[mou-net] Whitetail Woods, Dakota County
Whitetail Woods County Park. Nothing earthshattering but a lovely little flock of ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets in the woods by EMpire Lake (about a dozen). One Ruby singing even! A trumpeter swan on the lake and a Great Egret. A few yellow-rumps here and there and a phoebe. Swung out to 180th Marsh. About 25 Rusty Blackbirds hunkered down in a shrub out of the wind. Yesterday (April 11) one male yellow-headed Blackbird. The coots and the shovelers were crowded together feeding in choppy waves and fighting and fighting! (coot v. coot and shoveler v. shoveler). So that was fun to watch! I thought maybe the waves kept smacking them together. It's underway... (signed: a Michigander (Yooper) transplanted to the urban landscape...) Elizabeth Rogers Tiller, Ph.D. 20487 Colorado Ave. Farmington, MN 55024-9526 651-200-2489 beth87til...@gmail.com Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] Lac qui Parle County Tree Swallows
3 PM, at least 27 Tree Swallows are flying over our pasture at Prairie Marsh Farm. Ken Larson Sent from my iPhone Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] robotic raptors for bird control
Passing on this link from last August. You might have seen it in older posting. A Dutch co. has developed a robot Peregrine and a robot Bald Eagle and are testing at landfills. Possible appl'n to airports and others. Videos show the robots in flight-- good enough to fool the gulls and probably most birders. http://www.audubon.org/news/robotic-raptors-rescue Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] Black-crowned night heron
They're back for another season along Minnehaha Creek at 28th Avenue South in Minneapolis. Look in the grove of spruce trees on the northwest corner of the creek and street intersection. Sent from my iPad Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] Stearns Co Sat / Sherburne NWR Sun
I birded along the west and north borders of Stearns County yesterday, and have to say it was a pretty quiet day. The large numbers of waterfowl in the area a week ago seemed to be gone. At Paynesville, the water treatment ponds were nearly devoid of birds - just a few pairs of geese, mallards and one pair of bufflehead. The wetland on the south side of Hwy. 23 where you turn for the ponds that was full of shorebirds last year, yesterday morning, had only blackbirds, killdeers and a single greater yellowlegs. So far. Quite a number of ring-billed gulls were in the fields, following tractors. And there was a single yellow-rumped warbler at the Lions Club park, along with a bunch of wood ducks, just off Burr St. in town. A single herring gull was on Kenna WPA along Hwy. 71, north of Elrosa. Another WPA, northeast of Sauk Centre off Hwy. 28, had quite a variety of ducks on it, along with a few yellow-headed blackbirds and an eastern phoebe on the east side. There were also 3 tree swallows there. At Sherburne NWR this morning, I had 45 species - most interesting were a single field sparrow, a single brown thrasher, a large flock of tundra swans flying over, tree sparrows and tree swallows. There were MANY American robins and northern flickers. 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
[mou-net] FOY eastern phoebe
FOY phoebe was heard yesterday in the tree tops in our yard in Cloverdale, Pine County. Some warblers were also heard yesterday too, but I could not see them to identify which ones they were. Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
[mou-net] About the Metro - Tufted Titmouse at Quigley Lake
I did have a new yard bird today: a Tufted Titmouse. That is probably the first new yard bird in the last couple of years! I believe that I have only found it once before in Dakota County. I got back about an hour and a half ago from my frog & toad survey route. I go out three times each year to listen for calling frogs and toads. The route is about a hour south of here and is the same each year. The first survey in early to mid April typically yields three or four species. I find the three species (Chorus Frog, Northern Leopard Frog, and Spring Peeper) every year on the first survey, although this year they were markedly less abundant than previous years. This might be a result of the cold dry weather recently. A few days from now they might be more abundant, but probably not. The fourth species (Wood Frog) is difficult to find because one has to time the survey just right as they the sing for only a few days. This year I found them abundant and widespread, perhaps more-so than just about any other year. I always also listen for night singing birds, but this time I heard none, which is not unusual for this time of the season. 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
