[mou] Koochiching County

[Rick Hoyme]

I birded Koochiching County and some of Itasca county on Friday and =
Saturday to finish off my goal of getting at least 100 species in each of =
the 87 counties. Koochiching doesn't seem to get birded much so for you =
county listers I'll mention a few locations.=20

The roads I birded were from Kim Eckert's book those that were south of =
MN11 and West of MN 71. The roads were in pretty good shape through many =
bogs interspersed with wooded areas. I heard 3 Connecticut warblers =
calling which was one of my target birds. I also found a Yellow-bellied =
Flycatcher singing. Overall I found 16 species of warbler (out of 22 =
potential according to Kim's Book).  Le Conte's Sparrows were calling in =
many of the wet grassy fields. The strangest was an American White Pelican =
who was swimming in one of the ditches in the middle of one of the bogs. =
He may have been injured but he did fly a short distance when the car =
startled him.=20

Other places were the State Park, so minutes or so west of International =
falls. Good woods there with a good number of woods birds even though I =
visited in the afternoon in the rain.=20

International Falls has sewage ponds that had a few species of ducks (and =
some babies) but only a Killdeer in spite of a nice sand bar.

If you want any more details, just ask

Rick Hoyme
Hennepin Co