Some of the birds seen on the Prairie's Edge Wildlife Drive on Thursday: Canada Goose Trumpeter Swan Wood duck Mallard Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup - divers were mainly on Schoolhouse Pool, but also some on Stickney - the north end Wild Turkey Bald Eagle (10) Northern Harrier (4) Red-tailed Hawk Rough-legged Hawk (5!) Sandhill Crane Greater yellowlegs - Stickney & Nelson Pools Ring-billed Gull Belted Kingfisher Red-headed Woodpecker Merlin - at about 4.5 miles Eastern Phoebe Northern Shrike - just past the restrooms Common Raven - near mm 5 Red-breasted Nuthatch (not very common at SHB) Ruby & Golden-crowned Kinglets Eastern Bluebird (20 in a flock) Cedar Waxwing American Pipit (3) - Nelson Pool Snow Bunting (8) - between Big Bluestem Pool and the Prairie Trail LeConte's. song, Lincoln's, white-throated and Harris's sparrows Dark-eyed Junco (lots) Red-winged and Rusty Blackbirds - lots of rusty on Stickney Pool near the bald eagle nest American Goldfinch
Along County Road 16 near Upper & Lower Roadside Pools and Carpenter Pool, there was an immaturegolden eagle flying around. There were 15-20 American Pipits flying around Carpenter Pool. Lots of raptors all over the refuge today - I bet there were 8-10 rough-legged hawks, along CR's 9, 5 and 16 as well as the wildlife drive. Red-tailed hawks, bald eagles, northern harriers, and one sharp-shinned hawk, There was also another northern shrike along CR 5 about a mile north of it's intersection with CR 9. Sandhill cranes are now foraging in newly harvested corn fields along CR 3, as well as CR 11 north of Santiago. Farmers have been in the fields again in the last couple of days, so cranes are easier to find. As mentioned earlier, we had 4800 birds on our sunrise count on Thursday morning. So - good crane viewing yet this weekend! Betsy Beneke ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
