Nathan and I tried something a little different this morning - we competed for species totals and rarities in adjacent counties - he covered Mille Lacs and I covered Sherburne. The old man lost on this wind blown day, 54-53 (species) and (at least) 2-1 (rarities). Highlights included: * Two Red-throated Loons, Mille Lacs Lake, Hillcrest and Garrison (latter was a county violation, but excusable due to scouting for next week's trip) * Townsend's Solitaire, Sherburne County, Ann Lake/Sand Dunes (right of first parking lot) (seems awfully early to this observer) * Northern Goshawk, Mille Lacs WMA (one also present yesterday on Sherburne's Auto Tour) * Snow Goose, Mille Lacs County, just south of the reservation in the opposing lake (do you think I could find a Snow Goose? Or any goose different from hundreds of Canadas, many with short necks but huge bodies? I'm snake/goose bitten this year!) * Eleven ducks total, including Ruddy & Bufflehead in Princeton Sewage Ponds * Five Rough-legged Hawks in Mille Lacs County (none in Sherburne) * Winter Wren, Mille Lacs CR 12 * Twelve sparrows total. Also of interest were the dramatic differences between our lists - Nathan had 24 different species than I - I had 10 ducks, he had two (hunting pressure?) - he had five raptors, I had one - I had two warblers, he had none - he had Rusties and Brewers everywhere, I had only Red-winged - I had three shorebirds, he had one (different from my three). Neither of us had any Meadowlarks (numerous yesterday in the refuge), Mourning Doves (wind?) or House Sparrows/House Finches. Good birding to all! Al Schirmacher, on Nathan's computerNathan SchirmacherPrinceton,MNMille Lacs County _________________________________________________________________ When your life is on the go?take your life with you. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/115298558/direct/01/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20081018/831d1f6b/attachment.html
