[mou] Red Crossbills, Ruddy Ducks in Duluth

[Eckert K R]

Today there was a pair of Red Crossbills, including a singing male, on 
Snelling Ave between College St and W Kent Rd in Duluth, which is a 
block south of the UMD campus. A small flock of Red Crossbills had also 
been in this same neighborhood on 11-12 April.

Also, two Ruddy Ducks were found yesterday, 28 April, in some 
backwaters of the St Louis River in the Fond du Lac neighborhood of 
Duluth. They were in the slough along 131st Ave West / Water St with 
~50 Tundra Swans and other waterfowl. Ruddy Ducks are only rare-regular 
or casual migrants in Duluth and vicinity. Between here and Park Point, 
Barb Akre and I were able to find all but 2 of Duluth's regularly 
occurring spring migrant ducks: missing from our list were Gadwall and 
Common Goldeneye, although I saw both of these on Friday at Park Point.

At the same time, however, migrant land birds were very scarce 
yesterday, as evidenced by not a single Yellow-rumped Warbler being 
found, and we covered a lot of wooded areas. (And I read with interest 
yesterday's mou-net posting about only 2 warbler species found farther 
south in Benton County.)


Kim Eckert