Hi, birders: Had an excellent morning birding western Brown County. The highlight was finding a Townsend's Solitaire in a large conifer/juniper stand at Bashaw WMA. This is located a few miles NW of Comfrey and it is on the west side of 380th Ave. It is roughly half way between Brown Co. Rd. 20 and 140th St. It responded to a Chickadee/Screech Owl recording and I got several excellent looks at it. Also found a flock of at least 14 White-winged Crossbills in a new location and that was at St. Raphael's Catholic cemetery. This cemetery is about 1/2 mile north of Springfield at the intersection of 395th Ave. and 200th St. The Crossbills were foraging in and on the ground below a row of spruce trees on the southwestern border of the cemetery. I haven't had much experience with WW Crossbills and I was struck with how unwary they are. Eventually several of the birds flew within 4-6 feet of me while they were busy foraging. Very cool!
Brian Smith Sleepy Eye ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
