The shorebirds are finally coming in to Lake Byllesby in greater numbers. Laura Coble reported that earlier today there were at least 120-140 shorebirds, 4 Wilson's Phalaropes, 2 dowitcher sp. plus over 200 hundred ducks.
I was there this evening, and the numbers had increased significantly. I counted at least 200 Lesser Yellowlegs alone, plus a dozen Greater Yellowlegs, 11 Long-billed Dowitchers, 5 Wilson's Phalaropes, 5 Semipalmated Sandpipers, a few Pectoral Sandpipers, a Dunlin, and >30 peeps, and those were only the birds within range of my scope. They are conservative numbers. I could see that there were a lot more birds on sandbars further out, beyond the range of my scope. Unfortunately, even with 30-power scope and the sun at my back, I wasn't able to ID the peeps, which were quite far out. As Laura reported, there are also a lot of ducks. Tonight there were over 200 Blue-winged Teals alone, plus Gadwalls, Green-winged Teals, and Northern Shovelers. Also small numbers of Franklin's and Bonaparte's Gulls, Forster's Terns, and about 50 American White Pelicans. Gerry Hoekstra Northfield ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
