[mou] Birding around the Metro

[Steve Weston]

Yesterday the ice went out on Quiggley Lake.  this morning  there were two 
hen and one drake wood ducks by our shore.  One of the hens spent a while in 
the same wood duck box that yesterday hosted a Hooded Merganser hen. 
Hopefully, tomorrow I will return home early enough to check out the box.

New birds in the yard today:
Eastern Phoebe
kinglet (sp?)

I stopped yesterday on Hwy 55 in Plymouth, just east of CR24, to inspect a 
former Red-tailed Hawk nest that hosted Great-horned Owls a couple of years 
ago.  the nest was empty, but I flushed a Winter Wren from the ditch puddle 
by the road.  I found another nest today occupied by what appears to be a 
Red-tailed Hawk.  This was in Oakdale at the SE corner of I-694 and Century.

C. Loon on Lake Keller in Maplewood, Hwy 61 south of Hwy 36.

Yesterday north of Rogers I found my first singing Chorus Frogs.  Nearby on 
Brockton & 147th I found a pair of Trumpeter Swans.  I checked out a marshy 
field at Brockton and 141st and found that the farm was gone and in the 
process of being replaced with a subdivision.  And, the wetland where I 
found many species of shorebirds including Dowitchers and Buff-breasted 
Sandpiper, had been graded, sculpted, and sterilized.  While still bear 
earth now, by next fall it will be sodded, carefully mowed, and the dominion 
of dogs, cats, and children.  And, excepting an occasional pair of Canadian 
sky carp, empty of any wetland birds.

Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN
sweston2@comcast.net




Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN
sweston2@comcast.net