This morning I arrived at Wisconsin Point at sunrise, and saw roughly 50 Common Redpolls at the end of Wisconsin Point, where the Superior Entry is located. What a fun time it is to watch those little guys.
Just something I pondered about this morning... think of how amazing these little arctic finches are, by being able to hang upside-down in bitter cold temperatures. Their leg muscles (thighs I'm thinking) must not only be strong like a goldfinches' leg muscles, for being able to feed while clinging upside-down, but Redpolls are regularly found farther north than Goldfinches are (of course, in the winter around here there can be overlap). Simply alone for their size, Redpolls are truly incredible for as hardy-against-the-cold as they are. Sorry, just had to share some of my personal fascination for avian physiology and those arctic finches... Crossbills are in there too! I had a good morning of gulls as well, and this morning's sightings of gulls at the landfill include: 5 Glaucous Gulls... five were the most I saw at one time, all of which were non-adults 1 Great Black-backed Gull... beautiful adult that I was fortunate to see flying around/overhead throughout most of my 1 1/2 hour gull-watching at the landfill Herring Gulls Good birding, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN [email protected] www.pbase.com/birdfedr/naturallyavian<http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/naturallyavian> ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
