June 6, 2014 I enjoyed an amazing day of birding in West Central Minnesota with Alyssa DeRubeis, on Friday. We started at Felton Prairie and then spent time at Buffalo River State park. Next we headed down to Herman and ended the day at the Sand Dunes State Forest. Here are some of the highlights from the day: Gray Partridge - 10:50 am - Clay county - 170th St. N, about 1/4 mile North of CR26. Two Gray Partridge were observed on the East side of the road and then observed flying west and landing out of sight in a field on the West side of the road. Greater Prairie Chicken - 12:30 pm - Clay County - 170th St N, about 1/4 mile North of the Cattle guard. Two Greater Prairie Chickens were observed in flight at this location. Snowy Egret - 7:18 pm - Pope County - SE corner of the intersection of CR 15 and Highway 55. An adult plumaged Snowy Egret was observed for about one minute in with a flock of about 30 Great Egrets, while in flight. The birds were observed in flight over the WPA at this location and we were unable to find them again after our initial observation. We also observed a number of other small flocks of Great Egrets flying in a NW direction from this location. But were unsuccessful in figuring out where those were heading to either. Cattle Egret - 8:15 am - Douglas County - I 94, just Southeast of the Alexandria exit. We observed a nice fly over of an adult Cattle Egret. Black-necked Stilt - 6:05 pm - Grant County - Herman WTP - We were able to see the pair of Black-necked Stilts that are nesting at the Herman WTP. Upland Sandpiper - 12:15 pm - Clay County - 170th St N, about 1/2 mile North of the Cattle guard. We observed this bird in flight on the East side of the road. Whimbrel - 11:07 am - Clay County - 170th St N, about 1/2 mile North of the Cattle guard. This bird was first spotted and identified by Alyssa. When it flew into a puddle in the road, just to our South. It was then chased out by a Marbled Godwit. But we were still able to view and photograph the bird as it walked in the field to the East of the road. If this sighting is accepted it would be the second record for this species in Clay county. Marbled Godwit - Clay County - 170th St N, past the Cattle guard. There were at least 3 pairs of Marbled Godwits observed in the pasture North of the cattle guard. Eurasian Collared-Dove - 7:03 pm - Douglas County - Kensington, along Tower street, just East of Grand Ave. Eastern Whip-poor-will - 10:00 - 10:20 pm - Sherburne County - Sand Dune State Forest. We heard at least 7 Whip-poor-will's, near the Lake Anne Campground in the Sand Dunes State Forest. Chestnut-collared Longspur - 11:45 - 1:05 pm - Clay County - 2170th St N, for the first mile North of the Cattle guard. There were at least 3 pairs of Chestnut-collared Longspurs observed on the East side of 170th St N. These birds were observed from about 1/2 mile to 1.5 miles North of the Cattle guard. Spotted Towhee - 3:15 pm - Clay County - Buffalo River State Park - We able to relocate both the Spotted & Eastern Towhee's first reported by Mark Otnes at the park. The directions on the Northwest Minnesota Birding Report, for Thursday, June 5, 2014, worked great in re-finding these birds. Craig Mandel Minnetonka, Hennepin County [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
