In the last couple of weeks I added two species to my yard list: Merlin and Sand Hill Crane. I am still occasionally seeing a Tufted Titmouse at the feeder. But, now we are only seeing a single bird, rather than a pair. My wife believes that we are seeing much fewer ducks on our lakes than previous falls. We will have to see.
I heard from one of my friends that they were disappointed to find no cranes this last weekend at Crex Meadows. I haven't heard of any recent reports of them being around. I keep the mouse traps in the garage baited with peanut butter to catch the deer mice trying to come into the house. Besides the deer mice, I have also caught short-tailed shrews and masked or cinereus shrews. This is the time of the year when buckthorn really depresses me. Look at almost any stand of tree around this part of the state and you see a green understory. This is all buckthorn crowding out native plants. It always amazes me the number of buckthorn hedges you can still find in yards around the cities. Many people just don't know that it is a noxious weed that is prohibited by law to be sold anywhere in the state. This is the time of year to get into your yard and pull all those buckthorn seedlings before they get big and hard to pull. Any plants still green, besides evergreens, this time of year, is probably not native to our area. Other non-native plants still green include honeysuckle, lilacs, yard grass. Steve Weston On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
