I found a couple of Virginia Rails in a marsh across the road from the Grand Portage sewage ponds today (unfortunately, no shorebirds at the ponds). Yesterday, also in Cook County, I was fortunate to cross paths with a Sandhill Crane family. They were in the woods at the edge of the minimum maintenance road that runs a mile east of the Lake County border - 2.1mi north of Hwy 61. One of the adults came out onto the road as I approached. I slowly backed up and eventually the second adult and two colts came out onto the road and the group moved down the road and went down a private driveway to the west (Zeke's Road) and shortly disappeared into the woods. I went about a half mile up the road through the woods before I found habitat that seemed more appropriate for nesting cranes.
Bob Ekblad Olmsted County in SE Minnesota http://www.Birding-Minnesota.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
