[mou] [mnbird] birding around the metro

[jobdmb at comcast.net]

Steve

Have you been participating in the BirdSafe program?  If not in the future please take the dead birds to the Accenture Towers security and ask to put them in the BirdSafe freezer.  Please include a note when and where you found it and put it and the note in a plastic ziplock bag and take to the Accenture Towers freezer.

As part of the BirdSafe (LightsOut) Program I have been picking up the dead birds in downtown Minneapolis on a very regular basis.  Unfortunately oven birds are one of the most frequently found birds.

Thanks,

Jerry Bahls

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Steve Weston" <sweston2 at comcast.net> 

> the bird of day (Thursday) that propelled me to the keyboard was a grebe 
> seen at 70mph from I-94 on one of the ponds north of the freeway just west 
> of the Albertville exit. This was a large dark grebe with a long slender 
> neck that was white on the front and dark on the sides. It appeared to be a 
> Western Grebe, although I could not elliminate a winter plumage Red-necked 
> Grebe. I regret that I was not able to go back and view the bird at 0 mph. 
> 
> I also saw two groups of three swans on ponds in the area. One was in 
> Dayton along Brockton Lane near 147th Avenue. The other was in Maple Grove 
> in a pond on the south side of I-94. I assume both groups were Trumpeters. 
> 
> Recently I observed a common grey squirrel in downtown Minneapolis right 
> outside the IDS building. There are no trees for blocks. Three weeks ago, 
> by the Pillsbury building a couple of blocks away I found two window killed 
> birds in the street: a Black and White Warbler and an Ovenbird. Neither 
> would I expect to find downtown. 
> 
> My best recent yard bird was a couple of female Purple Finches (9/22 & 
> 9/23). Last night (10/3) I had a small bat cruising the cul d sac. I wish 
> I was better at ID'ing them in flight. I figured it to be one of the small 
> browns. Its erratic flight did not seem as jerky as the littlest bats. I 
> have also found a Nashville Warbler. More interesting was the four 
> Nashville Warblers I found in a large weedy field in Maple Grove. While I 
> have found them in the golden rod in this field in a previous fall 
> migration, this is not a bird that I think of as a grassland bird. 
> 
> In Scott County on 9/27 I found several Franklin Gulls flying over the 
> fields NW of New Prague. The sewerage ponds north of New Prague are hosting 
> a large flock of Canada Geese. As in previous years, there were a few 
> Cackling Geese, although not as many as last year. 
> 
> I have not been seeing many migrating thrushes or sparrows. I am observing 
> lots of Cooper's Hawks. 
> 
> Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN 
> sweston2 at comcast.net 
> 
> 
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