This morning in the freezing rain coming strong from the northeast, I decided to take my chance at birdwatching and see if any unusual sightings arrived with this funky northeast front moving through. The highlight of the morning was seeing a beautiful Dunlin feeding and fluttering along the wave-ridden beaches. With all the heavy rain and spots on the scope lens, it was hard at first to ID this bird. Finally after seeing the longer bill, with the overfed-sandpiper appearance in the body, it clicked! The color on their back is so pretty this time of year... It's one of those colors that you don't see in birds all that often... like a faded pinkish brown, but really rich in color. Here's my list from this morning, between 7:45am and about 8:30am-
Location: Park Point--Dune Bridge near airport Observation date: 10/21/09 Number of species: 9 Mallard 2 Redhead 3 Greater/Lesser Scaup 16 Dunlin 1 Ring-billed Gull 65 Herring Gull 1 American Crow 2 American Robin 1 European Starling 20 Dark-eyed Junco 2 In case you haven't heard, there was a GYRFALCON banded and displayed up at Hawk Ridge about two weeks ago. It was amazing. I was so lucky and got to release it! :) There was a Bald Eagle caught and banded at the ridge this past Sunday as well! I was around in Ashland then, and did not get to see it. It sure was sweet to see the change of colors as the habitat fluctuated around Ashland :) Go to this gallery to see the photos I have shot at the Ridge this fall season. http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/hawk_ridge_2009_gallery Good birdwatching, Erik Bruhnke Naturally Avian [email protected] www.pbase.com/birdfedr ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
