[mou] Hoary redpoll- Kandiyohi co.

[Randy Frederickson]

Twice this week I came home from work to find my finch feeders and tray
feeder empty.  I have a lot of feeders and was wondering how the heck...
This morning I witnessed the onslaught.  Ron Erpelding and I counted over
200 redpolls in my yard and estimated the flock to be easily over 300 birds.
Add in the 40+ siskins, 35+ house finches, and hand full of goldfinches and
it was a spectacle I have never witnessed before.

So I went outside and spread finch feed all over the deck railings and deck,
(so the birds would be more spread out) and started looking for a hoary.  It
took about 45 minutes before I found one.  I have not seen many hoaries, and
am thankful it was not one of those "maybe" birds.

This gorgeous little guy had NO barring on the flanks.  He had a soft, very
muted pink wash on much of his belly, rump patch was white.  The feather
margins were also whiter than the other birds, even on the back.   He had a
noticeably longer tail, and something I did not see in any of the 7 books I
looked at, the feathers on his legs came down farther towards the feet. I
tried my best to make the beak "more stubby looking" but it seemed there was
always food in it or hanging from it, so am thankful I did not need that
trait as a clincher.

A delicious bird!  Second county record (only because some Janssen character
found one last week).  I saw it three more times in the next two hours.

Randy Frederickson
416 19th St. NW
Willmar

320 231-1291

P.s. And I cannot find a great gray owl in the county to save my soul!