Last night, Wednesday, May 4, Michelle McDowell and I conducted a marshbird survey along the north bog route at the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The night started out great with a black bear walking through the marsh grasses and then swimming over the river, stopping on the other side for a good long look. The survey turned up 7 YELLOW RAILS, 3 VIRGINIA RAILS, 3 SORAS, 9 AMERICAN BITTERNS, SEDGE WRENS, 2 BARRED OWLS, 2 beaver, very good numbers of drumming RUFFED GROUSE and SNIPE everywhere. It was a perfect night for stargazing too. Wonderful night at a wonderful place!!! Will also add that today I had HARRIS' SPARROWS, WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS at my feeders. Warren Nelson
