[mou] 5 Snowy Owls in Aitkin County

[Warren Nelson]

      Today Bill Stauffer and I birded around Aitkin County and found 
several interesting things including 5 SNOWY OWLS:
      1) on Aitkin C.R. 1, about one and one half miles north of the 
diversion channel, the snowy owl was sitting on the t.v. antenna at the 
Mel Kuehn farm.
      2) on Aitkin C.R. 16, about one half mile south of highway 210, 
bird was sitting on the ground on the east side of the road
 There were also three near Gun Lake near Palisade.  In the morning , we 
found only one but when we returned in the late afternoon, there were 
three birds there.
      3) along twsp 380 (450th St.), 8/10 th of a mile west of C.R.5, on 
a telephone pole.
       4) one mile west on 450th St., then about one mile north on 310th 
ave, bird was sitting on a fence post on the west side of the road
       5) approximately 2 miles west of C.R.5 on 450th St., the bird was 
sitting in a tree about  three hundred yards to the north
       Other birds of interest:  several BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES, both 
along C.R.1 and 450th St.. In the late afternoon, we had 7 magpies all 
together in one lone tree within 40 feet of an old magpie nest that a 
pair has been repairing in the last couple of weeks (I watched them work 
on it last Sunday) along 450th St; a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK surrounded by a 
flock of PINE GROSBEAKS, several EVENING GROSBEAKS, COMMON REDPOLLS, 
SNOW BUNTINGS, 4 NORTHERN SHRIKES, a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, RUFFED GROUSE, 
BALD EAGLE
       Warren Nelson