I found a winter plumaged Common Gallinule and two young this afternoon at the Lubenow WPA in NW Swift County. This is the same location where the Purple Sandpiper was found last November. The adult and one of the young were hanging out near or in the reeds at the north end of the pond on the east side of the road. They were quite close to the road and I was able to watch them for a long time. The other young bird was out in open water on the north end of the west pond further out from the road.
Also, I was able to re-find the Buff-breasted Sandpipers in both Chippewa and Swift counties that Herb Dingmann reported on Saturday at Shakopee Lake. There were also a couple of American Golden Plovers at the north end of the lake in Swift County. There were good quantities of lots of other shorebird species as well. A Red-breasted Nuthatch was also hanging around in the deciduous woods near the entrance to the Chippewa Co park on Shakopee. I tried to spot the gallinules at the Morris District auto loop in Stevens County but was not able to find them tonight. There was one Am Golden Plover at the east end of the next/last pond after the pond where Herb found the gallinules. Bob Ekblad Olmsted County in SE Minnesota http://www.Birding-Minnesota.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
