The nesting box atop the XCel power plant had a Peregrine sitting on the outer half-wall, facing inward, about a week ago. It flew off and reappeared 20 minutes later. I haven’t seen either falcon in a couple of visits since but I haven’t tarried at the site, either. While driving both sides of the Mississippi I noticed an eagle in the nest on the power line on the east end of Pickerel Lake. The bird was performing some operation with its first before carefully setting itself back down on the nest - I’m hoping that it was turning an egg before settling back down on it. A little further up river, from the Lilydale side, I stopped and saw that there was an eagle sitting on the old established nest on the north side of the river and that both Osprey were atop the platform just upriver from XCel. Yesterday, while walking in Lilydale along Pickerel Lake, there were two adult eagles perched next to the new nest on the west end of Pickerel Lake. So, in an oval no more than a mile long there might be as many as five active nests. Or not. At least it’s a bit heartening in this flu year.
Tom Gilde ---- General information and guidelines for posting: https://moumn.org/listservice.html 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.
