Not sure whether these are post-worthy for west of the Twin Cities, but I found a group of 6 Eared Grebes on Big Lake in Sherburne County early this afternoon. 1 was associating with a group of ~20 Horned Grebes and the other 5 were keeping to themselves out further in the lake, all viewable from Lakeshore Dr. on the west shore.
Finding myself at Big Lake was unexpected, and was a result of getting a little lost looking for an alternate route to Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge - both the Hwy 5 and 73 bridges over the Elk River are under construction (recommended alternate route from the west is to head north on Hwy 11 then cut over east to the refuge on Hwy 4. Sherburne was fairly quiet by the time I got there, and I couldn't spend long due to lost time with the detours. Very few ducks, except Ring-necks, L. Scaup, Mallard, Blue-winged Teal on the auto tour and Big Mud Lake (along Hwy 5). Did find several sparrows and Eastern Meadowlark, but it was getting a little breezy by mid-afternoon. Scott Loss St. Paul ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
