At least 131 species tallied for Saturday. Some highlights (and the few lowlights):
A lone White-faced Ibis was found in the flooded area at the north end of the Mount Wickham area (2miles south then 2 miles east of Marietta), but was gone later in the morning. This same area held good numbers of shorebirds including 8 phalaropes, 28 golden-plovers and a Black-bellied Plover that arrived later that day. 15 species of shorebird were found (same as last year). American Avocet 3 miles north of Madison on Hwy75. Willets in at least 4 locations. Hudsonian Godwits about a mile east of Providence. Marbled Godwits were widespread in the northern part of the county and golden-plovers and phalaropes were seen in several locations. A hybrid Cinnamon Teal was reported near alt Lake. Ross's Goose at Salt Lake. Cattle Egret at Marsh Lake with two other distant unidentified small white egrets/herons. Eurasian Collared Doves in Madison and Marietta. Lark Sparrows along Louisburg Road. Eastern Screech Owls in a woodlot 2 miles north of Nassau. In the Plover Prairie area on Saturday morning: 3 singing Henslow's Sparrows (just arrived that night). LeConte's Sparrows. A Sharp-tailed Grouse on the lek with 10 Prairie Chickens. This spring as many as three grouse have regularly been seen on the lek with a max of only 10 chickens, while last year it was a max of 1 grouse and 19 chickens (not a good sign for the reintroduction project). Grouse were also seen in Big Stone and Yellow Medicine counties. Migrant passerines were especially scarce. Only two warbler species, a single Eastern Bluebird, barely any Ruby-crowned Kinglets or brush sparrows such as White-throated and Lincoln's. Thursday in Big Stone County: American Avocets 0.5 mile east of Barry (5 birds) and another pair 4 miles west of Clinton. Flock of 42 Smith's Longspurs 2 miles SW of Clinton. Plus Pine Warbler at Bonanza Grove, and first Upland, White-rumped and Stilt Sandpipers of season. Sunday in Lac Qui Parle: The Glossy and White faced Ibises SW of Madison. Long-billed Dowitchers, Red-headed Woodpecker, Richardson's Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, and Caspian Tern. Roughly 155 species in the area Thursday thru Sunday. It was amazing how this weekend mirrored last year's Salt Lake Festival in both the number of species found and what species were present despite the event being held one week later this year. The tally on Saturday was one off last year, 15 species of shorebird, Henslow's Sparrows arrived on count day, the rarest bird was on sunday (the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Glossy Ibis respectively), plus White-faced Ibises, lone lingering Ross's Geese, and the slow songbird migration in both years. Overall the indication is the migration is approximatly 1 week behind last years pace, however hopefully the migration wont stall out during the first week of May as it did last year. Bill J. Unzen Lac Qui Parle County. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20070501/1adfd3e5/attachment.html
