[mou] MOU Mille LacsTrip Summary

[Elijah Parker]

Here is a link to some of the better photos I took during the trip:
http://birds.elijahtech.com/MOU/

Elijah Parker
Fridley

On Sun, 2003-11-09 at 13:10, Michael Hendrickson wrote:
> Hello:
> 
> Well when I got to Mille Lacs and saw ice on the lake on the southern half I thought, " what am I going to do now ?" Well everything worked out and all together we saw 50 species of birds for the day.
> 
> I met the group of 18 particapants at McDonald's and I made sure to eat no less than 4 breakfast burrittos and washed it down with Mt. Dew at 8 am!  AWW its time to go birding!
> 
> My Co-leader was Kim Risen who led the group around the southern half of the lake in the late afternoon. Thanks Kim!
> 
> Highlights:
> 
> Common Loons  Only a few.
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> Waterfowl  8 species were seen and Common Goldeneyes were every where and seen in large numbers.
> 
> Tundra Swans  Seen 15 birds on the eastern shore plus a family group that seem to follow us a at few stops along the eastern shore.
> 
> Raptors  Saw 3 species which included a distant Rough-legged Hawk.
> 
> Bonaparte's Gull  numerous along the western shore.
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> ** Glaucous Gull  seen a first year imm with a group of Herring Gulls. It was best seen when a Bald Eagle flew over group giving me and a few some decent looks. Malmo public boat landing. 
> 
> Northern Shrike
> Golden-cr. Kinglet
> Am. Pipt along the west shore at the Garrison Wayside rest area. (Big Walleye)
> 
> Fox Sparrows 10 seen for the day in various places.
> Lincoln's Sparrow  West Shore at Kathio St. Park.
> Tree Sparrow
> Savannah Sparrow
> Junco
> 
> ** Vesper Sparrow seen a long a road north of the Casino on western shore of Mille lacs. Elijah Parker took pics of it.
> 
> Rusty Blackbirds  various places.
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> Common Redpolls seen flying over head along eastern shore and a nice flock seen by Kim Risen and his group on the SW shore.
> 
> Pine Grosbeak seen at Malmo public boat landing
> 
> Over all it was a fun and brisk cold day to be out.  I usually wear sandals and I did for the most part until my toes got numb mid morning till I found my ice kings.  Some people got lifers and most enjoyed a day with laughs and good greasy food in thier tummies!  I like to thank John Hockema, Jeff Stevenson for helping me out and spot some good birds along the way.
> 
> This is the last MOU trip for the year and this probably brought good kharma for the Golpher football team to win with a second to go!  I had a lot of fun and the next field trip is the February winter trip in the Duluth area for two full days of birding and laughs. I'll post the February trip as the time gets closer. If you want some more information on this trip please send me an email at smithville4@charter.net
> 
> Thanks again for a great year!
> 
> Mike Hendrickson
> MOU Field Trip Chairman
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