Hi everyone, I birded today with Gerry Hoekstra, John Hockema and Andy Nyhus. It was a great day filled with a variety of birds! We had Buff-breasted Sandpipers in three locations: One each at the Dexter Sewage Ponds and the Grand Meadow Sewage Ponds (both in Mower County; the latter bird had an injured leg and was noticeably hopping around. We also had a single Red-necked Phalarope here), and Gerry and I had two on the way home as we were passing through Steele County. These were at what is referred to as Straight River Marsh. This is on the east side of Steele CR 45 about a mile north of where it intersects with State Hwy. 30. The marsh is dry currently but the Buff-breasted Sandpipers were feeding on the northern end of this. There were also Least Sandpipers present along with many Killdeer and a few Savannah Sparrows. At one point, a kestrel flew in and scattered everything and we could not relocate the BBSA's but we left shortly after too so we didn't give it a lot of time. The four of us were also able to relocate three Red Crossbills at the Evergreen Cemetery in Mantorville (Mower County; initially posted by Herb Dingmann yesterday; please refer to his post) and we saw at least 6 Red Crossbills at the northern edge of Hormel Nature Center in Austin. These have been mentioned online a few times in the last week or two and I don't remember who posted it, sorry. Most of these birds appeared to be juveniles.
Good birding! Dave BartkeyFaribault,MN ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
