The shorebird workshop put on by Bob Janssen and I for 20 attendees this last weekend in Milbank SD was successful considering the very limited habitat due to dry conditions this year. We found the following 18 species:
American Golden-Plover Black-bellied Plover Killdeer American Avocet Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Willet Spotted Sandpiper Upland Sandpiper White-rumped Sandpiper Short-billed Sandpiper Common Snipe Least Sandpiper Semi-palmated Sandpiper Stilt Sandpiper Wilson's Phalarope Red-necked Phalarope Pectoral Sandpiper We had really good close looks at most of these species. At one location we had 8 species as close as 30 - 40 feet all perched on a floating log. For MN listers the bad news is most of the birds were on the SD side of the border. Salt Lake (south of Marrietta MN) was very good but once again the best birding was on the west - SD side of the lake. Another good spot is north of Marrietta on Hwy 7 just south of Rosen MN. An inch of rain during the weekend produced a sheet of water that attracted several hundred birds of 6-8 species. A prime shorebird spot near Lake Lillian MN that was superb on Friday turned into a duck filled lake by Sunday due to heavy rain. This may produce go shorebirding as it dries over the next days, etc. Doug Buri Milbank, SD ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
