Monthly Archives: July 2012

Greenway officials seek survey volunteers

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If volunteer work is on your agenda the next couple of weeks, Greenway officials have a deal for you.

The Greenway and Trail Users Advisory Group is looking for volunteers to conduct an observational survey of trail use in the Greenway from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 7-8 and from 10 a.m. to noon, 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 11.

Surveys are scheduled for four locations: Seventh Avenue North in Grand Forks, Riverside Dam in Grand Forks, Eagles Point in East Grand Forks and the south pedestrian area in Grand Forks.

In a news release from the Greenway, the survey is described as strictly observational. No interaction with trail users is required, and findings from the survey will be used to gauge types of trail use, trail traffic and user demographics.

If you’re interested in volunteering, click here and hit the registration button on the signup grid at the bottom of the page. You’ll receive an email confirmation and can cancel any time if needed. Volunteers will get instructions for receiving the tally sheets and submitting the final results by email.

For more information about the Greenway, click here:

Roseau River Wildlife Management Area produces birding discoveries

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I took a drive down the “dike road” at Roseau River Wildlife Management Area in northwest Minnesota on Sunday morning to wet a line and see what I could see.

Once again, I was reminded why it’s always a good idea to carry a camera in the vehicle.

I was driving along the western end of Pool 1 when I came across several swans. Stopping for a closer look, I photographed a couple of the white birds, balancing the camera on the roof of my truck to minimize the chance of blurry images.

The birds were a few hundred yards out on the water, and I had to zoom in a long ways.

A family of trumpeter swans photographed Sunday morning at Roseau River Wildlife Management area. (Brad Dokken photo)

I had snapped several photos when I noticed a pair of swans farther east. Between them swam five fuzzy, gray-colored offspring, known as “cygnets.”

I drove a few hundred yards farther down the road for a clearer photo and managed to get several more shots of the swan family as the birds swam across a patch of open water.

I’m not a hard-core birder by any means, but the encounter was pretty cool, I thought, as I drove east down the dike road, which the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources opens to motor vehicles for a couple of weeks every summer.

The southern half of Minnesota is considered the range for great egrets but these birds were photographed Sunday morning at Roseau River Wildlife Management Area just a couple of miles south of the Canadian border. (Brad Dokken photo)

I’d driven another mile or so when I noticed three more white birds on the waterfront. They were much ganglier than the swans and more skittish, but they landed in a shallow area that offered me an unobstructed opportunity for more photos.

Sunday night, I emailed the photos to Heidi Hughes, manager of the Audubon Sanctuary of the Red River Valley near Warren, Minn. She confirmed the swans were trumpeter swans — “tundras don’t nest this far south,” she said. Hughes also said the Minnesota Ornithologists Union hadn’t received any reports of nesting trumpeter swans this year in Roseau County.

Well, they have now.

Trumpeter swan range in Minnesota.

Great egret range in Minnesota.

A Google search led me to conclude the next birds I photographed were great egrets. Their yellow bills were a dead giveaway. Hughes said the great egrets aren’t reported as a Roseau County nesting bird, either. A range map Hughes supplied shows the egrets are limited to the southern half of Minnesota.

Apparently, someone forgot to tell the trio I spotted Sunday.

Roseau River WMA is located north of Badger, Minn., on Roseau County Road 3 and the dike road will be open to vehicle traffic weekends through Aug. 19.

For more information on Roseau River WMA, click here:

 

Nebraska couple back in town for Cats Incredible

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I spent a few hours this morning on the Red River with Gary and Bonnie Mounce, who are in Grand Forks this week for the Cats Incredible catfish tournament, which gets underway Saturday morning.

Bonnie Mounce of Nebraska City, Neb., holds one of the catfish she caught this morning on the Red River. Bonnie and her husband, Gary, have participated in every Cats Incredible catfish tournament except the very first one in 1988. “It’s our big event of the year,” Bonnie says. (Brad Dokken photo)

The Mounces, from Nebraska City, Neb., have participated in every Cats Incredible tournament except the inaugural competition in 1988. And the only reason they missed that one, they said, is because they didn’t know about it.

Cats Incredible, they say, is their “big event” of the year. Last year, when high water forced organizers to cancel the tournament, Bonnie and Gary made a trip north anyway, just to catch up with friends in town, many of whom have become like family.

No doubt, the Mounces are the unofficial “first couple” of the tournament.

Without giving away too many secrets, I can say that Bonnie had the edge for fish in the boat this morning. It’s always that way, Gary says, adding he’s holding out for a big catfish during the tournament rather than now, when a big one doesn’t provide anything but bragging rights.

Time will tell whether that’s fact or fish talk.

I’ll have a more detailed look at our morning on the water, along with a schedule of events for this year’s Cats Incredible, in Friday’s Grand Forks Herald.