Greetings, ??????? I was down in Mankato yesterday (Dec. 29) and at 4:48 till 5:03 I sat along side north river drive where Hwy 169 and Hwy 14 meet and seen something I have never witnessed in the dead of winter. I counted conservatively 1183 robins flying over my vehicle presumably heading for a roosting area.? I have been seeing robins (flock of 3-8)?at my house (Nowthen, Anoka county)?nearly everyday but it is to be expected as the berry crops are very healthy this year. In the north metro I have seen mountain ash and crab apple that are full of berries and have not been touched. In fact I had a couple bluebirds stay until about 2 weeks ago.
I know this is a late post with the holidays I have been going non-stop, I was in Beltrami and Lake of The Woods Counties on December 23.? I was able to find?3 Magpies at?a farm in Waskish?and 42 snow buntings. I did not have much time as the red lake walleye decided to bite only during the day. So I put in 3 hours of driving around in the blowing snow looking for birds.? While driving up Hwy 72 I seen another Magpie (mm 52), 3 Northern Hawk Owls (mm 44,mm 53,mm 56), 2 northern shrike, more snow buntings, lots of redpolls, and what I thought most interesting at mm 42 two Common Grackles looking for some open water in the ditch on the east side of the road.? All in all I was happy with what I was able to find but want to get up there again to spend a couple days birding. Have A Blessed New Year, Good Birding To All, Nowthen, (Anoka County) Chris Brown ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
