Well the cafe food in town borders on hell but yesterday I saw 8 and today 6 Snowy Egrets just outside the town of Ashby, Grant County in full breeding plumage, all adorned with long aigrettes. To see these birds at very close range get off I-94 at the Ashby exit, go north about 1.9 miles and turn right on County 10. Look for a "State Goose refuge" on the left and a small park and stream draining out of Melby Lake into Pelican lake. The egrets and several Great Egrets were feeding in the stream race about 50 yards off the road on the west side of #10. The cafe does have good California burgers and lots of ambiance (lots of dead critters stuffed including some uncommon species, all watching you from above) but nothing on the menu vaguely resembling anything requiring a recipe. The sewage ponds had Forster's terns and of course if you visit you must pay homage to the big old Coot statue with red eyes just south of town. Speaking of old coots one of MOU's finest was once the assistant basketball coach (Go Arrows!!) in this town. Fortunately for us this potential Bob Cousy turned to birds instead of bball. Bob Russell ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html