Yesterday for a while I stood out with the scope peering to the far edge of an outcrop of snow pillows and pile-ups that have drifted ashore. A great assortment of ducks lounged there in the late afternoon; I am a little nearsighted and subject to optical illusions when birds tuck their heads but was fairly sure of the white crown of an American wigeon and suspected a shoveler crouching, as the rufous flank extended facing shore. Otherwise I saw scaup--probably greater--pintails, green-winged and blue-winged teal, redheads and common goldeneye. Elsewhere offshore from Park Point are common and red-breasted mergansers and bufflehead.
Running up Hwy. 2 in St. Louis and Lake Counties today there was a flood of flickers, back and forth across the road, one striking a wing on the windshield but escaping, all busy on the sandy embankments where ants must be tempting them in a way I never remember seeing before. -- *Tanya Beyer* Watercolor/mixed media flora, birds and wildscapes are available for viewing or purchase at http://www.etsy.com/shop/EpiphaniesAfield ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
