Monday 8/2 Following up on Andy Paulios' MNBird post from 7/24, Sherry Mieling and I took to a couple of kayaks and were able to find 2 Common Moorhens at Lawrence Lake in Houston County. We put in at 7:30 AM at the Lawrence Lake Marina which is at the south end of Lawrence Lake just north of Brownsville. I would guesstimate the paddle at about 1/2 mile or less each way. From the launch (private boat launch - $10 - honor box and signs indicating you are being videotaped - maybe you could haggle if anyone is around). We followed the white "No Wake" bouys upstream. Not far beyond where the trail of bouys runs out, there was a fork in the backwaters, and the right fork cul-de-sacced relatively quickly and this is the area where at least 2 Common Moorhens were hanging out at the edge of the cattails. The left fork is somewhat more "major" and leads to the openmost part of the lake (ie, not where Moorhens would particularly like hanging out). Think like a Moorhen, and don't work too hard, and there is a good chance you can find some Moorhens. This area may be barely visible from shore, but it would take some remarkable luck to pick out a Moorhen with a scope. We did not detect any Least Bitterns, but did have numerous Black Terns, and a Virginia Rail. After a frightening kayaktipping incident last summer, I wasn't sure I'd ever get in one again. Leave it to a good bird to lure me back in. We then went to the Hwy 26 overlook where we still saw numerous RB Gulls, Pelicans, Canada Geese, as well as a flyby flock of 4 small-medium shorebirds, but alas no avocet that was referred to in Barb Martin's post from yesterday. We didn't spend a lot of time here, and there are a lot of areas for an avocet to hide, so it may still be worth checking. Dedrick Benz Winona, MN ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
