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Post by bobwendt on Feb 17, 2008 11:26:23 GMT -6
I drive I90 thru southern mn on the way to wyoming when I get a wild hair and want to hear the sioux indian station talk, going thru s. dakota. plus then I can drive thru kodaka and throw chit out the window.
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Post by trappnman on Feb 17, 2008 11:39:39 GMT -6
There were as many eagles pre ddt
then that is a very rare occurrance. Eagle populations are up just about everywhere- SE Mn has one of the largest wintering populaitons in ANY state. I see dozs almost every day, including goldens that are now "almost commonplace" where 10 years ago, they were non existent here.
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Post by lumberjack on Feb 17, 2008 12:27:33 GMT -6
I dont think raptors need to be perched in a tree to make a kill. If I was a muskrat and had a choice I would want the thickest, most tree lined creek to make it a little harder for an air strike. To me a golf course pond seems like easy pickings and there aint human intervention at night.
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Post by trappnman on Feb 17, 2008 12:29:09 GMT -6
owls pretty much hunt from perches.....
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Post by lumberjack on Feb 17, 2008 12:47:36 GMT -6
Yea but they can see good for a long distance.
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Post by redeagle on Feb 17, 2008 15:27:05 GMT -6
I lived in Southwest MN for 5 years, around Adrian, and believe me, those pesticides, herbicides, nitrogen runoff from cattle feedlots, etc. sure took its toll on wildlife. There were standing advisories about not drinking the water, due to the high nitrate concentrations. They said it was especially harmful to little children. We had to drink bottled water all the time we lived there. I remembered taking empty water bottles to the grocery store in Worthington to fill them with reverse-osmosis treated bottled water. That area was heavy farm country. About the only trees you would see, were growing in farmers' windbreaks surrounding their houses, and along creeks. Every year I would find dead songbirds such as robins, with their feet curled up into clenched fists. There were no markings on them indicating external depredation, etc. So, I am sure they were victims of the typical farming practices in the area. I think all kinds of pollutants have been a major contributor to muskrat population declines overall, and I think they are also detrimental to our own health.
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Post by bobwendt on Feb 17, 2008 16:38:43 GMT -6
you got it. one spring my wife and I were on the roof on a bluebird day. I said listen. she said , what, I don`t hear anything. I said that`s what I mean, silent spring in farm country. and they wonder why millions of cottontails and jacks live in dried up sage desert and none in the most productive wetttest best cover ground in the world. like I said earlier, I might have fell off the turnip truck, but not yesterday.
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Post by thebeav2 on Feb 17, 2008 16:50:40 GMT -6
But It's just like sitting In a tree stand versus sitting on the ground when deer hunting . Your view Is a lot better. And even a hawk gets tired circling the dinner table waiting for a meal.
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Post by trappnman on Feb 17, 2008 17:07:32 GMT -6
its that cash cropping farming
no shortage of songbirds here. In fact, I read an article in the MN conservation mag a while ago, and it was talking about birds that were "rare" in Mn... and many were birds I see in abundance every day
one odd thing here- while pileateds are much more common and sightings are regular and frequent- the little red headed woodpecker seems absent- I don't see more than 1 or 2 of them a year. wonder if hes too easy a prey?
other birds that wereo nce few and far between- scarlett tanengers, Rose breasted grosbeaks, even bluebirds are now abundant.
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Post by thorsmightyhammer on Feb 17, 2008 17:12:12 GMT -6
other birds that wereo nce few and far between- scarlett tanengers, Rose breasted grosbeaks, even bluebirds are now abundant.
Climate change?
Biggest threat to the birds here is West Nile.
Robin population is down around here.
Do eagles get west nile ;D
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Post by thorsmightyhammer on Feb 17, 2008 17:13:34 GMT -6
I 90 is all row crop country bob until you get to eastern mn.
Although I consider it northern Iowa.
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Post by trappnman on Feb 17, 2008 17:23:13 GMT -6
climate change? maybe so- all were present, but perhaps on range fringes...
We brothers of the TriState prefer to call it the Upper Mississippi Valley.....
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