The river has risen to the point of overflowing heavily into the backwaters just west of the 35E bridge, and has now breached the riverside dirt path itself, in at least one place. (About the riverside dirt path: use caution, because the water is undercutting the bank, and in one spot cracks have appeared in the dirt.) I did not venture too far west, as the trail had already been blocked off late last week. However, the inner paved trails are still totally passable.
The birds present were mainly the usual. The large lake is still hosting both common and hooded mergansers along with buffleheads. Some of the mallards and Canadas were touring the new ponds in the woods, to the background music of pileateds doing a call-and-response, while a flock of tundra swans added their voices in an overhead fly-by. At the river's edge was an added, welcome sound: golden-crowned kinglets were feeding in the evergreen trees! Linda Whyte ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
