Dale Trexel and I located a Summer Tanager that seems to turn up at Afton State Park every year at about this time.
The bird was at the North end of the Trout Brook Trail loop when we located it by call note, and made the diagnostic "pi-tucky-tuck" repeatedly before switching to the less diagnostic Tanager song. It sang and moved frequently through the trees on the prairie side of the trail for about 3-5 minutes before flying off towards the Trout Brook Trail area. Time was about 10:30 AM. We both only had brief glimpses of the bird in heavy cover (and flying overhead when it left the area), but the call note and historical location were the stronger marks for our ID. The Yellow-Breasted Chat was also present in the scrub near this location, and had been seen by other birders moments before. We only heard the calls, but were not willing to stick around in the hot sun for more. Henslow's Sparrows are back on their historical turf in the North prairie, and Boblink were also calling and visible along the path in from the road along the North edge of the park. -Jeff Eddy & Dale Trexel Mendota Heights, MN ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
