Spent about 4 hours birding Wilkin county today and it was a delight. Especially awesome was the plethora of Rough Legged Hawks, as noted in Patrick Beauzay's and John Ellis' posts earlier.
We saw: 45+ Rough Legged Hawks: We saw all manner of phases/morphs, a great way to study them. We were seeing one per minute in the first half hour, so we were getting quite an education on them. Some beautiful, long looks at a great raptor. Snow Buntings: At the corner of 290th Ave and 170th St. we saw a flock of snow buntings in excess of 300, we estimate, landing and circling in the field at that corner. There were some mixed birds in the flock as well, bu= t most of the flock were buntings. Golden Eagle, adult: We were lucky to see this just as we were deciding to head home, near Foxhome -- flew low to the ground and landed in a tree, we were able to drive fairly close to the landing tree. Magnificent bird! Kestrel: 3 Meadowlarks: 3, we guess Western, but did not hear them call Bald Eagle: 1 adult Harriers: 5 Red Tailed Hawks: 4 Ring Necked Pheasant: 1 Horned larks, everywhere White Tailed Deer: 34, the biggest group was 15, fun to see them loping across those big open fields! All in all a lovely day on the prairie. Sandy and Dan Thimgan Otter Tail County Battle Lake MN --=20 Thimgans =20 =B3The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.=B2 Ralph Waldo Emerson
