Randy and I led a trip up to Crex Meadows today. Temperatures in the 30's so a bit on the cold side! The water is starting to open up at Crex Meadows itself but not much there yet besides sandhill cranes, ring-billed ducks, trumpeter swans, great blue heron, hooded mergansers , 3 northern shrikes, coots, shovelers, and a blue winged teal. The better birding was at Interstate State Park where we saw pied billed grebe, eastern bluebirds, phoebe, cormorants, junco, hermit thrush, brown creeper, and yellow rump warblers. Along the Wisconsin side of the St. Croix, we also added song sparrows, ruby and golden crowned kinglets, kingfisher, and bufflehead. We found a gorgeous male goldeneye sitting on an ice flue just south of Grantsburg east on County Z. Total of 5 species of woodpeckers (pileated, hairy, downy, flicker, red-bellied). Lots of harriers, osprey, bald eagles, kestrels. Total count was 49 species. Definitely seeing spring species arriving!
Chris Hills ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
