Jim Otto and I birded in Big Stone & Swift counties today, among the highlights:
4 Snowy Egrets and 1 Cattle Egret were at the Klages WMA, on Big Stone county highway 64 1/2 mile west of it's intersection with county 23. 4 American Avocets and 1 American Bittern in the wetland 1/2 mile east of Big Stone county highway 7 on the road 1 mile north of county highway 6 (about 7 miles west of Clinton). 1 Cattle Egret was just west of the Benson Airport on Swift county highway 20. We searched unsuccessfully for the White-Faced Ibis in the Danvers WMA west of Benson. Shorebirds were sparse in both Big Stone and Swift counties. The largest shorebird concentrations of the trip were on our way home, in the flooded fields along Minnesota highway 7 between Hutchinson and Lester Prairie in Mcleod County. Many of these pools held dozens of Pectoral Sandpipers & both Yellowlegs. There were 8 Willets in the pond south of the intersection of Dairy Ave. and Hwy 7. Doug Kieser Minneapolis=20