Hi, We had 14 field observers and 9 feeder counters on Saturday for the New Ulm CBC. Overall we had 38 species for the day, which is above averge. Highlights were: one Bufflehead, one Eastern Screech Owl, 3 Fox Sparrows, American Robins, one Rough-legged Hawk, 392 Wild Turkey. We had a new species this year, 6 Eurasian Collared-Doves which Molly Tranel found at her home feeder in New Ulm.
And in the "close but no cigar" catergory, we had two near misses. The first was a juvenile Golden Eagle that Bob Dunlap spotted perched on a dead snag along the KC Road northwest of New Ulm. We (Bob, Matt Mecklenberg and myself) got good looks at it and could see the golden feathers on the nape and when it took flight could see the white tail and black band as well as the white patches on the primaries. I was a little exasperated to discover later that the place where we found the Golden Eagle was a mile outside of the count circle! This would have been a new species for the CBC as well. Cody Fox, Gary Schneider and Lance Kuester found a diving duck on the Minnesota river that they were unable to identify to species. It was in an open patch of water and was about a quarter of a mile away. Cody told me that it was a dark colored duck and that Lance believed that it was a species of sea duck. Cody thought that the illustration of a female White-winged Scoter looked the closest to what he saw. Brian Smith Sleepy Eye ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
