Another season of Minnesota high school hockey has concluded. I made a short stop at the Riverside Waterfowl Sanctuary in Fergus Falls on my way to the cities to watch some of games of the state tournament and hang out with family. The sanctuary was mildly full of Canadas. There were a few goldeneyes (all of the common sort). The rest were your usual year-round species of the upper Midwest.
I arrived in the cities to catch the last AA quarterfinal and the next morning hit the paved trail of the Kane Meadows Open Space in Blaine. Here again were a few migrating waterfowl among an expected cast.
A good deal of hockey later, I started home, making a pitstop at the Saint John's Abbey Arboretum. I look forward to going there again. Conveniently just off interstate with a nice mix of water and little wooded pockets.
I then drove by the sewage lagoons in Breckenridge before arriving back home. The water was still partially frozen, so my only sighting was a few horned larks hanging out on the rocks. Now, I'm hoping to do a good bit of local waterfowl spotting before the migratory sparrows and warblers start making their way through the upper Midwest.
