This morning there was a Hudsonian Godwit on Long Meadow Lake at the Bass Ponds in Bloomington, Hennepin County. It was present from at least 7:30 to 9:00 when I left. I first saw it flying around the lake, then feeding in fairly deep water on the far side of the lake. It was sometimes out in the deep water among the dabbling ducks, well away from any other shorebirds. This was looking out across the water from the main dike trail. There is tons of mud, and there were plenty of other shorebirds - about 150 yellowlegs (almost all Lesser), 2 Solitary Sandpipers, and 3 very distant dowitchers. Landbird migration was slow - lots of Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers, but not much else. I also flushed 5 Black-crowned Night-Herons out of the cattail marshes, and heard my first Sora of the year.
After seeing so many shorebirds at the Bass Ponds, I decided to check out other shorebird spots around the area. I turned up the following: 180th Street Marsh, north of Vermillion 15 Pectoral Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs, 2 Solitary Sandpipers (and a couple I ran into had seen a Baird's Sandpiper there as well) Also in the area were Brewer's Blackbirds, which I've had trouble finding this spring, and a Loggerhead Shrike along 180th just east of Emery Ave. Randolph Industrial Park 1 singing Grasshopper Sparrow, my first of the year (per others, there are also still a few Lapland Longspurs here) Lake Byllesby 11 Willets, 1 Greater and 40 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Dunlin, 1 Wilson's Phalarope Nicollet Sewage Ponds many Lesser and 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Wilson's Phalarope, 1 Least Sandpiper, 1 Baird's Sandpiper, 1 Long-billed Dowitcher, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, and a ton of Yellow-headed Blackbirds 12 shorebird species today! Pretty exciting for this part of the state. Good birding, Matt Dufort Minneapolis ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
