Following Jill Beim's recommendation, I drove up to a flooded area on Benton CR 4, just 1/4 mile east of it's junction with Benton CR 1, northeast of Sauk Rapids, to check on the waterfowl action. The area was just loaded with birds early this morning!
Both trumpeter and tundra swans were there, along with a few white-fronted geese mixed in with Canada's. Red-head and canvasback, American wigeon and gadwall, northern pintail, both teal species, ring-necked duck, greater and lesser scaup, and of course mallard. Also had one black duck in the group. A few coots and pied-billed grebes as well. Greater yellowlegs and killdeer were the only shorbirds seen. Saw my FOY vesper sparrow just down the road a bit as well. Last year in this same spot, there were carp caught in the fields as the water level went down, and a number of bald eagles were feasting on the easy to catch fish. Therefore, I'll be returning to this spot with my camera over the coming days! Milt Blomberg found me my first Benton Co. willet in this spot last year too. There are a number of other fields within 5 miles of this spot that have a lot of temporary wetlands, and many of them also had waterfowl using them. This spot just had the largest concentration. Betsy Beneke St. Cloud, Benton County ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
