Birding in the last week took me to Pelican Lake in Wright County, 140th Street wetland in Dakota County and Lake Byllesby (Goodhue Co. side). The birds (mostly waterfowl, shorebirds, and blackbirds) were varied and interesting, but not out of the ordinary with the exception of Avocets and a Marbled Godwit at Byllesby. I also had a Rusty and Yellow-headed Blackbirds at 140th. The Avocets represented a new county bird. I had lots of new county birds in Wright County, but that is not a county where I have done much.
The most notable find of this last week were the first Canada goslings on Monday (4/20). The pair only had 3 goslings. The small clutch is often typical of a first year breeder. Interestingly, I have seen no other families of Canada Geese, although that is probably more an indication that I have not been around. Two of my four wood duck boxes had incubating Wood Ducks. The one box had 4 eggs last week, 2 Wood Duck and 2 Hooded Merganser. The hen did not bolt when I looked in that box. The other box had at least 18 eggs. The other 2 boxes looked good, but had not attracted any interest. >From my visit to Pelican Lake on Friday I brought home 5 wood ticks. They are out there. 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 During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.
