Now is the time to be looking for migrating Le Conte's and Nelson's =20 Sharp-tailed Sparrows in southern Minnesota. Around 5:30 this evening =20 I found both at the Kasota Prairie in western Le Sueur County. I was =20 walking the edge of a pond that had a thick shrubby perimeter, and =20 found two Le Conte's and one Nelson's Sharp-tailed. Also in the =20 prairie itself I found a few more Le Conte's.
I always seem to find Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows on the edges of =20 ponds or lakes that have thick shrubby perimeters of willows, sedges, =20 or cattails. Le Conte's can also be found in this habitat. In the past =20 few years, however, I have found Le Conte's in almost any kind of =20 grassland, wet or dry, at this time of year. For the next two weeks, =20 I'd say you've got a pretty good chance of finding a Le Conte's if you =20 walk a prairie in southern Minnesota. It's probably getting towards =20 the end of the Nelson's Sharp-tailed migration though...maybe another =20 week for them. Bob Dunlap, running out of birds to find in Nicollet County
