 1.6 miles South from CR 18 perched close on the west side of the road at 4:30 on our way up to look for them on CR 18. We did not see any along CR 18 either on the west or east side of Pietz's, only Ruffed Grouse. We did see the Great Gray again perched in the same area going back down CR 5, and it flushed and flew out across the road in front of us. Conny Brunell Richfield, Hennepin Cty [email protected]
