I left Minneapolis this morning at 5:00am in hopes of finding the jaegers that have been reported at Wisconsin Point and when I arrived the birds did not disappoint. The juvenile Pomarine was the first to show up on the scene from the east and later the Long-tailed put on an amazing show. Both of these birds made several passes. There may have been a juvenile Parasitic mixed in as well but the star of the show was the definitive Long-tailed Jaeger (a "lifer" for me). This bird was constantly on the move, chasing and being chased by the Ring-billed Gulls. It came within 30 ft. of the shore in front of our viewing area and later surprised me when I went back to my car by floating 20 ft. above the ground in parking lot #1! There were several other birds of interest in the area including: 1st winter Franklin's Gull- 1 on the water right next to shore Bonaparte's Gull- 7 White-winged Scoter- 1 Common Tern- 15 Semipalmated Plover- 2 Lapland Longspur- 12 Green-winged Teal- several American Wigeon- several Many other birds as well. The show put on by the jaegers along with the other great birds seen today definitely ranks among my best birding experiences. I feel lucky that this region of the Midwest is so productive for an assortment of our feathered friends. Jason Caddy South Minneapolis [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
