01-03-2014, 4:45 pm, 2 miles s Snowy in Vermillion, MN - Dakota County 01-03-2014, 4:45 pm, 2 miles south of Vermillion on North side of Cnty 66
After having bad luck in the St Cloud previously it is so nice to have birds coming to visit closer to home. Here is another thank goodness for a sunroof story. Today after work I headed south on S Robert Trail in a circuit through Rosemount and Vermillion. At Cnty 46/160th St E headed East then headed South on Clayton Ave to Cnty 66/200 St E. While en route East to Vermillion a lone Snowy was spotted at 4:45 pm on a utility pole. The bird was 2 miles south of Vermillion on the north side of Cnty 66. Giving the Owl some space, I parked 1 1/2 poles away. Using binoculars, It was fairly active standing on the wire insulator with the wind blowing hard and temperature around 19 degrees F. The bird was heavily barred head to tail. The tail its self was white with some dark coloration in the center, given that the tail was not fully spread. It bobbed its head a few times and turned its head from position to position as if listening. There was almost no traffic on the road. After seeing the bird was not spooked, I moved to one pole away and shut off the engine and hazard lights for quiet. At this point I had been watching for about 20 minutes when the bird took to the air - which way was it going to go? It dipped down and came right toward the car then to my surprise it alighted on top of the pole right next to me. Wow. I have a Subaru with a sunroof and a ringside seat with a perfect view. By now the sun was setting and light was becoming scarce. After 10 intimate minutes, it took off once again in a southeasterly direction very low in flight to a farm field which had an irrigation system and disappeared. Matthew R Johnson St Paul ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
