Birded Lac qui Parle and Yellow Medicine counties in western Minnesota and found about 90 species including:
Immature Ferruginous Hawk that has been hanging around south of Prairie Marsh farm for the last month. This was the first time I had actually found one this side of the border with SD. Also Swainson's Hawks. and a white-tailed Red-tailed Hawk. Booming Common Nighthawk. As we watch it landed and apparantly mated and then went back up and continued to fly its courtship flight of diving over the mate and pulling up with a booming sound from its feathers. Really neat! Perhaps eight species of flycatchers including several Western Kingbirds included a pair just south of the farm, several Yellow-bellied FC, including some singing, a possible Acadian FC, silent,. A pair of Black Crowned Nightherons in YM. Six species of warblers including Blackpoll and Chestnut-sided. A pair of Gray Partridges. Several Orchard Orioles including an immature male that was singing a song that was not at all like any other I had heard. It was yellow and was molting into a full black hood. For a few minutes I thought we might have a Scotts, but I was able to pull him back in for a better look in full sun with a tape of the Orchard Oriole. American toads were singing, along with a few canadian toads, which I did not expect. No great plains toads were heard. Chorus frogs were much more vocal than in the eastern part of the state at this late date. Only mammal of note: Richardson's ground squirrel. Butterflies included Monarchs, Mourning Cloak, many Red Admirals, sulphurs, some skippers, and others, but we were not focused on these. On the native prairies we found prairie smoke in bloom, a small ladyslipper, robert's rockets, a small puccoon, and other yellow flowers that I have not had time to ID. Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
