Tooled around Duluth a bit for today and easily found over 100+ Pine Grosbeaks. The world is apparently their oyster and many bellied up to the ornamental crab apple buffet. Others dined on the plentiful ash and maple seeds. I found several scattered groups of Pine Grosbeaks including one flock of at least 60 birds. Generally, most of the action on the ground centered around crabapple trees. At one point this morning, in one crabapple tree, I observed an American Robin, several Pine Grosbeaks, a Rusty Blackbird(!), and a Common Redpoll...all in the tree at the same time. While hardly doing an adequate job paying attention, I also observed a couple hundred Tundra Swans migrating way up there, 2 Bohemian Waxwings, 30+Common Redpolls, 10+American Tree Sparrows, 15+Rough Legged Hawks, and 50+Bald Eagles. Coincidentally or not, with all the eagles flying around, I also found a fresh, (still warm), dead American Coot on top of an iced over puddle on the side of the road. I of course immediately thought it was a dovekie, or some type of pelagic seabird, because if I ever do find one of those, I'm sure it will be dead on the side of the road when it's freezing cold out. Besides, I'm not used to identifying dead coots on the side of the road, so it was an easy mistake to make. I'm not into avian forensics, but I really would like to know what happened to that coot.... Fun day to be out! Regards, Shawn Zierman.
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