Nice finds, Chris. Our list ("our" being Erik Brunkhe, newbie to birding Dan
Phillips and I) at Sax-Zim Bog (Cotton, St. Louis County) was slightly
different:1. NO Great Gray Owls. We tried McDavitt Rd. yesterday evening and we tried for your Great Gray (see Chris's post) this morning and had no luck. 2. We had 2-4 Black-billed Magpies on Sax Rd. and another road that had a deer kill (forgot the name, the road ran north and south.) 3. 20ish Snow Buntings were seen along Highway 7 and 2 Bald Eagles at that same deer kill. We had more Rough-legged Hawks and less Northern Shrikes, but aside from that, all numbers and bird species were pretty much the same. Also, I'm not too sure how uncommon American Kestrel is in a county as urban (and small area-wise) as Ramsey County, but I saw one today at the NW part of the junction of CR-94 and Highway 35W. This is on the west side of Shoreview. Based on what reports I've seen and what I've personally seen this winter, it appears that there are higher numbers overwintering here than what is typical. Good birding! Alyssa DeRubeis confirmed overwinterer in Golden Valley, Hennepin Co. On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 10:22 PM, Chris West <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi everyone, > > A couple of my friends and I spent the day in the bog today. We arrived > right around sunrise and left shortly after sunset. > > Winter finches are almost nonexistent. Our entire tally was 10 C Redpolls > along Highway 16 north of the bog proper. > > Pine Grosbeaks were fairly common with several hanging around the feeders > on > Arkola Rd and a few flocks flying over in various places. > > Black-capped Chickadees were dirt common everywhere, but we did manage to > find two Boreal Chickadees at the feeders on Admiral Rd and heard one at > the > feeders on Arkola Rd. Lots of Red-breasted Nuthatches around too. > > > Interestingly enough, our 3rd bird of the morning was a Great Gray Owl > along > Highway 16 between Highway 25 and 5. > > The N Hawk-owl at the south end of McDavitt was still present this evening. > These were the only two owls we saw. > > > 4 N Shrikes, a Rough-legged Hawk along the west end of Arkola Rd, Blue and > Gray Jays, 20 or so Ruffed Grouse, a Mourning Dove and a White-breasted > Nuthatch made up most of the rest of the birds we saw today. > > No sign of any Black-backed or 3-toed Woodpeckers at all. McDavitt was > completely silent and there was very little sign of any recent workings in > the area, nor was there any trail into the trees near the road. > > > > Yesterday afternoon, we checked out Canal Park. Tally was: > Herring Gull, > Thayer's Gull, > Iceland Gull (several of them Kumlien's Gulls), > Great Black-backed, > Glaucous. > > I'm fairly certain I had a juvie Lesser Black-backed over the Superior > Landfill too, but I couldn't be 100% sure since it was flying fairly high. > Did have a Peregrine Falcon flyby as we were driving through Duluth too. > > > > > -- > Happy Birding! --Chris W, Madison, WI > > http://swallowtailedkite.blogspot.com > http://www.flickr.com/photos/swallowtailphoto > > [email protected] > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
