[mou] Duluth RBA 12/9/04

[David Benson]

This is the Duluth Birding Report for Thursday, December 9, 2004, 
sponsored by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union.

The selasphorous sp. hummingbird in Lakeside was last seen last Friday, 
December 3.

Owls continue to be seen at many locations around Northeastern 
Minnesota. There have been reports of over 700 GREAT GRAY OWLS so far, 
and it will be quite interesting to see how many are turned up by the 
organized surveys that will be conducted this weekend. The easiest 
place to find owls consistently continues to be the Sax-Zim bog area. 
Yesterday, there were three NORTHERN HAWK OWLS in the town of Cotton, 
on the west side of Hwy 53. We found ten Great Grays and 4 more Hawk 
Owls in one hour of birding along Cty Rd 7 between 52 and 319. However, 
owls continue to be reported from many locations; this is just one spot 
to try. Some birds are moving farther south. This week there were 
reports from Siren, WI, and from as far south as St. Paul. Please 
continue to report the time and location of your sightings.

Peder Svingen refound the first winter ICELAND GULL in Grand Marais on 
the 4th; a first winter THAYER'S GULL was also there. Mike Hendrickson 
found SPRUCE GROUSE at the traditional spot on Lake Cty Rd 2, .01 and 
0.2 miles north of the Sand River on the 5th. Carol Schumacher reported 
a BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER today in Northeastern Pine County. The bird 
was on Cty 44 1/2 mile W of the Intersection of 45, 171, 44.

The Virginia, MN Christmas Bird count will be held on Dec. 26. To 
participate contact Deborah Buria-Falkowski at 
<d.buria-falkowski@mr.mnscu.edu>. Deb reported over 300 BOHEMIAN 
WAXWINGS in the Ridgewood addition to Virginia on the 3rd.

The Duluth Christmas Bird Count will be held on Saturday, December 18, 
2004.  Anyone interested in participating should contact compiler Jim 
Lind by e-mail (jslind@frontiernet.net) for more information. The Grand 
Marais count will be the same day. Contact Jeff Kern (jkern@boreal.org) 
to participate. The Two Harbors Christmas Bird Count will be held the 
following day on Sunday, December 19, 2004.  Please contact compiler 
Frank Nicoletti (bjboreal@aol.com) if interested in participating.

The next scheduled update of this report will be on Thursday, December 
16.

The telephone number of the Duluth Rare Bird Alert is 218-728-5030. 
Information about bird sightings may be left following the recorded 
message.

The Duluth Birding Report is sponsored and funded by the Minnesota 
Ornithologists' Union (MOU) as a service to its members. For more 
information on the MOU, either write us c/o the Bell Museum to 
mou@cbs.umn.edu, or visit the MOU web site at mou.mn.org.