I am a little late posting today because I did not have a chance to get a post done before I headed out to participate in my first Christmas Bird Count of the weekend. I spent my day driving around the back streets of Hastings, MN and the dirt roads of the farm country around Hastings. My group, Dan and I, counted 29 different species. If you are lucky enough to be a part of a Christmas Bird Count in Florida that would probably sound like a bad day but here in Minnesota in the winter that is a respectable number. We finished our count by hiking the trails at Spring Lake Park. The park provided us with 3 new species. There was a bald eagle along the river, brown creepers, like the one above, in the woods and a northern shrike patrolling up near the parking lot when we got back to the car. It was a long day, with another bird count tomorrow, but it was fun to get outside, get some cold fresh air, and scope out some birds.
