On Tuesday May 26th Susan Schumacher and I enjoyed observing a Great Gray Owl along Aitkin CR 18. From its intersection with CR 5 we went west on CR 18, 2.2 miles and the GGOW flew into a tree on the north side relatively close to the road. We shut off our engine and watched it hunt from 6:15pm until 6:25 and then it flew deeper into the woods. It sure is a whole lot warmer to have your windows down in May than January to enjoy this species!
Early on Wednesday morning May 27th from 1:00am - 2:30am we were at the McGregor Marsh listening for Yellow Rail and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow and it was chilly with a moderate breeze. We heard the distinctive "tic-tic tictictic" of 6 Yellow Rails, and the vocalization of 1 Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow while we were there all on the east side of the highway. McGregor Marsh is south of State Hwy 210 on State Hwy 65 and we started to hear them vocalize approximately 1 mile south of State Hwy 210 on State Highway 65. They were spread out between there and the Soo Line Trail. Conny Brunell Richfield, Hennepin County ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
