Spent the day in Sibley, Nicollet & Blue Earth counties. Some highlights:
Warblers: Two Cerulean Warblers at the Vale WMA in Sibley county. Also at Vale WMA were: two late Mourning Warblers, one late Tennessee and two Blue-winged. Another Cerulean was found along High Island creek, 2.5 miles south of Sibley county roads 11 & 12. Two Yellow-billed Cuckoos were also found here. A single Prothonotary Warbler is on territory at the north end of St Peter. Look for the Traverse des Sioux historic site on the east side of US 169. Park here and follow the minimum maintenance road that leads to the Minnesota river. About 100 yards after the gate, the Prothonotary can be found along the left side of the road. At Williams Nature Center in Blue Earth county, the Kentucky Warbler was present and very vocal around 12:30pm. Also present was a late Canada Warbler Shorebirds: About 40 Dunlin were present at the WMA north of the town of Nicollet. At the Gaylord sewage ponds, there were roughly 200 shorebirds present. Most of these were Dunlin and Semipalmated Sandpipers. Mixed in were a few Lesser Yellowlegs, two Ruddy Turnstones and a couple of White-rumped Sandpipers. Etc. The Blue Grosbeak reported by Bob Dunlap is still present at the previously reported location. It was also signing from the farm grove on the south side of the road. There were three migrant Alder Flycatchers all calling at the Vale WMA. For those interested, the Vale WMA in Sibley county offer some dense wooded birding not typically found in Sibley county. An Acadian Flycatcher would not be unexpected here. Walk the path that runs straight north from the parking area. This goes for about 1 mile into the valley of High Island Creek. Directions to this WMA can be found on the DNR website (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wmas/index.html) . Regards... ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
