A good outing. Picked up a killdeer yesterday in Osceola, good to hear the loons are back home! Glenn
Sent from my iPad > On Mar 28, 2020, at 8:15 PM, Keith Carlson <keitheca...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Beat the rain and got in a 5.5 mile/2 hour hike at Afton State Park I > heard but never saw an Eastern Meadowlark several times in the upland > prairie. While looking at an oddly shaped mullen from last year with hopes > that the bulge on top was the Meadowlark, I did see two sandhill cranes in > the distance flying up the St. Croix River valley. I thought I heard > killdeers at the bottom of the downhill ski area below the prairie portion > of the trail but I later found myself doubting it. > > When I got down the hill to the river, I heard the skittering call of a > Bald Eagle. I scanned down river from the beach and noticed a nest in a > tree off the cove south of the beach. I missed the eagle sitting in the > nest at first but caught sight of it when I rescanned. Later saw three > more Eagles out on the ice north of the beach. They were adjacent to a > small open channel - 1 mature and 2 mottled juveniles. Saw the usual > chickadees and, just as I wondered why they weren't still around, a junco. > > As I came out of the trees on to the prairie after climbing out of the > river valley, I came upon a flock of about 25 foraging Robins. When I > reached the shelter at the intersection with trail circling the prairie, > there were possibly the same flock of Robins in the tree next to shelter. > As I walked past, I heard a noise that caused me to look around to find its > source until I realized it was Robins that I had spooked and that had taken > off simultaneously. > > As I departed in my car from the NW trail access, I drove the section of > road immediately adjacent to nothe river that leads to downtown Afton and > saw a Common Loon in the open water north of the ice where I previously saw > the 3 eagles. > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
