Hi everyone! This morning's birding yielded some nice first-of-year finds. I first checked Wells Lake, which had a nice mix of waterfowl. Many birds present were of species previously reported from here, although the numbers were much higher. While observing, I picked out a male Green-winged Teal. I also spotted a Great Blue Heron landing on the island where the colony is located. And also while there, I saw (and heard) a large mixed flock of Canada Geese and Tundra Swans flying overhead.
I then went to River Bend Nature Center to do some hawk watching. That wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but I had a few. The best birds there were two migrating Sandhill Cranes, both alone and at different times. In both cases the birds remained silent. Waterfowl at Wells Lake included- Cackling Goose Canada Goose Wood Duck Gadwall Mallard Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Raptors seen at RBNC- Bald Eagle (several) Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk (harassing a red-tail) Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Good birding! Dave Bartkey Faribault, MN [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
