Spent yesterday searching for signs of spring in Polk county. There was a lot of water in western part of the county. Miles of beet fields were flooded to the ditches along 75 south of Crookston and along Cty Hwy 1 east towards Fertile. The wind whipped white caps on the fields and hundreds of Horned Larks were locked in along the road edges. All that water, only one pair of Trumpeter Swans and a few C. Geese could be found. Glacial Ridge was pretty slow. A smattering of Sharp-tailed Grouse and G. Prairie Chicken heard from three different locations. The Chickens were moving around a bit, perhaps playing musical leks? Lots of Horned Larks. A beautiful, nearly pure white Snowy Owl was hunting from the tops of the last large snow clumps along the edge of the road 1/4 mile SE of the Tilden Jnct. Gravelpit Office. I watched the bird for about an hour and could find only 5 or 6 tiny flecks of black on the head and shoulder-caps of this individual. I assume this would indicate that it was an older male? Though alert and actively watching for prey it did not have the opportunity to chase anything while I was there. It did fly twice to different hunting posts and looked in fine in flight. Also at GR-NWR 1 Northern Harrier, male 4 Grey Partridge, a pair found in two different locations, both associated with farmsteads 3 foraging Striped Skunk 1 hunting Mink Steve....I added another lifer to my Road Kill lists. A very fresh, very clean, large male otter found on US Hwy 2 just east of McIntosh at 7AM. Other observations of the day... Fresh fruiting of Velvet Foot Mushroom Skunks love hard-boiled eggs! Kelly Larson The Bagley Farm -Clearwater The Bemidji Loft -Beltrami Minnesota Eschew Obfuscation! The middle of Nowhere is Somewhere! ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html