The following are notes on the birds seen in the 2004 Pine County CBC (page 57 in MN DeLorme): * Winter Finches: o Redpolls * Common - These birds are everywhere. If our aim was to census Redpolls, we could have counted much more. They were at every feeder, along all the roads, and were very vocal and active. These birds this winter were the largest numbers for any species we have ever logged. This is a migration that is huge in scale. Fill up your feeders, they are coming and they are hungry! We saw them on thistle tube feeders and on the ground beneath sunflower seed feeders, and in Birch and Aspen trees when perched up in flocks.. * Hoary - Good luck. Roger Schroeder and family found ours at a feeders along CR 153 east of Bruno o Crossbills * Red - Flyovers of loose flocks, none found feeding, in dense areas of conifers, seen regularly with lots of time put into them. * White-winged - Very hard to find, I have seen none in my 3 scouting trips=20 o Pine Siskins - Not abundant, heard first and then found when not at feeders. No large flocks. o Goldfinches - Hard to find, very low numbers for this count. o Purple Finches - Very tough to find. Only 2 sightings. o Evening Grosbeaks - None being seen right now in Pine County o Pine Grosbeaks - hard to find, most at feeders in small numbers, heard calling softly, not singing though. * Starlings - we are way up in numbers, tallying 232. we have never counted them in Nickerson before, this is depressing. * Waxwings o Bohemians - We saw 5 separate flocks, the biggest and best in the small neighborhood community on Sturgeon Island, just over the covered bridge that leads to these homes on the east shore of Sturgeon Lake. o Cedars - Smattering in the big flock of La Bohemes. * Corvids o Ravens and Crows were remarkably low compared to previous counts. I am reticent to use this fact to deduce anything with West Nile, but it is amazing to note the paucity of large black birds compared to previous years.=20 o Blue Jays were well attended at all feeders and Oak Groves * Raptors o Owls * Northern Hawk Owl - The NHOW east of Kerrick where the road bends to the east is still the most regular NHOW I have heard of. There may be 2 birds here, if you have some time to observe fro a while, let me know, please. The bird(s) being seen here is very active and keeps out of sight a lot, flying out of sight one moment then popping up nearby. This remains one of the best spots in the state to observe this bird inaction. The other two NHOW's were patrolling large open fields, not Bogland. Scope needed here. The NHOW seen directly east of Sturgeon Lake (the body of water) and west of Military Road was sighted 3 times around this huge open field, which is more than a mile square. * Great Gray Owl - The birds seen so far have been only in the northern half of my CBC circle, which is centered near the town of Duquette, along State Hwy 23. These birds are not staged up like Sax-Zim Owls, they are not along the road peering down into the grass. The ones seen have been near roads, but in as far as 100 yards. All birds seen were very actively hunting. My impression is that these birds are common now in northern Pine County, and very visible in the late afternoon and evening, Perhaps their foraging behavior of being away from roads pushed them through Sax Zim, or perhaps the more open terrain in Pine County Boglands enables the birds to stay away from the roads. 1 was seen along hwy 23, 0.5 miles south of Nickerson, the others were in mixed deciduous/coniferous lowland forest. 1 GGOW seen in Carlton County was staged up 25-30 feet high atop a tamarack snag. This was by far the tallest snag in the area, so at first glance we thought NHOW, but it was a Great Gray. It was an extremely low wind day, perhaps they can hunt higher when the wind rustle is diminished? I can appreciate this when I try to record birds in a breeze. o Eagles and Hawks * Bald Eagle - tough to find, 14" of ice on lakes, rives freezing over in many spots * Rough-legged Hawk - not as abundant as in past months. They are now centered over open boglands and large open fields. Both dark morph and light morph seen. * Grouse o Ruffed extremely low in numbers, Steve Novatney worked his field trial Setter in fields trying for Sharp-tails and in aspens for Ruffed, to no avail. One group found Ruffed staged up in Aspens near Sturgeon Island on Sturgeon Lake. o Tony Hertzel found Sharp-Tailed tracks, but no bird. None seen this year. * Woodpeckers * Black-backed - seem to be hanging near the bog. There have been steady sighting of this species for the past 2 months if go near the bog. The female I observed was working over a rotten standing snag of Aspen beside a 60 acre jack pine stand. This bird was loudly and steadily vocalizing. It then flew 50 feet away to another rotten snag of Aspen, then flew out of sight to the south. The flat light conditions, the openness of the bird and its low perch (15 feet) made for perfect viewing, it did not appear black at all, but rather a dark steel blue, with clean white striping on its face and a clear white belly flashed as it flew right by us. It seemed to be pressing its head to the log to listen for bugs before it fled the scene, it sort of turned its bead and leaned into the trunk. Tony Hertzel found a bird along Ericsson Road, again very vocal and very active.
Mark Alt=20 Brooklyn Center, MN=20 [email protected]=20 "Birds and their songs are important to me, they add to my enjoyment of life"=20
