[mou] Grand Rapids sewage ponds

[shawn conrad]

I had to live here nearly 6 years before stumbling across the Grand Rapids 
sewage ponds on an aerial photo.  The ponds are along River Road (CR 3), 1.1 
miles SE of Airport Rd.  Essentially they are directly across from 23rd 
Avenue SE.  I checked them out today and found the following birds:

- Blue-winged Teal
- Mallard
- Ring-billed Gull
- Ring-necked Duck
- Lesser Scaup
- Bufflehead
- American Coot
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Common Goldeneye

I also found other new migrants in the form of Northern Shovelers in 
Cohasset, and an Eastern Bluebird and Great Blue Heron on CR 128.  There 
were Common Redpolls and Evening Grosbeaks on CR 128 as well.

I also found other "unknown" sewage ponds in Itasca County via aerial 
photos.  There are sewage ponds in Deer River, 1 mile east on on CR 128, 1/2 
mile north on an access road (would only be accessible on foot).  There are 
sewage ponds in Bigfork, .1 miles northeast of the hospital (I haven't 
visited these yet.)  The sewage pond in Warba, .2 miles east of Hwy 2 on CR 
10 is frozen over and is not your typical riprapped pond, but lined with 
vegetation.  It's quite easily scanned but doesn't look promising.

I just thought I'd share these "discoveries".  Maybe we'll finally have some 
shorebirds reported from Itasca now!

Shawn Conrad
Bovey