The Sherburne CBC was conducted yesterday - the 22nd. Our preliminary species total was 40 birds, which was excellent! The Friends of Sherburne NWR organizes our count, and compiler is Dean Kleinhans, so our thanks to him for coordinating an excellent effort! And of course, thanks to everyone who participated - we appreciate you!
Highlights included: 2 red-shouldered hawks (south end of Little Elk Lake near the boat access) 1 golden eagle (intersection of CR's 9 and 5) 1 rough-legged hawk (seen from HQ flying over fields north of the river) 15 American robins - in Santiago 1 swamp sparrow (not sure of location, but near Zimmerman) 1 song sparrow (refuge HQ feeder) 2 purple finches Many common redpolls - one flock of over 150 birds was found in the weedy area of a housing development NW of Zimmerman. I don't know exact location, but it was west of Hwy. 169, north of CR 4, and east of CR 1. Most fun was finding pine grosbeaks in two spots. One flock of 12 birds was along CR 80, just east of its intersection with CR 5. (this spot is about 1 mile north of the jct. of CR's 3 and 5 north of the refuge. I looked for the birds mid afternoon with no luck) Another flock of 20 birds was in the community of Santiago, flying over the treetops along the river. I was lucky enough to find these birds later in the afternoon, while watching a flock of robins. I had my binocs on a single robin, trying to figure out what it was eating, when a large flock of big, pink birds flew behind the robin in my binoc view. They stopped and perched briefly in the tree tops, and then took off again. This was the first time this winter I've seen male birds - and probably 75% of the flock were males. I tried to follow them to get a better view, but they continued flying along the river to the west, and I lost them in the trees after a bit. They seemed to be on the move. The little community of Santiago was very "birdy" yesterday, likely due in large part to the one family in the middle of town who feeds the birds year-round, and also several spots of open water in the river. There was a mourning dove in that yard, quite a few redpolls and later in the afternoon at least 7 northern cardinals, which are always a thrill for me. Never get tired of those beautiful birds! The only owl found was a great horned. And NO magpie this year. We missed you, Tony! Merry Christmas everyone! Betsy Beneke Sherburne NWR ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
