[mou] [mnbird] Birding about the Metro

[Steve Weston]

Oops...   I tried to save that to send out later, but the program had other 
ideas.  I will have more info later.

Steve Weston

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Weston" <sweston2 at comcast.net>
To: "Paul A. Lender" <lender at umn.edu>; "MNBird" <mnbird at lists.mnbird.net>; 
"Mou-net" <mou-net at moumn.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: [mnbird] Birding about the Metro


> cavity nesters are well-known for dropping eggs in nests with other bird 
> eggs.  I regularly see both wood ducks and hooded mergansers visiting the 
> same boxes.  The wood duck eggs are usually ovid (egg shaped),  while the 
> merganser eggs are rounder.  They are also slightly different colored, but 
> I am not sure how reliable that is for differentiating them.   I try to 
> minimize my handling of the eggs, so I do little more than count the eggs 
> and determine if both are present.
>
> If you realize  that a hen lays one egg a day,   you see that often 
> multiple hens are using the boxes.  While some boxes are major dump zones, 
> nearby boxes will be ignored.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Paul A. Lender" <lender at umn.edu>
> To: "Steve Weston" <sweston2 at comcast.net>; "MNBird" 
> <mnbird at lists.mnbird.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 8:54 AM
> Subject: Re: [mnbird] Birding about the Metro
>
>
>> Hi Steve
>>
>> I just want to be clear:  the Hooded Mergansers are laying eggs in active 
>> Wood Duck nests?  Is this known to be a common occurrence?  Do the 
>> Woodies actually raise the young Hoodies?
>>
>> -- Paul
>>
>> Steve Weston wrote:
>>> 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
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> mnbird mailing list
>>> mnbird at lists.mnbird.net
>>> http://lists.mnbird.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mnbird
>>>
>>
>> -- 
>> ========================================
>> Paul A. Lender
>> University of Minnesota Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
>> 2512 South 7th Street, Suite 200
>> Minneapolis  MN  55454
>> Voice: (612) 273-8053
>> FAX: (612) 273-7959
>> e-mail: lender at umn.edu
>>
>> The information transmitted in this e-mail is intended for the person or 
>> entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or 
>> privileged material, including "protected health information."  If you 
>> are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, 
>> retransmission, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message 
>> is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this communication in 
>> error, please destroy and delete this message from any computer and 
>> contact us immediately by return e-mail.
>>
>