The lack of crabapples and other fruit extends away from the Shore as well. I'm in Itasca County and numbers of seed-eating finches like redpolls and crossbills have been very good lately, but so far no waxwings at all.
In addition to the drought, we had a hard frost in late May that killed blossoms on many fruit trees and shrubs--particularly crabapples. The crabapple yields around here are terrible, though if you actually find a few good trees, they should draw birds. Shawn Conrad Itasca County On Fri, Nov 5, 2021, 4:47 PM Rich Hoeg <[email protected]> wrote: > As a fyi, I live in Duluth and bird the North Shore constantly. The pygmy > crab apple crop in the Duluth area is poor. This fruit will not be > attracting birds late this fall or winter. The Mountain Ash trees are okay, > but the yield is not super (assume for both the apples and mountain ash > this is because of the drought). > . > However, I just arrived in Grand Marais about an hour ago, and the > Mountain Ash trees are amazingly loaded with fruit. I have to believe in > the near future the birds migration south, per normal, will make a major > stop in Grand Marais. Tomorrow I will work the Gunflint Trail and then > backroads to the Arrowhead Trail down to Hovland. > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > > During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social > distancing, and continue to bird responsibly. > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.
