In addition to the previously-posted Summer Tanager in Blue Earth Co (first found by George Lahr), the Minn Birding Weekends group found a few other species of note this weekend, May 10-11. We were mostly along the Minnesota River Valley in Brown Co, with some time spent in parts of Renville, Nicollet, Blue Earth, and Sibley Co's, and turned up a surprising total of 143 species in all.
- Willet, Ruddy Turnstone, and White-rumped Sandpiper were among the 14 shorebird species seen this afternoon at Sand Lake in Sibley Co, which is along the W side of Hwy 15 at 310th St (3 mi N of the Nicollet Co line or 3 mi S of Winthrop). This was the only shorebird site of particular note that we found (Linda Sparling had briefly scouted it out on Friday en route to the MBW), although of interest as well were the 290 Wilson's Phalaropes at the Sleepy Eye sewage ponds yesterday. - Also at the Sleepy Eye sewage ponds was an unexpected adult Common Tern. - We found 17 warbler species in all (the same as our shorebird total), with Golden-winged and Cape May probably the best ones on the list. However, there were no significant waves or concentrations of warblers or other passerines anywhere, so that most of the warbler species were only represented by a few individuals. Kim Eckert, Duluth 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
