Emerald Pond Bird Class

Tonight my bird class met at Emerald Pond Park in Ramsey, right off Bunker Boulevard and Magnesium.  This shallow pond is getting filled in with more cattails each year we go there.  The coolest bird we saw was a belted kingfisher.  It flew by us three times chattering away.  The kingfisher makes a sound like people in my family make when a young child is about to do something wrong.  We make a repeated warning sound in the back of our throats - Eh eh eh eh eh eh which means, "Don't do it."  We also saw tree swallows (first of the year), red tailed hawks, red winged blackbirds, robins, great blue heron, killdeer, grackle, buffle head ducks (first of the year), mourning doves, ring necked ducks (first of the year), a sandhill crane, and, last but definitely not least, a bald eagle.  What a nice evening to spend outside!