The Minn Birding Weekends group in Cook Co this past weekend, June 30-July 1, turned up a few birds of note, especially a female Spruce Grouse on the Lima Grade Rd. (This road turns S off the Gunflint Trail ~1 mi S of the Trail Center Cafe.) Unfortunately, it appeared only briefly in the grass along the side of the road (it had probably been dust-bathing in the road), and only one or two of us were able to get a look at it. The location was about half-way between the Gunflint Trail on the north and the Lima Mountain Rd on the south (I forgot to take a mileage reading).
Also farther S along the Lima Grade in the black spruce bog ~1/2 mile S of the Lima Mt Rd were a drumming female Black-backed Woodpecker plus a family group of Boreal Chickadees. Other highlights included: - a pair of Red-necked Grebe on L Superior near Five Mile Rock (species not known to nest in NE Minn); - a Whip-poor-will seen and heard along CR 58, ~1/2 mi N of Hwy 61 (CR 58 turns off Hwy 61 just W of Five Mile Rock and ends at CR 60); - Sedge Wren, Eastern Bluebird, Le Conte's Sparrow, and Bobolink (all locally uncommon to rare in Cook Co) in the meadow along CR 60, ~1/2 mi E of the CR 58 jct; - among the 18 species of warblers still singing on territory were both a Tennessee and Cape May along CR 58, and a Black-throated Blue still on the Moose Viewing Trail at the top of the hill <1/4 mi from the trailhead (this trailhead is signed along the Gunflint Tr just N of the North Brule River). Perhaps more significant were the 2 Least Bitterns in Duluth reported to me by Ron Erpelding. He saw them on June 29 in the marsh on the N side of Mud Lake in the St Louis River backwaters in the Gary-New Duluth neighborhood. From Hwy 23, turn E on Hwy 39, at the bottom of the hill park on the left below the RR viaduct, walk under the viaduct and hike the RR tracks through Mud L to the far N end. Kim Eckert (Please note new e-mail address: eckertkr at gmail.com) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2030 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20070702/4ddab3f3/attachment.bin
