[mou] Carver/Hennepin County

[John Cyrus]

Started the morning at sunrise at Purgatory Creek.  9 waterfowl species with the first pair of Great Egret from the blind.
 
Carver Park provided my first American Woodcock of the season.   He looked a bit sick.  He was staggering in the middle of a dirt road and allowed my car to come to a complete stop before walking off to the brush on the side of the road.  It's great for picture taking, but I really hope he was just cold in the early morning.  The lakes at Carver Park have not even begun to thaw but a few of the ponds have.   Hooded Merganser, American Wigeon, Wood Duck, Mallard, and Canada Geese were in the ponds.   Two pair of Trumpeter Swans were trumpeting about the park.   Flybys turned up Tundra Swans and Common Mergansers.  Still limited sparrow numbers.  There has been a definite  increase  in Song Sparrows, and small numbers of Fox Sparrow were in a few areas but no  significant numbers.  I noticed more Tree Sparrows this morning, as well.  The first Eastern Meadowlark was singing in the fields to the west of the nature center and a few more Eastern Phoebe and Bluebirds are showing  up.
 
Next stop was a wetland area near the Chevalle neighborhood along Gr. Chevalle Pkwy in Chaska off of Bavaria Rd..   I believe this is the same area that the Sandhill Crane were seen last week.  It turned up many Coot, Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked Duck.   There were a few Bufflehead and a single male Ruddy Duck.
 
Along Hwy 212 between Chaska and Eden Prairie there were several hundred Tundra Swans with some Coot in the shallow lakes between the hwy and the Minnesota River.   Most were at the end closer to Hwy 101.  There was an adult Bald Eagle feasting away on what looked like a duck on the ice near that group of swans.  2 immature eagles flew in, but the adult wasn't sharing.     Further east along Hwy 212(at the second dirt pulloff  if you are heading east), there was a smaller group of Tundra Swans with some Canvasback, Northern Shoveler, Am. Wigeon, and more Coot.  Happy birding.
 
John
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