Hi everyone, I spent the day birding Martin, Jackson, Nobles and Rock
Counties. I arrived at the Rock County gravel pit ponds north of Luverne too
late to get much for waterfowl, and the only open water viewed in Martin was in
Fairmont at Sisseton Lake (thanks Dedrick Benz for that tip!), but there wasn't
too many different species there. By far the best birding was at Little Spirit
Lake in Jackson County and Lake Okabena (sp?) in Worthington, Nobles County. I
stopped there based on Kim Eckert's reports. Little Spirit had many Greater
White-fronted Geese and Cackling Geese, plus 12 species of duck. I also located
what I'm assuming was Kim's flock of Lapland Longspurs south of Round Lake.
Many of these were in almost full breeding plumage. At Lake Okabena, there
were thousands of various geese, including a very large flock of both blue and
white phase Snow Geese. In this flock, there was a handful of Ross' Geese, one
of which appeared to be a sure hybrid. There were also a huge amount of Greater
White-fronted and Cackling Geese here as well. Falling snow at the time made
visibility tough for ducks further out but I managed to I.D. 9 species here.
One non-bird sighting came north of Little Spirit Lake in the form of a large
skunk puttering around in a road side ditch. Another came along I-90 in
Faribault County where I saw a coyote standing in a corn field. Pretty fun day
and a nice waterfowl fix! Good birding! Dave BartkeyFaribault, MN
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