Last night's impromptu evening BBA check confirmed a suspicion that spotted sandpipers have claimed a summer place in downtown St. Paul, in the "empty" industrial lot just west of the new Xcel Energy plant. It's a high sand/dirt flat, dotted with dozens of shallow, ephemeral ponds/puddles, a few deep retaining ponds, and some piles of concrete and pea gravel. The edges and back sections provide ample cover of weeds and grasses, and a few young aspen and cottonwood are taking root here and there. I'd seen the birds there, along with some unsurprising kildeer (and the expected song sparrows, yellow warblers,etc.), several weeks ago.
The first thing that greeted me was their numerous whistling calls. I headed down toward the deepest retaining pond, and flushed a very fluffy, brownish gray individual, calling frantically and zig-zagging through the grasses with outstretched wings and spread-out tail feathers. It was close enough to notice little black spots dotting the white on the edges of the tail---hard to say which of us was the more startled. It dashed down to the water's edge and into the weeds there, while I slowed pace to avoid stepping on anything or anyone. Thereafter, all explorations were greeted with alarm cries. Birds flushed from several sites in the grasses. In at least 3 locations, an adult perched itself in plain view on a high point (a rock pile, a tall weed, and a pipe) and continued to give distress signals until I retreated from an area. Several times I did find adult birds engaged in normal foraging at the water's edge, so my presence probably wasn't too disruptive. However, I will never again think of weedy, overgrown, abandoned, industrial, urban sites as totally sterile. Nature, and birds especially.continue to amaze. Linda Whyte ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
