Late this afternoon I went to see if I could refind the Snowy from this morning and ended up finding a different Snowy instead that was much whiter. Based on location and appearance, I believe it is the owl I've been calling the Atwater Snowy. I first saw it flying south along 180th St NE where it perched on top of a hill about 0.25 directly west of the intersection of 180th St and 90th Ave NE. After sitting there a long while it flew to the south and landed on top of a lone bush on a ridge in the triangular section formed by 180th St and Sperry Lake Road just north of Co. Rd. 28.
I first noticed both owls today as they were flying parallel with the road and away from my car. I'm thinking they were perching on the large snow banks lining the roads and were scared up by the vehicle. Horned Lark numbers are increasing. I observed 75 this afternoon where previous days have been closer to 20. No Snow Buntings today. I did see four rooster pheasants. One sad non-bird sighting was seeing that the newer Morton building on Co. Rd. 10 where the Atwater Snowy once perched had burned to the ground recently and still smelled of smoke. Good birding! Josh Wallestad ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
