Sorry for the late posts. We left Winona on Wednesday and are returning later tonight.
Thursday morning I found a flock of 25 redpolls and a single red crossbill just north of Willmar (3 miles) on County 5. Between Montevideo and Starbuck we found a flock of 100+ lapland longspurs and scoped Lake Minnewaska in Starbuck. A group of four birds caught my attention, but with heat distortion I could not positively identify them. Best guess was Western Grebes. On the drive we also found a single snow goose, cacklers, and canada geese with Mallards and Gadwall in open water. Saturday and Sunday my wife and I found a few boreal birds around Staples MN. Pine Grosbeaks were common throughout the town, with a small flock regularly visiting the crab apple tree near Praire and 8th St and a flock of 40 near the Conoco station. A flock of nearly 100 Bohemian Waxwings was four blocks north of 10 on 8th street as well. Other birds observed in teh area include a single Northern Shrike, a single Rough-legged Hawk, a flock of 15 Snow Buntings, a small flock of Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls. Four different woodpeckers, both nuthatches, and other feeder birds also visited my parents while we were there. My mother in law told me she had a pair of Evening Grosbeaks at her feeder in Wadena two weeks ago, but alas we did not find any on this trip north. - Malcolm Gold (Stockton, Winona County) -- Malcolm Gold (Stockton, Winona County) http://mcmdgold.blogspot.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcolmgold/ ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
