Yesterday, I lead the MOU’s first field trip of the spring season in the twin cities at the Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Eight of us started at the Bass Ponds, walked all the way down to Old Cedar Avenue Bridge, and back again from about 7:30-11:30am. We saw 52 species of birds on the trek, highlights and full checklist are posted below. Everyone had a great time and if there’s a field trip in your area, or one that sounds interesting, I would HIGHLY recommend going. It’s a great way to meet new people and see lots of good birds! Field trip information has been posted on the MOU Listserv, the Minnesota Birding Facebook Group, as well as at the end of the MOU Newsletter.
Highlights: 2 flyover Snow Geese 23 flyover Tundra Swans 10 Northern Pintail, some in the air but a few landed so we could observe them better A large number of Aythya ducks, including 2 Canvasback, 40 Lesser Scaup, and 20 Lesser Scaup (no Greaters present) 2 Ruddy Ducks (male and female) 2 Pied-bilked Grebes 12 Sandhill Cranes (flock of 10 flying and 2 on the ice) 1 Killdeer 1 Belted Kingfisher 1 Northern Shrike 4 Tree Swallows 3 Golden-crowned Kinglets 3 Song Sparrows https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S43947875 Best, Alex Sundvall Sent from my iPhone ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
