birds at our feeders: Pileated Woodpecker regularly stops at our suet. You can feel it pounding on the suet. Sounds more like a hammer than a woodpecker. Northern Flicker probably coming everyday. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: at least the second appearance this winter. Plummage is intermediate between juvenile and male. Red markings apparrent, but bird is very brown.
Last Wednesday I found a large flock of Cedar Waxwings in Eagan near Lone Oak and Lexington. Perhaps this is the flock that we found a month ago near Pilot Knob and I-494. On Saturday I found Northern Shrike on Lexington at the ball fields near Diffley (Eagan) and another along Cedar Avenue (about 185th) in Farmington. A Great Horned Owl was on a nest (possibly with its mate) at Cedar Ave. and Dodd Road (Lakeville). This is at least the third year she is using this nest. Today (tuesday) I drove to Granite Falls finding large flocks of Snow Buntings some with more than a couple of hundred birds mostly in Renville County. Most of the flocks appeared to be only Buntings, but I did find a couple of Lapland Longspurs. I also had a couple of small flocks that were probably also Longspurs. The only raptors were Red-tailed Hawks, which were more plentiful than I expected with seven observed. I found two pairs associating. I found more Crows than I expected with several small flocks. Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN sweston2 at comcast.net
