January 11, 2007 Lake City Sportsman's Club Lake City, Wabasha County 2:00 p.m.
Dedrick Benz and I met in Plainview this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. to explore Lake City before trying to refind the snowy owl that has been present in rural Plainview for about a month. We birded our way from Plainview to Kellogg north to Lake City finding numerous bald eagles, some ducks, distant gulls, and a very cooperative pileated woodpecker near Camp Lacupolis (which Dedrick told me meant "lake city"-Dedrick knows stuff like this!). Before reaching Lake City, Dedrick recommends that we stop at this secret spot of his. We get our scopes and begin to scan the water from the Lake City Sportsman's Club. Soon after, I casually urge Dedrick to take a look through my scope. I believe it was holy "moley" that was excitedly uttered from his lips as he was in awe observing a 1ST winter BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE only 100 yds. out fraternizing with mallards and common goldeneyes. We begin taking scrupulous notes for a period of 30 minutes before the bird vanishes around 2:45 p.m. We then meander past the DNR buildings and reach another secret (this one's mine!) spot overlooking Lake Pepin. At this location alone, we refind the kittiwake along with a 50/50 mix of herring and ring-billed gulls and the 1st winter GLAUCOUS GULL, which has been present in the Lake City area since my initial observation on Christmas Day. This was enough to pack up my bags and move in with my Dad (who now resides with his sweetie Sandy in Lake City). It's now about 3:30 p.m. and we decide to zip back to rural Plainview via CR 4. We happen upon 50 wild turkeys, a kestrel, a sharp-shinned hawk, and a northern shrike before arriving to an extremely cooperative SNOWY OWL perched atop a utility pole at the junction of Cty. 14 and 590th st. providing a stellar 10-minute world class view beginning at 4:08 p.m. At this point, I'm offering to splurge for supper in Plainview! Dedrick offers one final recommendation as we drive the streets of Plainview finding 10 EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVES on 1st Ave. SW between 3rd & 4th St SW (or look for the volunteer fire dept. bldg.). I keep my promise as we find this great little Chinese restaurant near the post office (thanks Jorge!). It was one of those days that you have once in a great while. I am very happy to have shared my afternoon with Dedrick witnessing great birds on a mild January day! Directions to "secret" spots: Hwy. 61 south through Lake City to the Wild Wings Art Gallery. Left on Sportsman's Drive. Left on Camp Lakeview Rd. Immediate right on unsigned road that comes to a "T". From here you can go right or left. A right will dead end at the Lake City Sportsman's Club. A left will take you past the DNR office. Just after the DNR office is a littlle pull-off where many gulls, including the glaucous and kittiwake, were congregating out on this point around 100 yds. from shore. Good Luck and Good Birding!! John Hockema Rochester, MN _________________________________________________________________ Communicate instantly! Use your Hotmail address to sign into Windows Live Messenger now. http://get.live.com/messenger/overview
