Today Sharon and I birded Cook County from Tofte to Grand Marais and counted a total of 257 Long-tailed Ducks. The largest flock was 122 birds at the town park in Tofte. There was a flock of 73 at Good Harbor Bay, 47 at the Cascade River Wayside Rest, and 17 on the east edge of Grand Marais. The lake was open (and choppy) the whole way from Two Harbors, with scattered ice chunks floating around everywhere. We turned around at 5-Mile Rock east of Grand Marais, where the open water ended. We saw no other waterfowl all day, which was surprising. We were inspired to make the trip up the shore after hearing a report last week of a flock of unidentified waterfowl near Tofte estimated at 400 birds. David Brislance also reported a few hundred Long-tails east of Grand Marais on February 9. Jim Lind Two Harbors ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html