I am again posting the following for my colleague. As an aside, we have had frequent sighting of Rough-legged Hawks and Snow Buntings around Mille Lac county. Cheers, Becky Hylton
Hello birders, I traveled up north from Onamia yesterday and had some great luck. First I searched Rice Lake NWR for tundra swans, but between 2-3pm there weren't any swans present. But lots of waterfowl, mostly at a great distance from the viewing platform. Then I looked, without success for sharp-tailed grouse along Aitkin County Road 10 & TWP-380 near Palisade but couldn't find any. So I headed up to Pietz's Road on County Road 5, seeing a few rough-legged hawks and some small groups of snow buntings along the way. Searched Pietz's for owls, but didn't see any. Encountered 3 gray jays at the intersection of Pietz's Road and County Highway 18. At around 4:50pm I headed off down the snowmobile/4-wheeler trail that heads straight south from the intersection of Pietz's and Highway 18. After about .75 mile, I spotted the great grey owl perched atop a pine along the trail. I was able to approach w/in 80 meters and watched the bird for 20 minutes before it started getting pretty dark. She just flew back and forth betweent the tops of several pines and wasn't very concerned with me. What an incredible bird! Happy birding! Jason Hill
