Craig Mandel and I were conducting a Marsh Bird Survey along the MRV-owned areas in Bloomington (Visitor's center, Bass Ponds, Old Cedar Ave.) The highlight was a Least Bittern who responded to our tape by, at least twice, circling as close as 50 feet above the boom box! This was at the Hogback Trail Pond; the first pond on the right as you come down from the hill. We got good looks at the profile while it was flying, but no colors were seen, since it was after 9:30pm.
Other highlights from the survey included a collective total of 9 Virginia's Rails (and only one Sora), Olive-sided Flycatcher, Common Nighthawks, and a few Bank Swallows. One of the V. Rails made a call resembling the "vee-urr" call of a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. No shorebirds were seen on Long Meadow Lake, although there was a flock of about 20 peeps on the wetland area near the Visitor's Center. It was also interesting to hear a few unexpected species calling at night (around 10:30pm), such as 3 Spotted Sandpipers, American Goldfinch and Northern Rough-winged Swallow. On a different note, if any birders from the Cities are free on this coming Wednesday, I would be interested in going down to Nicollet and Blue Earth counties. Please back-channel me for more info. Good birding! Alyssa DeRubeis Golden Valley, Hennepin Co. ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
