As is with many who post, an amazingly long time since my last one. 5 new birds to tally since my 300th but still only at 304 due to the loss of the Thayer's Gull which got lumped in with the Iceland Gull. On December of 2015, I found my first Short-eared Owl. The only owl common to Minnesota that I need to see now is the Boreal Owl. As of this post there is an irruption of them which seems to happen every 5-7 years. I got late info of one being seen at Lake Vadnais County Park. I arrived 3 days too late. The next life bird I saw was a Barrow's Goldeneye at Mississippi River Park by the old K-Mart in Anoka. Speculation that this was a hybrid bird but not conclusive enough for me so I counted it for my list. Next was a beautiful Mountain Bluebird that I took two cracks at. The first time Melinda was with me and we ran into Doug Kieser; one of the good birders from Minneapolis. Here is a photo of the bird from my second attempt.
Just before the 4th of July 2016 - apropos for the time of year - I nailed the Summer Tanager. It was a trip with Melinda, her mother Selma, and our niece Olivia. While they walked through a maze of fun at the Minnesota Arboretum, I patiently stalked the bird and finally - just before needing to leave, I heard and was drawn to this beauty.
And finally as the reason for my posting - it was on January 16 of this year, one day after my father-in-law Ivan's birthday, I tagged my 305th Minnesota Bird, also a lifer; the Northern Goshawk. I was able to get info from eBird, a birding web site that I frequent. A good deal for me because it was another local bird. I only needed to travel to Brooklyn Park's Oak Grove Park for this hard to find winter migrant.
Now currently at 451 North American Birds; 472 total - including my birds seen in Germany.
