I was at Gold Medal Park (Minneapolis), mainly by the 35W Bridge Memorial near the intersection of West River Parkway and 11th Avenue, from 8:45am to 10:15am today. I finally ended up seeing one of the birds, presumably the male, foraging in the Scotch Pines just behind the row of Arbor Vitae (right next to the memorial). This was a little after 10am. I had not heard him vocalizing anytime before then, but when I observed him he was giving a series of chip notes.
I bumped into Bruce and Susan Fall, who had watched the male singing a quiet version of his song in the oak saplings in the sculpture park, just across the road from the bridge memorial. That was around 9:50am. Bruce and Susan have been monitoring this bird for a while and noted that the male usually doesn't sing until later in the day. They also mentioned to NOT go on the dirt trail behind the memorial, as it can be dangerous. It appears that the bird has been spending a good portion of its time along the Scotch Pines anyways, which are easily viewed from the sidewalk. An Olive-sided Flycatcher rested on a tall spruce snag in our yard in Golden Valley on June 2. It was a treat to watch him swoop after dragonflies, always returning to the same perch where I presume he spent his entire time before flying further north. Good birding! Alyssa DeRubeis visiting Golden Valley, Hennepin Co. ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
