Maureen & I spent close to 4 hours at Crow-Hassan Park this morning.
Most of that time we were in prairie habitat. It was a beautiful
morning and the birds cooperated, for the most part. The lupines were
not yet at their peak, but there were lots of penstemon, prairie phlox,
puccoon, and others.
Highlights:
White Pelican - scores of them, possibly over 100, on Sylvan Lake when
we arrived at 6:00 am; we were treated to flyover flocks of 2 to 20 all
morning
Grasshopper Sparrow - almost everywhere in the prairie areas; often we
were hearing multiple singing males
Henslow's Sparrow - Not as numerous as grasshoppers, but widespread;
probably heard more than a dozen. At one point we were watching a
Henslow's and a grasshopper sparrow simultaneously singing in a single
binocular field of view--nice!
Dickcissel - heard, then saw one about 600' west of "Four Corners";
later saw one at Four Corners itself, but probably was the same bird. FOY
Orchard Oriole - saw one silent male NE of Prairie Lake. FOY
We searched hard for Bobolinks, but failed to find any. Same with
Vesper Sparrow, but I'm not confident in my ability to recognize one by
song alone.
Ron Refsnider
Coon Rapids, MN
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