Hi
Herb Lindsay and I took a drive up along the west side of Lake Mille Lacs today. We were up there from about 9 a.m. on.  On the lake we saw several common mergansers, mostly female, a few coots, a lone female hooded merganser and a canvasback as well as several goldeneye.  At one point we saw twenty or more goldeneye floating high in the water and it took us a while to realize that they were decoys.  A laugh on us.  We also saw a couple of trumpeter swans and a dozen or so mallards as well as at least 3 bald eagles, one of them immature.  Once we were at the north side of the lake we decided to go on into Aitkin county to see what we could see. Well we were happy to see 3 rough legged hawks, all light morphed, a northern shrike, quite a few redpolls in several areas especially along CR 18 west of the Hebron Cemetery.  We looked hard but did not see any great grays. Here is the link for some of today’s photos. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronsthoughts/

Ron Taube 
Coon Rapids Mn