Please excuse the tardy post; I was unable to reach friends near computers. Some time before 5 PM today, my husband Rob and I were en route home and decided to check on the status of 140th St. Marsh, as Roger Everhart has suggested. Feeding in waters right beside the road was an Ibis, either White-faced or Glossy.
Given the rain and low light, the differential facial/eye colors were not the brightest, but the overall impression was that colors were pinkish, suggesting White-faced. (Our only other experience with this species is from a refuge out west in the bright sun of summer, and last year's bird at Old Cedar Avenue Bridge.) Despite our remaining in the car and turning off the engine, the bird grew apprehensive after a moment or two, and flew up across the marsh east, then circled north and counter-clockwise, south. It appeared to want to return for feeding, so we departed in hopes it would return. I asked Steve Weston, who was out and about, to try to re-locate it on his way home for confirmation of ID. Other special finds for us today were the Eared Grebe at L. Byllesby, which (my) Rob spotted, and nearby, the Cinnamon Teal (pair, I think) and 2 Marbled Godwits feeding in a farm-field wet area at the SW intersection of hwy 56 and Scotia Trail. Our thanks goes to Jim Otto for having pointed out the teal to Rob Daves last week, and to Rob Daves, with whom we birded today, for showing us the exact spot. We saw other lovely birds, most of them familiar to us, but at the 180th St. Marsh there was a trio that puzzled, because they gave only a brief fly-by look, before dropping out of the high wind, into the marsh grass. I think they were a Tern species, based on their shape and their pattern of flight over the water. They were small to medium in size, and medium gray, mostly overall in color, both upper and lower body. They did not seem like the Black Terns I've seen there in the past. If anyone else saw Terns there today, I'd love to hear about it. Linda Whyte ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html