We spent Monday morning looking for a couple of missed species before = heading back home to central Iowa. The highlights are below:
Sharp-tailed Grouse: We visited the location (between 0700 and 0730) = mentioned by Kim Eckert in Aitkin County (.4-mile south of Tamarack on = Co-16 / Kestrel) and didn't find any grouse. Did hear at least 1 Lapland = Longspur. Then we checked out the area north of Tamarack. Based on the = description, we weren't sure if the location was 1.6 miles north of = Tamarack along Co-31 / Kestrel (habitat didn't look right) or 1.6 miles = north of the Goshawk-Kestrel intersection along Co-31 / Kestrel (habitat = appeared to look right). We didn't find any birds at either spot. We = returned to the location south of Tamarack, at 0805, and immediately found = 2 males perched on separate hay "rolls". Within minutes 6 more arrived = and landed on the ground. Soon they were joined by the original 2 and = began displaying. By 0820, they had all flown off. Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch: We revisited the Fon-Du-Lac Conservation = Department building (Carlton Co.) in order to see the finches again. We = didn't see any at 0858 and left at 0910. We returned at 1205 and 2 = finches were present. The third showed up within a minute of our arrival. = We left at 1214, when the finches flew off. Northern Hawk-Owl: We arrived at 1015 at the area (St. Louis Co.) reported = by Mike Hendrickson on the 14th. We didn't find the bird at first so we = decided to drive up and down Co-4 / Rice Lake Rd. We didn't have to go = far! The bird was perched at the top of a small tree (at 1044), just past = the major power line that crosses the highway to the north. The bird was = on the east side of the road. After a couple of minutes the owl flew to = the second utility pole (in front of Northstar Flooring), west of the of = road. Then the owl flew to the top of a tree in a line of trees located = along the north side of the driveway to Coffee Cabin and storage units. Addendum to original posting: The Black-"bellied" Woodpecker should have = been listed as Black-backed Woodpecker. We enjoyed our trip to northeastern Minnesota and ended the trip with 54 = species, including 16 Lifers for our Polish friend. Thanks for the decent = weather (as we managed to miss the snow storm in central Iowa!). Wolfgang Oesterreich (Ames)=20 Jeff Nichols & Mary Doud (Boone County)=20 Jacek Niemiec (Krakow, Poland, temporarily in Ames)=20 Kelly Weichers (Roland)
