With respect to the question as to whether that Black-bellied Plover was moving south or north, you can see an occurrence graph for each species in the state at http://moumn.org/amcharts/migrate.php Simply select the species of interest and which data you want to include the occurrence map will be generated. Doing so for Black-bellied Plover suggests that a late June date is still a northbound migrant - though, of course, we don't really know what it's doing unless we were to track it over a few days. Southbound migrants seem to show up in late July at the earliest.
A few years back Karl Bardon published a terrific article in The Loon on shorebird migration (The Loon 74:65-82). One of the key questions he addressed was whether those June or July shorebirds were (in all likelihood) moving north or south. My recollection is that he also found that BBPLs, which tend to be late spring migrants, were still northbound through all of June - though some shorebirds are certainly already on their way back south by now. Paul Paul Budde Minneapolis, MN pbu...@earthlink.net -----Original Message----- From: Minnesota Birds [mailto:MOU-NET@LISTS.UMN.EDU] On Behalf Of Erik Bruhnke Sent: Monday, July 01, 2013 7:39 PM To: MOU-NET@LISTS.UMN.EDU Subject: [mou-net] Black-bellied Plover (Duluth) and birding in Sax-Zim Bog This morning I found one BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER on the lake-side of Park Point (Duluth, MN). This bird was seen about a one mile walk east of the Sky Harbor Airport. It had stunning and immaculate breeding plumage. I wonder if it experienced a failed nesting attempt in the tundra this spring/summer. Does it seem unusually early for a shorebird to be moving through? Earlier this week, I found a Willet along the northern shoreline of Wisconsin. Yesterday I led a trip to Sax-Zim Bog, and had some cool finds. The trip started at 8am per request of the participant... and even though we missed the prime-time in the early morning, we still ended up having two Le Conte's Sparrows (both heard, one seen), Black-billed Cuckoos, a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, 12 species of warblers and more! eBird list from birding in Sax-Zim Bog is below: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S14538942 Cheers and good birding, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN -- NATURALLY AVIAN - Birding Tours and Bird Photography birdf...@gmail.com (e-mail) www.naturallyavian.com (birding tours) www.pbase.com/birdfedr (photos) www.facebook.com/NaturallyAvian (facebook) ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
