Brief walk on Blue Hill Trail, Sherburne NWR yielded a Blue-winged, Golden-winged and Brewster's (latter calling) in same trees, hmmm....
Seven shorebird species at Foley ponds on Saturday, nothing unusual. Little shorebird activity at Gilman ponds or along the Mille Lacs lakefront (north to Garrison). Actually, not much discovered shorebird activity in the area period. My apologies for creating confusion about the Lesser Black-backed Gull in last Monday's follow up post. Compared notes with Nathan (my son, the photographer) this weekend, we agreed that the LBB was indeed smaller than the two juvenile Herrings nearby - and that the bird was in Mille Lacs County, not Crow Wing. Brain cramps. Multiple. He & I birded the western edge of Mille Lacs Lake, Onamia to Garrison on late Saturday morning, early Saturday afternoon - gulls have dramatically increased, but did not find the LBB again. However, the spot it was previously seen at - rock formation on the northern side of Wigwam Bay - was packed with gulls 4-5 layers deep, so we certainly could have missed it from the busy 169 vantage spot. Good birding to all. Al Schirmacher Princeton, MN Mille Lacs & Sherburne Counties (in danger of losing my gull license)