Saturday was a beautiful spring day for birding. The birds were out and we say many. While the 89 species found were down from last year's 100, it was still birdy. And, Jen Vieth, Kevin Smith and the rest of the Carpenter Nature Center volunteers put on an excellent program, which included field trips, a great talk by Carrol Henderson on planting for birds, and a contest by teams of young birders to ID the most birds. It was won by a team, the Young Birders, who found 63 species. In last place was a very respectable 7 species by a team whose members were no more than seven years old. They saw more species, but these were the ones that they ID'd. They missed the wrap up meeting, because they were taking naps.
I didn't take notes on all that was found, but some of the finds included: Shorebirds: not many, just 3 species (Killdeer, L. Yellowlegs (1), Snipe at 180th St. Marsh Rusty Blackbirds: a flock of about 20 singing (east of downtown Hastings) Swamp, Song, White-throated, Field, Fox, Chipping, and Vesper Sparrows Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Hermit Thrush (one or two only) Brown Creepers (lots) Broad-winged Hawk many flying Pelicans, Cormorants, and Turkey Vultures E. Bluebirds Warbles: 2 species - Black & White and Yellow-rumped Phoebe - only flycatcher Steve Weston On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN [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
