I spent most of the day birding in Benton County. The unexpected find of the day was a flock of about a dozen Red Crossbills feeding in a stand of Red Pines. The birds were in a piece of state forest land on the south side of CR 2 just east of Benton Beach County Park. There's a dirt track leading south of CR 2 right across from where 5th Ave goes north. The crossbills were about a 100 yards in on the right hand side. Didn't figure to see these guys so far south in June. Also in this vicinity was a Eastern Towhee, and further back into the woods I had a nice look at a male Pine Warbler.
Also, one of the Gilman Sewage ponds has some exposed mud flats and there were some lingering shorebirds present including White-rumped Sandpipers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Dunlin, Wilson's Phalarope, 2 Semipalmated Plovers, and a Stilt Sandpiper. The Gilman ponds are 0.5 miles SW from Gilman on CR 3. Golden Winged Warblers and a Mourning Warbler were present in Benlacs WMA north of the parking area on 35th ST NE and there was a Scarlet Tanager in the woods at Bibles WMA. Joel Claus Eden Prairie ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
