Spring is here and a lot is happening. Flowers have bloomed and faded in the yard and new ones are bursting out.
The Saturday before last I beat the sun and was out before first light to listen to the cranes waking for the Annual Midwest Crane Count. I count at the marshes south of Whitetail Woods along 190th Street in Dakota County. The gates are closed for another month so you have to hike or bike in. I found a pair calling, but they were almost drowned out by the sounds of nature. I estimated that I had about 30 Snipe winnowing. Leopard frogs were snoring and chuckling and the chorus frogs and Red-winged Blackbirds competed with Song Sparrows, Robins, Cardinals and others. As I was leaving I crossed paths with turkey hunters arriving. I told them that I counted about 40 turkeys spread throughout the area. I wished them luck, but thought they were arriving late. Later I added two more cranes at the fairground slough south of Farmington, thanks to the person who reported them on eBird. Otherwise, I would not have looked. I ended up with 4 cranes, probably a personal record for me for the count, but people I encouraged to get out before dawn tallied more than 100, almost half coming from up in Sherburne refuge. On Tuesday I went out counting dwarf trout lilies for the DNR east of Faribault. The woods were bejeweled in the ephemeral flowers of spring. Besides finding both trout lilies (common & dwarf), we saw spring beauties, dutchman breeches, hepatica, bloodroot, wild ginger, anemones, buttercup, probably a few more. The only bird of note was a singing Lark Sparrow. Other birds of note in the yard and on the lake include Kingfishers, Yellow-rumps, Great Egret, Ring necked Ducks, and a young Trumpeter, who should know better than to be associating with a Canada Goose. I have to approach the window cautiously not to spook the woodies and hoodies that are checking out the wood duck boxes. Ahh, spring! Steve Weston On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.
