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REAL ID: Minnesotan’s ‘strongly encouraged’ to apply PAGE 8
Icy roads test mettle of Christmas bird counters BY JACKIE BUSSJAEGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
SEE CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT, PAGE 10
BY ELIZABETH CALLEN EDITOR
American tree sparrows sparrows, recognizable by their bicolored bill bill, are one of just a few species of sparrow that stay in Minnesota through the winter.
PHOTOS BY JACKIE BUSSJAEGER | SUBMITTED
Left: Dark-eyed juncos are one of the most common birds to find at feeders in the winter. While other birds perch directly on the feeders, juncos prefer to pick seeds that have fallen to the ground underneath the feeders. Right: Northern cardinals add a splash of color to the usually dull winter palette found at bird feeders.
TOP 10 CBC BIRDS - BY THE NUMBERS 608 304 251 227 215 153 147 147 129 115
Black-capped chickadees American crows Blue jays European starlings Dark-eyed juncos Mallards American goldfinches American robins Northern cardinals White-breasted nuthatches
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SEE STATE OF THE CITY, PAGE 3
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SHOREVIEW — Following a longstanding tradition, Mayor Sandy Martin delivered the annual State of the City address at the Jan. 6 City Council meeting. The address, which is customarily given at the fi rst meeting of the year, focused on city accomplishments in 2019, as well as a look ahead to the new year and new decade. Martin praised the city for its commitment to civic improvements, pointing to high-profi le projects like the Sandy Martin expansion of the Shoreview Community Center, which was completed last year, and the renovation of Shoreview Commons Park, phase one of which is in progress. Such projects, Martin said, “will continue to enhance the quality of life for our residents and position us to continue to provide outstanding services and programs as we move into the 2020s.” When warmer weather arrives, Shoreview residents should plan for several road construction projects, in addition to the replacement of the Rice Street bridge over I-694, which is currently underway. Martin said that come spring, the city will reconstruct North Owasso Boulevard between Rice and Victoria Streets. “This project is much needed, due to the poor pavement condition,” she explained. Shoreview is also nearing the completion of its street reconstruction plan, which began in the 1980s. Over the next two years, the city will reconstruct streets in the Edgetown Acres neighborhoods in northwest Shoreview, after which “all city-owned streets will have concrete curb and gutter and modern drainage systems,” Martin said. Improvements to city parks are also in the works for 2020. Shoreview will update its park system plan, and examine demographic and recreation trends in order to develop a
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Slick conditions made things hazardous for the volunteers who participated in the annual Christmas Bird Count on Dec. 28. “The people who were out, it shows their motivation level,” said Jim Howitz, coordinator of the Northeast Suburban Christmas Bird Count. The CBC is a tradition organized by the National Audubon Society, and goes back 120 years. It began when early conservationists proposed a less harmful alternative to the destructive “Christmas hunts” that were popular around the turn of the century. By counting birds instead of shooting them, citizen scientists across the country have collected a scientific record of bird behavior that reveals important long-term patterns in the natural world. Bird counts take place across the nation in December and January. The Northeast Suburban CBC, which includes portions of White Bear Lake, Hugo, Stillwater and Marine on St. Croix, always occurs on the final Saturday of December. For the past few years, the designated day has provided volunteers with a myriad of weather challenges. The freezing rain that started in the morning kept many of the volunteers indoors for the fi rst half of the day, and when temperatures warmed enough to melt the ice, not many birds were out and about in the weather. “Our count was significantly lower than we expected, in number of individuals,” Howitz said. “We just didn’t have the number of people in the field, and with the rain, the birds aren’t flying. Hawks, eagles, even stuff like crows; you’re just not going to see as many.” Only one red-tailed hawk was observed on the count: highly unusual, considering that you can find one perched along the metro freeways on almost any given day. “Freezing rain is the worst possible weather for lots of animals,” Howitz said. “It makes that layer of snow impenetrable. Predators can’t blast through it to get to mice and shrews underneath.” However, Howtiz said the lower numbers will not affect the longterm trends of data the CBC has collected for 120 years.
Mayor ‘very confident’ in Shoreview’s future: State of the City focuses on goals for new decade