Shelley Steva and I found a Whimbrel in northern Kittson County during the course of a rather bizarre Big Day on Memorial Day. We found the bird on a stubble field from which the water had just receded along US 75 between St. Vincent and Humboldt. It was the only bird of any kind there and there were only small patches of wet mud in the surrounding stubbly field. While we were taking notes and setting up to take a photo, the bird flew to the north, and we were unable to locate it again. It may or may not be still in the area, as we were east of the railway tracks, and the bird was flying low, so we were unable to track its progress. I climbed up to the tracks, but could not find it by scanning the area. I presume it kept going. Other species seen during the day during which we experienced periods of drizzle, heavy rain, and constant wind of over 20 mph, included a first year Herring Gull on the road near Humboldt, and a Caspian Tern at a gravel pit south of Lake Bronson. Total tally for the Big Day was 97 species and missing many common species. We started at Larry Wilebski's place where we found so much water that we were unable to walk very much of his property, due to a beaver dam that flooded the property. That has since been taken care of, but needless to say, the water is slow to go down due to the very wet conditions of the past few days. If you plan a trip there, bring BOOTS! It should be interesting to get the BBS's in this year. I go back to work tomorrow, so that may bring improving weather..... Jeanie
Jeanie Joppru Pennington County, 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
