After reading about the Harlequin Duck on Wisbirdn<http://www.portalscards.com/wisbirdn/> (Rory Cameron) and on MouNet <http://moumn.org/listservice.html> (Steve Weston) the past two days I walked the Mississippi River No 4 Lock and Dam dike today outside of Kellogg MN toward Alma WI. Unfortunately I did not find the targeted species, but a couple of interesting waterfowl remained none the less. A single American Coot, Pied-billed Grebe, and female Hooded Merganser were seen entering the lock on the Wisconsin side of the river. The first two birds started on the MN side of the water and then swam over (presumably from my influence), whereas the last was only observed in the open water of the WI side along the lock wall.
I walked down and across the frozen water to the island where 30+ Bald Eagles were roosting and scoped the dam for a resting Harlequin, but was unsuccessful in my search between noon and 2. I did not view the lock from the WI side, perhaps the bird was in that open water within the lock ...but of course that is only speculation and I am unsure whether you can view the lock itself. Hoping the bird had moved elsewhere along the river I scanned open water south at Lock and Dam No 5 and No 5A as well as open water north at Wabasha to Reeds Landing but was unable to find a Harlequin. A pair of Black Ducks were seen at the very south end of Lake Pepin, many Trumpeter Swans and a male Hooded Merganser were at Reeds Landing. Redpolls along the Kellogg dike and a handful of Snow Buntings along MN 81 rounded out the highlights of the mileage today before returning to Winona, where a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker flew across Harbor Drive just before turning onto Prairie Island Rd. Malcolm Gold (Stockton, Winona County) http://mcmdgold.blogspot.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcolmgold/ ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
