The past 3 days have easily been my most productive birding days this early in the spring season at Rapids Lake MVNWR with 56 species seen over that period. There have been 18 waterfowl species including Greater White-fronted Geese, Snow Geese, and Tundra Swan. The first Northern Harrier and Red-shouldered Hawk were back today as well as three Sandhill Crane walking the ice of Rapids Lake. The first few gulls(Ring-billed and Herring) have made there way back to the area. Many(at least for the date) Killdeer and hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds have mainly been migrating overhead the last two days. While there weren't a lot of blackbirds on the ground yesterday, today there were many that were not migrating at the time I was out including one large flock. Some Common Grackle and Rusty Blackbird(the first blackbird species I saw this year) have also returned to the area as well as a single Brown-headed Cowbird. My most unique sighting was of a Great Horned Owl eating a small duck in a tree early in the morning yesterday.
John Cyrus ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
