[mou] Birding about the Metro

[Steve Weston]

On Sunday domestic duties kept me at home.  I did check my wood duck houses. 
One I cleaned out and took down for rehab.  The squirrels tore it up pretty 
bad.  One has juvenile Gray Squirrels and one is presumed to still have 
squirrels.  The other two had 13 and 17 eggs.  Although it appeared that 
most were Wood Duck, each had at least one or two Hooded Merganser eggs.

Company arrived and we all sat down to dinner, when two Barred Owls flew in 
just outside the windows.  The closest must have sat there for about twenty 
minutes.

Today I stopped at Purgatory Creek lake in Eden Prairie.  I found two Common 
Terns, at least ten Bonapartes Gulls, and Rough-winged Swallows, which were 
also found in Anoka County.   In Andover I saw my first butterfly, a 
Mourning Cloak, which hibernates over the winter as an adult.

I heard Chorus Frogs and Spring Peepers in Coon Rapids.

Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN
sweston2 at comcast.net