Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter Southern Minnesota Birding Days
Field Trip Report September 14 - Waseca County September 15 - Steele County Our group enjoyed a couple nice days of birding in Waseca and Steele counties. Migrants were present in a number of locations, but not in large numbers. We observed a total of 15 species of Warblers, but only 6 species of Shorebirds. Here are some of the locations that had many of the birds we observed: Waseca County Goose Lake - Public Access on the North side of the lake. We observed a few Warblers and other song birds here. Blowers Park We observed some Warblers and Vireo's along the entrance road to the park. Janesville WTP Lots of Killdeer and some Franklins Gulls. But no other Shorebirds were observed here. MN 13, just South of CR 22. There was a small flooded area of a field on the East side of MN 13 that had some Shorebirds. American Golden Plover Killdeer Least & Pectoral Sandpiper Wilson's Snipe Moonan Marsh There were Sora's, Wilson's Snipe and a Stilt Sandpiper observed here. Steele County SE 18th Street, between Bixby Road and CR 43 We spent a couple hours birding this section of road with the highlight being a couple Le Conte's Sparrows found in a weedy patch on the South side of the road, just West of SE 34th Ave. Rice Lake State Park We observed a few Warblers here and a single Forster's and a single Black Tern on the lake. Sacred Heart Cemetery in Owatonna There were lots of House Finches, Cedar Waxwings and a few Bay-breasted, Magnolia, Nashville and Blackpoll Warblers observed here. Oak Glen Lake There were 800+ Franklins Gulls counted on the lake and we observed another flock in the 100s flying South just North of the lake. There were also lots of Pied-billed Grebes there and two Horned Grebes. Kaplan's Woods Park We ended the trip here with a nice mix of Warblers including Black-and-white, Northern Parula and American Redstarts. Complete checklists are available on EBird. Upcoming MRVAC and MVNWR walks include; September 18 - 8:00 am - Bass Ponds September 22 - 8:00 am - Goodhue County September 23 - 8:00 am - Bass Ponds September 26 - 8:00 am - Rapids Lake Unit September 28 - MRVAC General Membership Meeting Bloomington Visitor Center - 7:00 pm 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
