This morning I headed to the Aitkin CR 18 and Pietze's (320th Place) road early in the morning. I found two Pileated Woodpeckers, a mixed flock of White-winged Crossbills and Common Redpolls, Red-breasted Nuthatches, and a Downy Woodpecker on the snowmobile trail heading south. There were also Pine Grosbeaks in the area feeding on ash seeds. I then went to Stewart and Alice's house at 49314 405th Place in Palisade Township north of CR 3. I called them the night before at 218-845-2103. They were very nice and invited me in to watch the birds on their porch from inside the house. They have many feeders out and there were hundreds of birds around including: 30-50 Evening Grosbeaks, 75-100 Common Redpolls, at least one Northern Cardinal, a few Dark-eyed Juncos, several Pileated Woodpeckers and Bald Eagles and Ravens flying overhead. It was quite a spectacle! I followed CR 3 until it turned into Crow Wing CR 1 and found the male American Three-toed Woodpecker. It was a little to the west of Lows Lake Road on the south side of CR 1 in the area that has really been worked over by the woodpeckers. There were also Brown Creepers, WB Nuthatches, a Pileated Woodpecker and another large mixed flock of White-winged Crossbill and Common Redpoll. To the east on the same road I found a Northern Shrike and Rough-legged Hawk. At Emily City Park there were Red-breasted Nuthatches and many more Pileated Woodpeckers along with Common Redpolls and Pine Siskins. I have never found more White-winged Crossbills before than this winter and did not realize that they flock so frequently with redpolls. I am also surprised at how few Pine Siskins I have seen this winter so far. Good Birding, Jason Caddy Minneapolis j.ca...@hotmail.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
