In addition to the Say's Phoebe found at Felton Prairie and posted yesterday (marginal, identifiable photos taken), the Minn Birding Weekends (MBW) group managed to see a few things of note this past weekend (10-11-12 May) in Clay and Norman Co's. Of course, like everyone else, we were plagued by high winds after the front went through on Friday afternoon (steady 35-40 mph winds, gusts to 47) and most of Saturday (25-30 mph, frequent 40 mph gusts). And, like other birders are well aware, we found that many migrants (especially woods birds) had not yet arrived in these counties or elsewhere in the N half of Minn – which is not surprising, given that hardly any trees are leafed out yet and many lakes are still frozen.
Especially interesting on 12 May (after the winds died down!) were the 3 species of longspurs simultaneously at the traditional area along the "longspur road" at Felton Prairie, 2.5 mi N of CR 26. Three male Chestnut-collareds had returned to apparent breeding territories, while both Smith's and Lapland longspurs were seen and heard as they migrated overhead. (The buffy/orange underparts and distinctive call notes of the Smith's could be detected as they flew by us.) Linda Sparling also spotted some Smith's flying by us on 11 May along CR 79, a few miles W of Bluestem Prairie SNA; migrant Laplands were also here and at a few other locations in Clay and Norman Co's. Also seen: - Gr Prairie-Chickens at 3 leks in Norman Co and 3 in Clay Co (one of these in the Chestnut-collared Longspur pasture) - A Peregrine Falcon preying on prairie-chickens in Norman Co, and another chasing longspurs in Clay Co - Am Avocet 1.5 mi S and 0.5 mi E of Hitterdal, Clay Co on 11 May; another on 9 May at Comstock sewage ponds, Clay Co. - Com Ravens a bit S of their normal range: Twin Valley, Norman Co on 10 May; 5 mi E of Felton, Clay Co on 11 May - Single Cape May Warblers in Norman and Clay Co's; this species tends to be uncommon/rare in W Minn, but several have been noted recently in SE Minn But the most interesting bird by far during this MBW was the unidentified sparrow-like bird we found on 10 May in Norman Co at the corner of 310th Ave and 350th St (6 mi N + 2 mi W of Gary). It was foraging on the ground along a gravel/dirt road with 2 Vesper Sparrows, was a bit smaller overall than the Vespers, had a patterned face reminiscent of a Clay-colored Sparrow, but its underparts were a uniform clear yellow (about the shade of a female Yellow Warbler; perhaps less yellow on the throat and under tail coverts). My first impression was of a Clay-colored Sparrow which had been stained yellow by vegetation or something; my second impression was of a female-plumaged Bobolink (except the overall size, facial pattern, shade of yellow, and bill shape did not match); my third impression was it was something I had never seen before or noticed in any North American field guide. Unfortunately, it was only in view for perhaps 30 seconds or so, only its face pattern and underparts were visible, and only a few of us in the group were able to see it before it flew off with the Vesper Sparrows and briefly landed in a dirt field before flying off again and out of sight. No photos were taken, and a systematic 45-minute search failed to relocate it. We then paged through the 6th edition of the National Geographic field guide and unexpectedly found a close match: female Yellow-breasted Bunting (Emberiza aureola), whose range is described as "casual to AK, mostly on western Aleutians." A later search through Google images turned up several photos of this species which also closely resembled what we saw (there were also images which did not resemble our bird). Obviously, with such a brief view and no physical evidence to support such an identification, I am certainly not claiming we saw anything as unusual as a Yellow-breasted Bunting. But at the same time I cannot entirely rule it out as a possibility, and I still have no clear idea what it might have been! Kim R Eckert [email protected] http://www.mbwbirds.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
