The ice has completely disappeared from Lake Como in the last 24 hours, and waterbirds have been plentiful this morning, including at least 10 Common Loons, Pied-billed Grebe, cormorants, and 10 duck species (Mallard, Wood Duck, Shoveler, Red-breasted Mergansers, Ruddy Ducks, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Bufflehead, and also Blue-winged Teal in golf course pond aross from lake). With the strong south winds there were birds leaving and arriving on an off through the morning, so not all duck species were present at once. The loons seem to be staying put, as is the decent-sized raft of ruddies, scaup, ring-necks and buffleheads.
Interesting non-water birds included my first-of-year Tree Swallows, Rough-winged Swallows, and Swamp Sparrows. Scott Loss St. Paul ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
