Here in Plymouth, at the luxurious Stivland ranch and gourmet bird buffet, things are picking up. The buffet hosted a dozen or so Common Redpolls most of the winter in spite of ruthless competition from a neighbor. Two are still arriving daily, apparently reluctant to give up the free lunch. On March 20th, a mini eruption took place with 40 or more showing up for a one-day feast. Sadly, we were unable to entice any Redpolls at the nearby school, to the great disappointment of our third-graders (they really wanted some Redpolls).
Last Friday, our "resident" Red-shouldered hawk made a short survey visit to the ranch. Hopefully, he was satisfied with the situation - after all, we left some of last summer's squirrels and chipmunks for seed. He will have to "up'" his game, however, as he will have stiff competition from the neighborhood fox. Also on Friday, and again this week, mama Wood-duck arrived to check out the boxes. Hopefully, the accommodations met with her satisfaction. Must have been OK because on Monday she brought hubby along, although he looked rather bored to me. I wondered - does he really care? Yesterday, an unusual visitor to the ranch - a Great Blue Heron flew in for a brief visit. Since there is, as yet, no open water on the pond, he only stayed a few minutes. Maybe he will come back later. Speaking of the third-graders - the big ethical question of the day; Is it ethical to let them ID a House Finch as a Purple Finch? They really want one of those finches to be a Purple Finch. So I have to ask myself; why do I care? Is it pure altruism, i.e. (I want them to have the fun of ID-ing an uncommon bird)? Or is it pure selfishness, i.e. (I do not want to be the ogre that constantly crushes their little hopes by saying "No, I'm afraid that is a House Finch")? But they report to "Project Feeder Watch" so it has to be accurate, no? Maybe the lesson is - buck up, kids, get used to it, life is full of disappointments. No other rarities to report - Sid Stivland Plymouth, MN ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
