I returned Monday evening and met up with Ray Tervo and Cindy and Vern Krienke. We found the original hummer and two more possible Black-chinneds, all in female plumage. Ray got some great pictures, which I will post as soon as he sends them to me.
Revised directions: The bird was up the trail from the north parking lot. On the main trail after the first split comes together and before the meadow you will find a hiking sign marker and a short trail leading down to the trout creek. All the hummers of interest have been found along the creek. There are plenty of other hummers around. Steve Weston ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Weston To: mnbird ; Mou-net Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 1:54 AM Subject: Black-chinned Hummingbird - Dakota Co. Today (Sunday) I led a MRVAC field trip to Miesville Ravine in the SE corner of Dakota Co. The 17 participants found approximately 37 species including nine warbler species, including Cerulean, and about twenty hummingbirds including a possible first state record female Black-chinned Hummingbird. We got excellant pictures of the gray crown of the bird, but, even though most saw the wings of the perched bird reaching down almost to the end of the tail, I don't believe any of the pictures captured this field mark. We will be returning to the park tomorrow (Monday) evening about 6:30pm to try again to get a better photo. The bird was up the trail from the north parking lot. On the main trail take the second right fork over the bridge by the meadow. Look for a short path to the creek. The hummer was working the jewelweed along trout creek and can be recognized by the mask through the eyes created by the contrasting light crown. After lunch today some of the group headed over to the Randolph industrial park, where the best birds were a couple of probable American Pipits found by Linda Whyte. After that we stopped at a flooded field west of Randolph where we found eight species of shorebirds. We also had a couple of interesting Kingbirds. One appeared to be a hybrid between an Eastern and Western Kingbird with a yellowish front and a tail with a white tip and white outer feathers. Another kingbird was a juvenile with a brown back with white wing edges. Steve Weston on Quigley 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
