A TOUGH 20

Moving into St. Paul today with only 15 birds on my list. I absent-mindedly forgot to look for the Bald Eagles - easy to see - nesting by Lowe's on Highway 10. With that in mind, I still needed 5 birds to reach 20 but this just made it a bit more difficult. There is a nice home across the street from Como Park in St. Paul that has many bird feeders. It's like a magnet in conjunction with the park itself so I am often times found there looking for birds. My destination was a hot spot for 3 of my needed birds; Dark-eyed Junco, American Goldfinch, and Red-bellied Woodpecker. As I was walking toward the home with the feeders I heard the sound of many Cedar Waxwings and then found the flock. Wow!! What a beautiful sight. That was a bird I was not counting on and so then I just needed 4. The Dark-eyed Junco and the American Goldfinch came quickly to leave me only 2 shy of 20. I figured the only other bird I could find in the area was the Red-bellied Woodpecker and I searched in vain but could not find one. I did a quick walk around the block as I have often times picked one up at the end of the block or at the edge of the park. No luck this time. I was about to give up when I thought that I would try one more time at the "birdy" home. Then approaching at tree level quite a distance past the lake..........what's this? Unbelievable!!! A Bald Eagle flying over Lake Como making up for my previous mistake and making the list 19 - 1 away. And then not even a minute later, like clock-work, a Red-bellied Woodpecker flies right over my head and lands in a tree next to me. Thank you Lord - you are so awesome. Thus ended the tough search for 20 bird species. 

After going through last month's bird finds, here is a list of the top 10 birds spotted. It is pretty much what one would expect - except for one surprise. The list is some-what skewed by the fact that I was up north at the bog and birds like the Northern Cardinal are a tough find.

Out of 13 attempts in February

Black-capped Chickadee - 13 out of 13
Blue Jay - 13 out of 13
Downy Woodpecker 13 out of 13
Hairy Woodpecker 13 out of 13
American Crow 12 out of 13
European Starling 12 out of 13
Rock Pigeon 12 out of 13
White-breasted Nuthatch 12 out of 13
House Finch 11 out of 13
Bald Eagle 11 out of 13