I got a call from Jeff Stephenson this afternoon to let me know that he and Chuck Krulas had found an American Avocet at the small wetland just west of the entrance to Rice Lake State Park. I made a run over this evening to see it. The first bird I spotted as I drove up was a Black-crowned Night-Herron. I figured the trip was worthwhile, even if the avocet wasn't there any more, but after a bit of sorting through the ducks I was fortunate to also see the avocet. I was looking through the scope at the birds and I looked up to see something white on the shoreline that wasn't there before. I put the scope on it and lo and behold it was a Snowy Egret. Patagonia! Just a few minutes later the snowy picked up and circled a couple of times and then headed toward Owatonna. The avocet and heron were both still there when I left.
There were also Sandhill Cranes calling just to the north of the pond. By the way, this is the same wetland where the Whooping Crane was hanging out for a while last year. And speaking of cranes, John Morrision provided me with the URL for the Operation Migration website regarding the cranes introduced in Wisconsin. It lists the color coding of the banding of the whoopers that had been seen in Meeker Co - #203 and #215 (both females). The URL is http://www.operationmigration.org/meet_2002_flock.html -- Bob Ekblad Olmsted County in SE Minnesota http://home.rconnect.com/~ekblad/
