[mou] I love geeses to pieces/Ross's et al

[Dedrick Benz]

Chris and John Hockema and I headed from Rochester out to Rock County and 
back today in search of waterfowl.  We focused on Rock, Nobles, Martin and 
Faribault counties.  Most lakes were at least partly open, and waterfowl was 
not hard to find.  The highlight of the day had to be in Nobles County at 
the Peterson WMA, which is on the west side of CR 57, 2 1/4 miles north of 
the Iowa border.  Packed in this small area were at least 420 Greater 
White-fronted Geese, and 4 Ross's Geese, as well as good numbers of 
Cacklings and Canadas.  About 3 miles NNE of here, at Lake Ocheda were at 
least 200 more Greater White-fronts.  Many more distant Ross/Snows were here 
in the fields bordering the lake.

Also of note, Chris and John found a Harris's Sparrow in Martin County in a 
juniper stand along CR 132 just east of it's intersection with 27 (this 
segment of 132 is new, and is not in the DeLorme's - with a red pen, you 
could carefully draw a line connecting the 2 segments of CR 132).

Recent arrivals seen today:

Song Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Rusty Blackbird
Great Blue Heron


We checked the Hills sewage ponds in Rock County which harbored Great-tailed 
Grackles last year, but none were seen today.  We did see 2 Gray Partridge 
along 270, several miles east of Hills.

Dedrick Benz
Winona, MN