Ortonville is getting the worst of it right now, and I'm looking at a pair of Flickers eating hackberries in the front yard. Around 20 Purple Finches are holding tight around the feeders this afternoon. I still have a male Sharp-Shinned Hawk who takes a few Juncos in the yard every day. Both Barred and Great Horned Owls have been hooting in the city park this past week.
Last Saturday 12/22 and again this past Monday 12/24, there was a Red-Headed Woodpecker near Prairie Marsh Farm in Garfield Twp, Lac qui Parle County, just a little ways west of the Garfield Substation at 170th St and 151st Ave. I was seeing a pair there all through last summer; they appear to have nested in the abandoned farm grove with the little yellow house. There was also a pair frequenting the Florida Creek WMA complex just to the east, and another around Garfield Lutheran Church (one of whom I observed flying into a grove with a beakful of bugs). It's worth noting that there are only a handful of small bur oaks within several square miles of these sites. -- Jason M. Frank Ortonville Public Library Founder & Vice President Luddite Ornithologists League (LOL) Big Stone County, Minnesota ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
