Birded western Minnesota (Lac qui Parle, Yellow Medicine, and Lincoln counties) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, primarily for the Breeding Bird Atlas. We found 107 species. Notible finds and notes:
Waterfowl: Besides Canada Geese, very few broods were found. It seems that that has improved somewhat with some very recent hatches. I talked with some locals and they mentioned that they had only seen hens with very small numbers of ducklings. Eightteen species were found including one or more pairs of Ring-neck Duck, Canvasback, Redhead, Pintail, Western Grebe, Eared Grebes, and Swan or Chinese Goose (on Salt Lake). Many Ruddy Ducks were on Salt Lake. We also found a Black Duck, Common Loon. We did not re-find the pair of Trumpeter Swans in Lincoln County, but I remembered its location (in Hansonville Twshp - east of CR101 about a half mile south of CR20). These appeared to be first year birds. We found a new Cormorant rookery and watched a pair of cormorants building a nest. The male (we presume) found a suitable stick and struggled to gain altitude carrying up to his mate. She was sitting on a bare branch with a few branches under her. He finally gets it up into the tree and perches above her. He carefully handed the branch down to her and she promptly dropped it. We left before the birds interacted. Dickcissels were abundant in sharp contrast to last year. Snipe were heard in several locations. Other birds seen included Least Bittern in Yellow Medicine, Sora rails, Willow Flycatcher, Wilson's Phalarope, the previously found Say' Phoebes, and a surprising Silver Pheasant (not far from a game farm) Steve Weston on Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN [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
