As of yesterday, three more migrants have joined the Buffleheads and pied-billed Grebes already present: a Hooded Merganser, a Lesser Scaup, and a Common Loon (the Horned Grebes have moved on). I also saw that a Great Blue Heron had joined the gulls on the "point" that juts out into the lake.
For those not familiar with Como Lake in Como Park, St. Paul: it's a small lake with a circumference of just 1.3 miles, surrounded by houses with a heavily used pedestrian and a bike trail around it. There is a golf course on the northwest side, separated from the lake only by the heavily traveled Lexington Avenue. It is truly amazing that a loon finds its way here and tolerates all the traffic. We call "him" our Easter loon, because "he" always appears around this time of year. Last spring, no doubt due to the more severe winter and frozen-over lakes up north, we had three loons stay for a while, one of which was later seen dead on the shore. We also had a lot more of the other migrants visit (Merganser, Ruddy Duck, Redhead, Scaup, Coot, etc.) compared to this year. Also saw my first Hermit thrush for the year in a wooded area nearby. Sue Nevin 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
