A half-dozen early risers took advantage of this morning's superb weather, and enjoyed seeing and/or hearing 44 species at Rachel Lilly Preserve. It was especially fun to see the recently-fledged of some of them, with a turkey poult taking shelter in a tree, a family group of Eastern Kingbirds on the hunt, teed-up Flickers, curious Chickadees, and rattling House Wrens.
There were numerous fly-overs: Cormorants, Great Blue Herons, and American Egrets. We startled one of the herons off the pond. Raptors were a-typically absent; only a probable Cooper's Hawk was on the wing. The fly-"snatchers" were represented, though: Great-crested, Alder, E. Phoebe, plus an E. Wood-Pewee. We were lucky enough to see a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, feeding high in the canopy, and someone noted hearing an Ovenbird. We noticed the absence of Redstarts, but Yellow Warblers and Common Yellow-throats were present and singing, along with Goldfinches, House Finches, White-breasted Nuthatch, Cardinals, Catbirds, Indigo Buntings, Song Sparrows, and Clay-colored Sparrows. Red-eyed were the only Vireos heard, though we may have missed the Warbling. Robins and E. Bluebirds represented the thrush family, while Crows and Bluejays spoke for the corvids. We also saw Tree and Barn Swallows, Cedar Waxwing, Mourning Dove, Cowbirds, Baltimore Oriole, Red-winged blackbirds, and Hairy and Downy woodpeckers. My thanks to Roy for carrying his scope, which gave us good views of an elusive Sedge Wren, and helped to pick out a spotted Sandpiper among the Kildeer at the pond. Thanks, too, to Kathy and Cindy, for their knowledge of the flora. Dave, I'm glad you found the entrance and caught up to us! Larry, thanks for keeping my ears at work, as always. I look forward to seeing everyone again. Linda Whyte ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
