I have been birding in Minnesota now for about 4 years and this seems to be by far the worst warbler migration I've seen here. It's strange because I've actually seem tons of Yellow Warblers and Common Yellowthroats. I have also seen some Redstarts and heard some Tennessees and other than that a few Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers and that's it! I don't think I've seen a single Nashville, Black and White, Waterthrush, or Ovenbird, not to mention all of the less common species that should still be around in smaller numbers. I have been out several times in the last few weeks and don't know where the warblers are.
Also went to Lake Byllesby tonight and saw more shorebirds in one spot than ever before in Minnesota (probably over 200). They were pretty far out so a bit difficult to ID and we probably missed some species but from what I was able to observe there were: Dunlin- Many Least- Tons Short-billed Dowitcher- A beautiful flock Pectoral- Many Lesser Yellowlegs- Many Semipalmated Plover- Many Spotted Sandpiper- Some I also swear that I saw a Hudsonian Godwit flyover with other medium sized shorebirds just as I was leaving. It had the definitive black and white underwing pattern. It is possible that the bird was a Willet but the other characteristics looked more like a godwit (it was getting dark and was flying so it wasn't the perfect view). This bird obviously won't go on my life list but I think I now have a new "nemesis" species. Both times I have gone for the Hudsonian Godwit at Byllesby this year it was seen the day before and I also missed them at the Salt Lake Bird Festival (no one saw them there this year). Good Birding, Jason Caddy Minneapolis _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5 ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html