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>From 6:30 to 7:15 this evening, I observed one or two adult and seven = juvenile Common Moorhens at Moonan Marsh in Waseca County. The location = is on County Road 4 NE of Waseca, where the road curves around the NW = part of Moonan Marsh WMA. There is a space for one car to pull off the = road to the right (if you're heading away from Waseca), and park facing = east into a wetland. In front of you is a small white sign crediting = Ducks Unlimited and the DNR. The moorhens were along the edge of the = cattails on the far side of the open water, SE of the parking spot, at a = distance of about 300 yards (scope required). Best viewing is with the = late afternoon sun at your back. I first noticed the juvies, and while I was trying to figure out what = they were, an adult moorhen came out of the cattails. Three of the = juvies then hung out with this adult, while the other four remained = perhaps 50 feet to the left, appearing to hang out with American Coots, = which made me wonder if some were moorhens and some were coots. But all = seven looked alike, and they fit the descriptions of juvie moorhens in = the field guides--white throats, rather thin bills that were mostly = dark, but with some light-colored parts, a poorly defined white line = along the wing edge, and the mark that first caught my attention, and = which Sibley calls out: "white undertail coverts with dark center = stripe." This last is distinctive at a great distance as the birds swim = away from you. I watched one adult for a long time, until it retreated into the = cattails. Some minutes later, I saw an adult preening in the edge of = the cattails closer to where the four juvies hung out with the coots. I = don't know if it was the same bird. Julian St. Paul ------=_NextPart_000_001B_01C6BFEC.B3E9F840 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; = charset=3Diso-8859-1"> <META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2900.2963" name=3DGENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff> <DIV>From 6:30 to 7:15 this evening, I observed one or two adult and = seven=20 juvenile Common Moorhens at Moonan Marsh in Waseca County. The = location is=20 on County Road 4 NE of Waseca, where the road curves around the NW part = of=20 Moonan Marsh WMA. There is a space for one car to pull off the = road to the=20 right (if you're heading away from Waseca), and park facing east into a=20 wetland. In front of you is a small white sign crediting Ducks = Unlimited=20 and the DNR. The moorhens were along the edge of the cattails on = the far=20 side of the open water, SE of the parking spot, at a distance of about = 300 yards=20 (scope required). Best viewing is with the late afternoon = sun at your=20 back.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I first noticed the juvies, and while I was trying to figure out = what they=20 were, an adult moorhen came out of the cattails. Three of the = juvies then=20 hung out with this adult, while the other four remained perhaps 50 feet = to the=20 left, appearing to hang out with American Coots, which made me wonder if = some=20 were moorhens and some were coots. But all seven looked alike, and = they=20 fit the descriptions of juvie moorhens in the field guides--white = throats,=20 rather thin bills that were mostly dark, but with some light-colored = parts, a=20 poorly defined white line along the wing edge, and the mark that first = caught my=20 attention, and which Sibley calls out: "white undertail coverts = with dark=20 center stripe." This last is distinctive at a great distance as = the birds=20 swim away from you.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I watched one adult for a long time, until it retreated into the=20 cattails. Some minutes later, I saw an adult preening in the edge = of the=20 cattails closer to where the four juvies hung out with the=20 coots. I don't know if it was the same bird.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Julian</DIV> <DIV>St. Paul</DIV></BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_001B_01C6BFEC.B3E9F840--