The Itasca Bird Club held a field trip this morning and we visited two locations that are not generally open to the public.
At the Mallard Club rice paddies (just west of Deer River) we had lots of action. We saw at least a dozen Trumpeter Swans, 2 Sandhill Cranes, 2 Wilson's snipe, a large flock of Lapland Longspurs, and a Northern Harrier. Duck species included: Blue-winged Teal Green-winged Teal Lesser Scaup Wood Duck Ring-necked duck Bufflehead Redhead American Wigeon Pintail Mallard Hooded Merganser Common Merganser We also saw three Grebe Species (Pied-billed, Horned, and Red-necked), and three Sparrow species (Song, American Tree, and Savannah). Our next stop was at the Minnesota Power and Light holding ponds. Action here was much slower. We saw some of the same species that we saw at the rice paddies but we did manage to add Common Loon, Common Goldeneye, Bald Eagle, Ruffed Grouse, and Gadwall. We also saw a soaring flock of White Pelicans numbering between 60 and 100. Earl Orf www.earlorfphotos.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
