McLeod county must have been the place to be birding today. This morning I flushed a Yellow Rail at Schaefer Prairie southeast of Brownton (Nature Avenue about 1 mile south of hwy 212). It flushed at around 5 feet, it's white secondaries were conspicuous as if flew below eye-level to a spot 20 yards away. Of course, it couldn't be relocated or re-flushed. It flushed from very dry, fairly short grass, although wetter habitats weren't too distant. Besides the rail, 90 minutes of slogging through the grass here produced a grand total of 3 Savannah Sparrows, 1 Song Sparrow and a few Swamp Sparrows. Earlier I made a stop at the Glencoe wastewater ponds. Over 2000 Canada Geese, 200 Cackling Geese, and 7 Snow Geese were present, along with many American Pipits, Brewer's Blackbirds, and Lapland Longspurs. This afternoon, there were 140 American Golden-Plovers in a flooded field east of the Gaylord sewage ponds. I counted 60 on my first pass through, but as I was counting heard more calling overhead - and counted 140 after the second flock landed. One Dunlin came in the the second flock. A final highlight was provided by a stunning first-year Krider's Redtailed Hawk north of Gaylord. Doug Kieser Minneapolis
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