No sign of Pine Grosbeaks in Itasca County. In fact, very few finches at all so far--a few AMGOs and PUFIs and sporadic Red Crossbills in November; nothing else. No BOWAs either. Speaking of food, there seems to be an unprecedented EXPLOSION in rodents this fall. I've seen them all over the fields and swamps like never before and under my feeders regularly. It's been a battle keeping them out of my house, garage, and the buildings at work. I've also noticed Northern Harriers and Red-tailed Hawks are around pretty late and with good numbers of Rough-legged Hawks--perhaps correlated to the mouse boom. If rodents are scarcer farther north, we may get some owls...but they may be able to stay nocturnal with so much food provided snow conditions are average. I'd like to hear thoughts on that.Shawn ConradSent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone -------- Original message --------From: sparky stensaas <[email protected]> Date: 11/25/19 3:19 PM (GMT-06:00) To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [mou-net] Pine Grosbeaks None in Sax-Zim Bog...yet. But this is not unheard of here.A look back at my 33 years compiling the Sax-Zim CBC shows that though we have NEVER missed Pine Grosbeak completely, but we have had single digits about every 11 years (our count is in mid December).1991 (3 birds), 2002 (1 bird), 2013 (2 birds).From the Winter Finch forecast it sounds like there is abundant food in their breeding range, so they may not come down in big numbers.Last winter was such a treat, with great numbers, and a freakishly high percentage of males!Sparky Stensaas2515 Garthus RoadWrenshall MN 55797218.341.3350sparkystensaas@hotmail.comwww.ThePhotoNaturalist.comwww.KollathStensaas.comwww.SaxZim.org________________________________From: Minnesota Birds <[email protected]> on behalf of Steve Wilson <[email protected]>Sent: Monday, November 25, 2019 2:44 PMTo: [email protected] <[email protected]>Subject: [mou-net] Pine GrosbeaksAre others finding pine grosbeaks in NE MN? There is an almost complete absence in the Ely area.----Join or Leave mou-net: https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.umn.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fwa%3FSUBED1%3Dmou-net&data=02%7C01%7C%7C8ea5e1dcc62d4fb4f8f808d771e83f43%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637103114640914022&sdata=hjqg8VaIpGaoMtzSdqqN%2FbFTjdOBtG0xWQt6n%2BB5poo%3D&reserved=0Archives: https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.umn.edu%2Farchives%2Fmou-net.html&data=02%7C01%7C%7C8ea5e1dcc62d4fb4f8f808d771e83f43%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637103114640914022&sdata=naMoA9O%2FSb7EITxL07%2BJzNZkxx8OYMfM1QxrARRfSuo%3D&reserved=0----Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-netArchives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
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