Birding by bicycle in Carver Park Reserve, Carver County, Saturday, 3:30 to 5:30 pm March 12, covering 14 miles. While my husband and I stopped at Lundsten Lake overlook ( the one just past the cross country ski area) at 4:30 p.m., we heard two Sandhill Cranes calling from the brush behind the overlook, we looked but we couldn't see them, then we saw 7 Sandhill cranes flying directly above us, heading in a northwestern direction, and calling very loudly. We had binoculars and we made a positive i.d. It sounded like the cranes on the ground called out to the cranes flying overhead, but the flying cranes did not stop. As we biked we heard Sandhill Cranes on the ground, calling loudly , in at least 4 separate spots in the park, sometimes we could see them, sometimes only hear them, including hearing one very close to the nature center parking lot. Three other low flying Sandhill Cranes seen from another part of the bike path, also calling.( Last May, we saw a nesting pair of Cranes in the park, standing together at sunset near a snall pond, but no cranes were at that spot today.) We saw 2 Trumpeter Swans swimming in Sunny Lake, with 4 Common Goldeneye, diving.We saw one silent male bluebird on a fence post in the park, near some bluebird houses in that fenced in area with the new trees. We saw a great Horned Owl fly over us after some crows were cawing at the owl, this was at another Lundsten Lake overlook. Then as we biked back to the Lowry Nature Center at 5:15 p.m., about 40 Snow Geese, white with black primaries, flew a couple hundred feet above us, heading in an easterly direction. There were many Canada Geese throughout the park, Many Red Wing Blackbirds, a couple Robins , and some big gulls circling, near the King overlook, but they were too far away to accurately identify, but they were not terns. Not many ducks.
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