Birded around Glacial Lakes State Park in Pope County yesterday with my “grand” niece and nephew. Highlight of the day, not including the fun of birding with the kids, was an Olive-sided Flycatcher. It was a new Pope County bird for me and a “lifer” for the kids. Not far behind was a cooperative pair of perched and grooming American Kestrals with at least one and maybe two juveniles motoring around. Even better was Mason watching them for 5 minutes in the scope and exclaiming how gorgeous they were. Other, mostly common and expected, birds in the park were several kingbirds (one pair with juvenile), House wrens (possible family group), one singing Eastern Wood-pewee, Song Sparrows, Field Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Chickadees, numerous Goldfinches, juvenile Ring-necked ducks, Red-eyed Vireo (heard), and a quick look at a possible Yellow-throated Vireo. Best common bird was finding one of Aanan’s target birds – Cedar Waxwing – he was very excited! It was pretty warm so most birds were cooperating by sitting still – and panting. Good for birding with the kids.
Absent (or at least silent or out of sight) were Clay-colored and Swamp Sparrows. Red-winged Blackbirds must have flocked up and left the wetlands – it is very quiet there. On the way home, Aanan saw (and we all heard) a fly-by Green Heron across the street from the Dairy Queen. He is getting pretty good at picking up on many of these birds. Also saw a group of Pied-billed Grebes at the Froland WPA. It is very green around Pope County and fields are saturated. There was much destruction around the county from the August 1 storm. Thousands of trees are down, many boats destroyed, and even one of the large power line towers came down. On my farm, this storm took out much of what the ‘06 storm did not. Sid Stivland Plymouth, MN (and Pope 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
