for the 18th year I headed out from Floodwood at dawn on Christmas morning. Leaving my wife in a warm (though uncomfortable) bed I headed into the cold (below -10) frosty morn for my tradition Christmas morning birding excursion. They did not need me or expect me back til afternoon for the tradional dinner.
Checking a few birding locations on the way I headed towards Meadowlands and Sax-Zim. My second species, just outside of Floodwood was a Northern Shrike. The other highlights before Meadowlands included a Bald Eagle and the first Pheasants, I remember finding on these trips. The home feeders I passed had little more than Chickadees and Redpolls. Redpolls were at most all the feeders in small numbers. I found only one flock of Redpolls SW of Meadowlands, but it vanished before I could assess its size. The highlights of the trip were the feeders. The Blue Spruce feeders had a small flock of Pine Grosbeak. The Admiral feeders had a cooperative Boreal Chickadee. And the Owl Avenue complex had a flock of Evening Grosbeaks and grouse tracks. Woodpeckers (Downys and Hairys) and Canada Jays were in the surrounding trees, but not I did not find them coming into the feeders. Interestingly, I saw no nuthatches. Raptors included three Bald Eagles, three dark Rough-legged Hawks, and a distant Goshawk. Other birds besided the common corvids included Goldfinches and a bovine-centric flock of Starlings. -- Steve Weston On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
