I made a wandering loop through the middle of Stearns County on Friday, and other than finding quite a few flocks of northern divers, it wasn't a day filled with exciting bird finds. Albany WTPs held lots of mallards and green-winged teal with a few gadwall, wigeon and shovelers mixed in. Also ring-billed and Franklin's gulls - which I also found just about every where I went. Lots of farmers in the fields, harvesting corn or just plowing, and gulls were everywhere - following the plows.
Middle Spunk Lake at Avon held large rafts of coots, but also ring-necked ducks - way out in the middle. Near the intersection of CRs 12 and 177 there were 22 bald eagles of various plumages sitting in a grassy area - I can only presume there was something dead that was attracting them, but couldn't figure out what it was. Was kind of fun to watch their interactions. The only shorebirds I saw were greater yellowlegs, and only in two spots. SW of Greenwald, I watched a merlin chase a kestrel - never seen that before. There was a small flock of yellow-rumped warblers along the Sauk River at Richmond, and also several young cedar waxwings feeding on some kind of berry - couldn't tell what it was. Large flocks of juncos several places, with a few white-throated sparrows mixed in. And in a few fields, small mixed flocks of American pipits and horned larks. There were also pipits at the Albany WTPs, so can surmise there's a good migration of pipits in the area, after seeing them at Sherburne on Thursday as well. I only saw one rough--legged hawk all day. They must all be at Sherburne! Betsy Beneke St. Cloud, Benton 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
