I dropped everything and headed to Paynesville today. There were a lot of Canada Geese on the dikes of the ponds, but no Brant. After a little while, several people showed up, and we drove nearby roads, checking fields for the Brant. We arrived back at the ponds after awhile. We were hoping that more geese would come to the ponds to spend the night, but to our dismay, geese actually starting leaving in small flocks. While watching the flocks to make sure the Brant didn't get away undetected, I noticed a flock of about 12 geese to the south, far off. I knew these birds couldn't be from the ponds because they were too far away. I was excited to see a flock of different birds. I soon realized the farthest bird to the left was small.......very small. Bob Dunlap agreed that it looked small, but as the flock got closer, the small bird vanished. I thought the small bird had been my imagination, but after watching the flock, the smaller bird reappeared. John Hockema then saw it and I've never seen anyone get out of a car so fast, it was quite humorous. Several people got to see it fly by, and we decided to try and relocate it. Going north past the ponds we took the first left, and there in the field south of the road was the Brant with other geese, including a Snow Goose. We had some amazing, long looks, even though it was far off. It was still there when we all left. On the way home on Hwy. 4, I had a Great-horned Owl about 2 miles south of Greenwald, it was in a bush in the field, so I backed up and made sure it wasn't a SE Owl. Not a mile later while going around a bend, a Short-eared Owl flew up from the road and proceeded to hunt over the field. All in all, an amazing day, Ben Fritchman Long Prairie
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