Upon receipt of Alex Cruz' post about a black duck there, I headed out. Arriving just before 6pm, I spent about an hour at the marsh trying to re-find the *Am.* *Black Duck,* without success. After about 30 minutes I was ready to leave, but a 3rd year *Bald Eagle* cruised over the marsh and stirred up a good lot of the waterfowl there. Subsequent scanning revealed still revealed no ABDU.
The best bird of the day there for me was a calling *Virgina Rail* - it's kidick-kidick call was heard repeatedly from the flooded corn area in the westernmost portion of the marsh. It was a new county bird for me! At times a bit lost in the cacophony of coots, ducks and Red-winged blackbirds, it was insistent enough to get my attention. Even before the eagle's presence, the marsh was very birdy, with almost all the puddle ducks present and a few bay ducks too: *Wood Duck *- several pairs* Gadwall *- 2 pair* Mallard -* several handfuls* Blue-winged Teal *- numerous* Green-winged Teal *- about a half dozen* N. Shoveler-* quite a few* Redhead - *5 popped out after the eagle passed* Ring-necked Duck -* about 2 dozen* Lesser Scaup -* about a dozen* Bufflehead - *about half a dozen* Hooded Merganser* - only 1 pair seen As for shorebirds, only: *Wilson's Snipe *- one came in for a landing. Didn't look for others, as I saw 10 at Randolph Industrial Park on Friday. *Killdeer* - a few Also present were: *Am. Coots* - over 200 *Pie-billed Grebe* - about a dozen *Canada Goose* - several pairs -- Sincerely, Jim Ryan Saint Paul's Westside ---- One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between Man and Nature shall not be broken. -* Leo Tolstoy* A well governed appetite is the greater part of liberty. - *Lucius Annaeus Seneca* ---- ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
