It is getting harder and harder to get anywhere on time these days. I am constantly being distracted and waylaided by birds. On Friday I was had plenty of time to get to dinner at friends, so I stopped in a futile and unsuccessful attempt to see the Sage Thrasher by Lake Harriet. I was not disappointed. No, the Thrasher was long gone, but I had a wonderful guided walk in Roberts Bird Sanctuary with Gary (Johnson?). the woods were jumping. I had some of my best looks ever at Winter Wrens. Northern Flickers were courting. I do not know how it is suppose to entice the female, but Gary saw a male defecate on a female below. I personally do not believe this was intentional. And, I am not sure how this related to interacting with the second male on the tree. Thrushes were plentiful and we saw Hermit, Swanson's, and perhaps a Gray-cheeked. We also had several Brown Creepers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and Yellow-rumps. I had to rush out of the woods when my wife called. I did not tell her why I was going to be 15 minutes late with the hors d'oeuvres.
After a night of a good friends, good food, and fine wine, I was up at 5am with less sleep than desired to count cranes in Dakota County with Judy Lazell, who had recruited me. The cranes eluded us, but we had a great morning of birding. In wanderings we stopped at the McKnight Prairie near Randolph. A hike up the hill was rewarded with a large groups of purple Pasque Flowers, larger than any such gathering than I have ever seen, although I must admit that I have not toured native prairie stands to find them. The prairie was not particularly birdy, although raptors and pelicans were soaring and sparrows were singing. Song Sparrows and Vespers were especially plentiful. Directions: From Randolph go south on Hwy 56 across the bridge to the first right turn. Head west to the first left turn and head south one mile. Park where the road turns west and climb the hill. Signage is missing or faded to blank. We then stopped at Lake Byllesby and encountered Julian Sellers and a St. Paul Audubon field trip. Shorebirds were plentiful, but not diverse, with only both Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpipers, and Killdeer found. We had earlier found Wilson Snipe at a small ephemeral pond. There were large gatherings of Pelicans and Bonaparte's Gulls. Yellow-rumps and Eastern Phoebe's were in the woods along the shore. The last stop of the day was the Randolph Industrial Park (behind the church on Hwy 56 just north of Randolph, We stopped at this grassland site specifically seeking Meadowlarks. We found several singing Western Meadowlarks, as well as, at least one Eastern. Savanah and Vesper Sparrows were teed up and singing. the treat of the day was running into Matt Dufort who had his scope scanning a field of longspurs for Smith's Longspurs. we were buzzed a couple of times by one of the longspurs with a richer call note than the Laplands. Both Matt and Judy got a good look at the bird to ID it as a Chestnut-collard, which would be a Dakota County first. Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
