I got out birding both Saturday (with the Hastings Bird Festival) and today (Sunday). I say a lot of the good birds reported on Saturday and shall not duplicate those reports. Plus, I had good birds around the yard.
On Saturday I had a wonderful group of high school kids, who were far more interested in each other than the birds. I am sure the highlight for them was the Hermit Thrush I pulled in to about twenty feet by playing its song. Highlights for me included FOY's (first of year's): Osprey, Virginia Rail, W. Phalaropes, Swainson's Thrush, Chipping Sparrow, and Field Sparrow. I also saw a Red-tail on a nest at Highways 61 & 10, north of Hastings and a Great Horned Owl with two young in the trees overlooking and west of 180th St. wetlands. This is a good nest to check out as you are far enough away from the nest to not disturb the family. Today I visited a few birding spots in the late afternoon in the rain. I found a large flock of gulls that include two each of Bonaparts and Franklins. The Franklins had a beautiful pink chest. At Scotia and Hwy 56 south of Randolph I found one Greater Yellowlegs and one Marbled Godwit and no ducks. At Randolph Industrial Park I found a flock of 800+ Northern Shovelers. At 140th Street Marsh (just east of Hwy 52), I found a Canvasback, the first of the weekend, but no Ibis. At home today we continued to host Fox and Swamp sparrows, numerous Juncos, a Hermit Thrush and two pairs of Purple Finches. I checked out my four wood duck house. One had nine eggs, almost all Wood Duck eggs. The other three were empty. One I had to make some repairs to make it habitable. Steve Weston On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
