(Posted by Jason Frank <[email protected]> via moumn.org)
On 5/16/17 I hiked through the woods along the Minnesota River in Memorial Park, Granite Falls. Also visited Blue Devil Valley SNA. Both sites are beautiful and secluded, excellent habitat, highly recommended. Best bird: I was able to locate a Yellow-Billed Cuckoo by sound in Memorial Park, singing just after the rain stopped, around noon. Warblers were plentiful, but hard to identify, since the trees were all leafed out. I managed to come up with: Yellow Yellow-Rumped Common Yellowthroat Black & White American Redstart Palm Nashville Chestnut-Sided And: Red-Eyed Vireo Wood Thrush Spotted Sandpiper Catbird Cooper's Hawk Red-Tailed Hawk Bald Eagle Turkey Vulture Northern Cardinal Brown Thrasher Baltimore Oriole YB Sapsucker Yellow-Shafted Flicker Eastern Wood Pewee Least & Willow Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird Pelicans Mallards Barred Owl (feather only) Barn, Cliff, Bank, and Northern Rough-Winged Swallows were hunting insects above the river. I noticed about a dozen other birds, plump with shorter wings, hunting among them. After a few minutes of wondering what they were, one of the landed nearby and I realized they were Cedar Waxwings. This was the first time I've seen them hunting flying insects. Blue Devils and Morel mushrooms were conspicuously absent. Painted turtles and Snapping turtles are out laying their eggs. SO MANY BOBOLINKS! Counted 96 males between Mound Spring SNA and Sioux Nation WMA, Yellow Medicine County. There are also lots of tent caterpillar nests out here right now. Will 2017 be the Year of the Cuckoo??? Jason Frank Lac qui Parle ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
