twelve birders joined me for the (11th?) annual Miesville Ravine MRVAC field trip. After lunch two of them stuck around for a trip to the Canon River bottoms by Collischan Road. We had ten species of warblers including one or two Ceruleans, still hanging at Miesville Ravine, a Mourning and Bay-breasted Warbler at Collischan, two or three each of Black and Whites, Tennessees, and Nashvilles, a Blackburnian, Blue-winged and C. Yellowthroat, Redstarts everywhere. Red-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireos were plentiful. A Warbling Vireo was heard and a Philadelphia was seen. Goldfinches were particularlily noisy, as were Pewees. Several Catbirds were seen, but all other thrushes, including Robins were not. With the most prolific bloom of spotted jewelweed in years, we found twenty to thirty or more Ruby-throated Hummers. Mosquitos were also thick at Collischan.
Fruit was plentiful, but not yet ripe, including plums, cherries (pin ?), and elderberries. Interesting was the elderberries were both in fruit and full bloom. At home I have wild strawberries producing a second crop. I was surprised to find no prickly ash in Miesville Ravine. I wonder whether it has been removed. The watercress was very sparse also. I expected to see more mushrooms. I found stinging nettles over six feet tall and giant ragweed at least eight feet tall. We saw few butterflies, but did pick out a Fritillary (Great Spangled?), Red-spotted Purple, Hackberry Emperor, a punctuation mark (?), and a possible Great Tiger Swallowtail. Toads were underfoot and Gray Treefrogs were calling from the trees. 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
