As expected with the warmer weather and continuing the theme of this past fall, birding has been outstanding this December. I can't really compare it to past years, as I am averse to typical Minnesota December cold/snow and have not spent a lot of time out this month in past years. Overall I saw 58 species during the month with the highest number of species during the first week. Most of the lakes in the county froze over during the first week of the month or before and then cleared of ice with the later warmth. That first freeze over was enough to chase most of the waterfowl from the area, and not much(except geese) arrived after they cleared again. The colder spell that began on December 17 was enough to freeze over everything once again, and Lake Waconia was mostly frozen over(some slushy spots) as of a couple days ago. Highlights from the month are below.
14 waterfowl species with the only abundant species being Canada Geese 6 raptor species 1 late Belted Kingfisher along Rapids Lake(lake was clear of ice) on December 17 1 Northern Shrike at Rapids Lake on December 25 Golden-crowned Kinglets at Carver Park Reserve and Rapids Lake seen 6 days with multiple birds seen 4 of those days 1 Eastern Bluebird seen on December 1 and 3 on December 20 both days at Carver Park Reserve Townsend's Solitaire seen December 4, 11, and 20 at Carver Park Reserve but seen at a different location within the park each of those days good numbers of Cedar Waxwing early in the month and then later in the month after a bit of a lull in between very good numbers of Yellow-rumped Warbler seen 7 days at both Carver Park Reserve and Rapids Lake with high counts of 10 on December 11 and 6 on December 20 at Carver Park Reserve 1 late White-throated Sparrow at Carver Park Reserve on December 11 1 late Song Sparrow at Rapids Lake on December 4 1 late Swamp Sparrow at Carver Park Reserve on December 25 John Cyrus ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
