This afternoon, Lance Vrieze located a Cinnamon Teal at the south-east corner of the Silver Creek Reservoir east of Rochester. The bird was staying closely associated with three Blue-wing Teal as they picked up and flew to several different locations on the reservoir, mostly along the southern side of the reservoir along Silver Creek Road (east of CR11).
Each time birders were able to finally relocate the group of 4 only to have them pick up and move again (sometimes because of eagles overhead but most often they decided to move on their own). Diane and I were able to re-find the Cinnamon Teal the last time around 5pm in the north bay of the reservoir that is accessed via a stub road off of CR11. At that time there were additional Blue-wing Teal that had joined the group (along with several Green-wing Teal as well). This was very close to the same location where the Ruff was viewed last spring. We could see no evidence at all of any hybridization with other species. In fact, we were close enough to be able to view the red eye of the Cinnamon Teal (Blue-wing Teal have dark eyes). There was a lot of activity with birds of other species arriving and leaving the reservoir today so there is no guarantee the Cinnamon Teal will still be there in the morning, but there is at least a reasonable chance that it might be around. By the way, the reservoir is still mostly all ice covered except for open water at the in-flow locations on the north and south-east as well as around the perimeter of the reservoir. Access to the reservoir from Rochester is via CR2 and CR11 from the north or CR9 and CR11 from the south. 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
