4/21/2014 While leading a Minnesota Birding Weekend field trip to Yellow Medicine and Lac Qui Parle counties our group observed lots of migrating waterfowl, a few Shorebirds and two Snowy Egrets. There were few locations for Shorebirds, with Salt Lake having the best shoreline for them. The Haydenville WMA, along CR 13 also had lots of mud flats. But there were no Shorebirds there on the 19th. The area along CR 7 Northwest of the town of Rosen, in Lac Qui Parle county was almost dry and only had a couple Killdeer present on the 20th. Here are a few of the species our group observed during the trip. Greater White-fronted Goose - We observed a flock of around 50 in Yellow Medicine county at the Canby WTP and in Lac Qui Parle county, we observed a flock of around 75 birds was observed at the Maderna WMA, which is a couple miles NW of the town of Madison. Snow Goose - We observed a flock of around 20 at the Canby WTP in Yellow Medicine county and a small flock in Lac Qui Parle county at the Sweetwater WMA, which is located on CR 12. Ross's Goose - Several were observed at the Madrena WMA in with the flock of Greater White-fronted Geese. Horned Grebes - Were observed in both counties, on some of the larger lakes. Western Grebe - Several Western Grebes were observed on the lake at Stone Hill Park, in Yellow Medicine county.Snowy Egret - Two adult Snowy Egrets were observed in Lac Qui Parle county on the 19th. The first one was observed at Sweetwater WMA, along CR 12 and the second one was observed along the West side of CR 7, just South of CR 12.Swainson's HawkBroad-winged HawkDunlin - One winter plumaged bird was observed on the NE side of Salt Lake, in Lac Qui Parle county.Other species that were observed in the area includedGreat Horned OwlYellow-bellied SapsuckerEastern PhoebeTree & Barn SwallowGolden & Ruby-crowned KingletHermit ThrushAmerican PipitYellow-rumped WarblerFox SparrowWestern MeadowlarkRusty Blackbird Craig MandelMinnetonka, Hennepin [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
