On Thursday, we visited some of the lakes and streams along the Cannon River watershed. There was still much ice, but in the open areas, a good diversity of waterfowl had congregated. The rookery island on Wells Lake was teeming with both GB herons and cormorants, all very vociferous. Around 30 pelicans basked on the ice edge, west of the rookery. By the bridge was an assortment of divers and dabblers. We saw one loon; common, hooded and red-breasted mergansers; scaup; ring-necked ducks; bufflehead; blue-winged teal; shovelers; and the usual coots, mallards, and Canadas.
A song sparrow was serenading at river's edge along Sakatah Singing Hills Trail, as a pair of tree swallows chased their lunch in the WMA nearby. In Sakatah State Park, there were a couple of E. phoebes likewise engaged. Besides a half-dozen red-tail hawks, a couple of bald eagles, and a turkey vulture, we counted 9 different kestrels surveying the fields. There were bluebirds about, as well. On the way home, we passed by a couple of trees that seemed to be sprouting black foliage. It turned out to be thousands of blackbirds. They were all trying to get in a word edge-wise, and the din they created was deafening. Linda Whyte -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080404/6608e186/attachment.html
