Fairly good morning at Vets Park today with 7 warbler, 6 sparrow and 43 total bird species. It was nice to see my first Lincoln's Sparrows in the park this fall. Much of the bird activity was along the middle path running from the Playground on Portland Ave., South between Legion Lake and the large Cattail Marsh. Also check the large hidden field and woodland edges on the Northwest side of Legion Lake, which had Red-eyed, Yellow-throated and Blue-headed Vireos today. While it is sad to see most of the Green Herons have gone, there is still a Black-Crowned Night Heron to be found on the East side of the largest Island in the South of Legion Lake.
Also of note, the City of Richfield and the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District are proposing a multi-million dollar project to clean water between Legion, Taft and Lake Nokomis in 2013. This would include a very large impact to many different habitats found through-out Veterans Park, which in turn could severely affect birding in the park. I can not see a very good outcome to this project, even with the promised use of biologists from Wood Lake Nature Center. I base this pessimism on the fact the City has no management plan for the park's wildlife, and Richfield's policy to kill Barn Swallows at Veterans Memorial Park, rather than use easily obtained biological information on Barn Swallow management. If anyone wants further information on this project please email me personally. Scott B. Meyer, Hennepin County Veterans Memorial Park, Hennepin, US-MN Sep 13, 2012 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Protocol: Traveling 0.8 mile(s) 43 species (+1 other taxa) Canada Goose 68 Wood Duck 4 Mallard 2 Blue-winged Teal 1 Pied-billed Grebe 3 Double-crested Cormorant 2 Great Blue Heron 1 Green Heron 1 Black-crowned Night-Heron 1 Broad-winged Hawk 1 Mourning Dove 3 Belted Kingfisher 2 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 5 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1 Willow Flycatcher 1 Empidonax sp. 2 Yellow-throated Vireo 2 Blue-headed Vireo 2 Red-eyed Vireo 2 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 2 Black-capped Chickadee 8 House Wren 1 Marsh Wren 3 Swainson's Thrush 1 American Robin 2 Gray Catbird 6 Ovenbird 2 Black-and-white Warbler 1 Tennessee Warbler 2 Nashville Warbler 2 Common Yellowthroat 6 Magnolia Warbler 2 Wilson's Warbler 2 Chipping Sparrow 2 Clay-colored Sparrow 3 Song Sparrow 4 Lincoln's Sparrow 2 Swamp Sparrow 1 White-throated Sparrow 5 Northern Cardinal 2 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 4 American Goldfinch 4 ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
