The Nongame Division of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is seeking volunteers to conduct roadside surveys of owls and hawks in northern Minnesota during the spring of 2001. The surveys are part of an effort to look at how Minnesota's woodland raptors use different habitats and landscapes, and how their estimated numbers fluctuate from year to year.
Most routes are along gravel secondary roads, and some are in remote locations.
A typical survey will take two to three hours to complete, in addition to travel time. 1201 E. Highway 2, Grand Rapids, MN, 55744. The 18,000-acre refuge holds Rice Lake, and straddles the Rice River. The refuge offers marsh with good growths of wild rice, grasslands and brush, and mixed forest stands. Black Terns nest here, and are common.