[mou] Pine & Aitkin County birding Feb 19-20

[Jenn]

Hi all,

I just wanted to report that our birding trip to Pine
and Aitkin counties was very successful. On Saturday
we started out in Pine County, in the roads around
Kerrick and Sturgeon Lake. We found our first GGO
almost right away (lifer for both of us) and found
that as the day went on the owl sightings fell. Late
afternoon we headed to Aitkin County following a route
suggested by Ron Green (and posted by others) on 65
south of McGregor to Cty Rds 4 and 5. Were very
successful on Cty Rd 4, where we found a field of at
least a dozen GGOs hunting, eating, flying,
interacting, etc., and watched them until dark. What
an amazing experience!! Saturday count was 25 GGOs and
2 bald eagles.

Sunday we visited the same roads south of McGregor,
this time adding the Rice Lake Nat'l Wildlife Refuge
and Cty Rd 47. Many more sightings this day, probably
because of the snow that had fallen. Not only were
GGOs everywhere (daily count was 59), but we also
spotted 2 northern hawk owls, (again, lifer for both
of us!), one perched in a tree in the Refuge (pointed
out to us by fellow birders) and one flying at the
intersection of county roads 4 and 5. Total daily owl
count was 61. We ended up watching owls in the same
field as we did on Saturday, watching the owls for
another hour or more at dusk. Got some great photos
too!

A HUGE thank-you goes out to everyone on this list who
provided route suggestions and lists of their
sightings. I had printed off emails from others and
marked the sightings on my map to make it easier to
follow. We also got advice from Sparky Stensaas and
Ron Green, and printed the maps on Laura Erickson's
page. We also benefited from learning about owling
ethics and the information on why they're here, what
they eat, etc. This list was an invaluable resource.

Jenn 

PS Sent an email to Randy Frederickson separately with expenses.


		
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