Nice report, Steve. One additional bird of note seen and not mentioned was *American Bittern*. It was a lifer for me!
Jim Ryan On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 1:44 AM, Steve Weston <sweston2 at comcast.net> wrote: > We drove out on Friday night to Goody Larson's Prairie Marsh Farm near > Marietta, MN, 5 miles from the South Dakota border in Lac Qui Parle > County. We left the cities at 5pm in a light drizzle. By the time we > reached Olivia, it was snowing. By the time we reached Granite Falls, it > was starting to accumulate on the road. From Montevideo the last 30 miles > was through a blowing snow with the road crusty with ice and small drifts > blowing across the road. Still, the car was handling well. Turning off the > highway, we held our breath for the last mile and a half to the farm. > Shortly after we arrived the snow was measured by Ken Larson at eight to ten > inches. > > The next morning the roads were dicy and the wind was hard and cold out of > the north. By afternoon travelled roads were almost dry and the infrequent > roads were passable and the weather was beautiful. Still on Sunday we did > encounter one drift that turned us back. > > The over twenty participants found at least 131 bird species compared to > 132 last year. The most interesting birds included a * > Great-tailed Grackle* that Bill Unzen had steaked out for about a week and > a *Little Gull* that was found by Bob Williams. The Grackle was not > relocated Sunday afternoon. The Little Gull was seen Sunday morning, but > not Sunday afternoon. Twenty-two species of waterfowl were found including > *Cackling Geese*, and all the Grebes, except Clarks. Thirteen species of > raptors were observed, including a *Merlin* (unusual out there), probably > in excess of a hundred *Harriers, Red-shouldered Hawks, Rough-legged*, and > several *Swainsons Hawks*, including a kettle of four. > > Fifteen species of shorebirds were found including *Semi-palmated Plover, > *both *Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit, Sanderling, > Semipalmated Sandpiper, Bairds Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Pectoral > Sandpiper, LB Dowitcher, Snipe, Woodcock, *and *Wilson's Phalarope*. > Snipe were quite numerous. One concentration of 25 were found. They were > calling in many locations. We found the first of three *Marbled Godwit*in > the Plover Prairie standing on one leg on a rock about fourty feet from > the road with his head tucked in. After we watched him for a while, he > pulled his head out, looked us over, greeted us in his dialect, and > stretched his wings. He then tucked his head in and we drove off. > > Also in Plover Prairie we found a *Sharp-tailed Grouse* in a tree and a > few saw a couple of *Prairie Chickens. *We probably saw over a thousand > *Ring-neck Phaesants* during the day. We found fourteen species of > sparrow, including Lark, Fox, and Lincoln. Other birds of note included > *Black-crowned Night-Heron, Franklin Gulls* with pink blush breasts, a * > Shrike,* four species of Swallows*, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, > Orange-crowned Warbler, Palm Warbler, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Hermit Thrush, > and Brown Thrasher.* > > On Friday, a Pine Siskin was seen. On Sunday, additional finds included > *Peregrine > Falcon, American Avocet *(both at Salt Lake)*, Willet, *and* Marsh Wren*. > > Mammals seen included Richardson's Ground Squirrel, and a River Otter. > > Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN > sweston2 at comcast.net > > _______________________________________________ > mnbird mailing list > mnbird at lists.mnbird.net > http://lists.mnbird.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mnbird > > -- Sincerely, Jim Ryan on St. Paul's Westside 651-308-0234 business cell "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell "One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation." - Thomas Reed -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080429/f8f91475/attachment.html
