This morning I was surprised to find that the Eastern Meadowlark I reported several weeks ago at Schweigert WMA in Nobles County is still present and that it has apparently attracted a mate. From Hwy. 59 go about a half mile east on 1st St. (the Murray/Nobles county line) and park at the pulloff for the WMA on the south side of the road. Hike south past the cedars, and about 200 yards south of the end of the cedars there is a 20-acre grassland plot with alternating strips of short and tall vegetation. I initially flushed the meadowlarks from the center of this plot and noticed that their tails had extensive white in the outer rectrices (i.e. the three outer most rectrices were white), which is a plumage tendency for Eastern (in Western only the two outer most rectrices tend to be white). Both birds gave call notes and rattles, and what I assume was the male bird perched at the top of a nearby tree and began singing; all vocalizations heard were those of Eastern Meadowlark. There are at least a couple Western Meadowlarks further east along 1st St. for nearby comparison.
Bob Dunlap -- Robert Dunlap Graduate Research Assistant Natural Resources Science and Management University of Minnesota Hodson Hall 1980 Folwell Avenue St. Paul, MN 55108 Email: [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
