[mou] Wilkin Co. Birds

[Dan & Sandy Thimgan]

Today (Mon. 10/31) we spent three hours retracing many of John Ellis' steps
as per his recent post regarding Wilkin County/Rothsay area bird
observations.

We did NOT (alas) encounter any Longspurs (Smith's or otherwise), but we did
see some other "good" birds:

Sandhill Cranes (at least 500) -- they were high aloft and slowly organizing
into vee's and heading to the southwest.  Every time we tried counting them,
we found the other person had discovered and was counting a different group
of birds altogether, so we settled on a total of 500 (a conservative number,
no doubt)

Raptors: Northern Harriers, Red-tails, and two Rough-legged Hawks (the
Rough-legs were clearly hanging and hovering near a pair of tractors which
were working up a very wet farm field; we were astonished to see that twice
one of them touched down within 10 yards behind a springtooth plow -- it
would have been fun watching from the tractor cab!)

Northern Shrike
  
Snow Bunting (flock of 50)

Bird On!
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Dan & Sandy Thimgan
Otter Tail Co.
Battle Lake, MN