Just north of Pipestone, Jackson and Rock Counties, in Lyon County, there is heavy snow cover on lakes. Even with aerators on Cottonwood Lake, the oxygen has been measured as extremely low. Commercial fisherman pulled nets of dead walleye out of the lake last week. Migrating birds will be directly affected. It will be interesting to see if the spring waterfowl count is down on the lake. The Spellman Lake eagles may enjoy the easy feast.
Sue Morton Cottonwood, MN -----Original Message----- From: Minnesota Birds [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of CRAIG MANDEL Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2013 1:23 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [mou-net] Rock and Pipestone Counties 3/20 - 22/2013 3/22/2013 Returned from a trip to Rock and Pipestone counties. As previously mentioned, the lakes are frozen, there is little to no snow cover and many of the stream beds are dry. But I did find a number of migrant waterfowl and a few Blackbirds. I checked the lake in Worthington and found a mix of Ducks and Geese, in the open water. In Rock county the Quarry ponds just NE of Luverne, were good. With close to 1000 Greater White-fronted Geese there on the 21st. Plus there was a good mix of Ducks. Another interesting spot was along CR 51, just North of 221 st street. There were over 1000 Geese there on both the 22nd and 23rd. They were mainly Canada Geese, but today there were a few Cackling Geese and 3 Snow Geese mixed in the flock. In Pipestone county, just North of Split Rock Creek State Park. There was a large flock of Canada Geese, with a couple Cackling Geese mixed in. In Lincoln county, there was an aerator on Lake Benton at the county park on the North side of the lake. There were 100s of Greater White-fronted Geese, Canada Geese and a few Cackling Geese, plus a mix of Ducks in the open water and sitting on the ice. Here are a few of the species observed: Greater White-fronted Geese - Nobles, Rock, Pipestone and Lincoln Snow Geese - RockRoss's Geese - Lincoln - Three Ross's Geese were observed in a low flying flock of Greater White-fronted Geese, just south of Lake Benton. There flocks of Geese in flight through out the morning, today.Cackling Geese - Nobles, Rock, Pipestone and LincolnDucks - Rock county - I observed 16 species of Ducks at the Quarry ponds, with a different mix on each of my visits. Thursday morning was the best, day. But I added Blue-winged Teal and Canvasback there today.Rough-legged Hawks - Rock and Pipestone counties. Northern Flicker - RockAmerican Kestrel - Nobles, Rock, Pipestone and Lincoln - I observed a total of about 40 American Kestrels over the 3 days.Merlin - Pipestone County - One was observed at the Woodstock WMA on the 22nd.Harris's Sparrow - Rock county - One was observed near Blue Mounds State park.Rusty Blackbird - Rock County - observed in a large flock of Blackbirds, near Ash Creek.Common Redpoll - Rock and Pipestone County - These were observed at feeding stations in both counties, with around a dozen at each location. Craig [email protected], Hennepin County ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.2904 / Virus Database: 2641/6196 - Release Date: 03/22/13 ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
