I decided to head over to a spot that Julie Zempel had some luck with recently (ebird report). There are a pair of flooded fields to the north on 102nd St. on Co. Rd. 25 west of Waconia. The fields are obvious in the area as the best shorebird habitat. Today they only held a large number of Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs but also Gadwall, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, and Trumpeter Swans. Afterwards I went over to the Tacoma Ave. wetlands near the corner of Tacoma Ave. and Co. Rd. 32. The land looks like it is being drained for planting sod but it still has a fair amount of shallow water covering portions of it and on the south side of 32 there are more flooded areas. I found a large number of Least Sandpiper on the north and the south side of 32 and two Baird's Sandpipers on the edge of the far eastern pond on the north side of 32. On the way back I had a Solitary Sandpiper in a little pool on the SW side of the roundabout at 5 and Orchard Rd. just west of Waconia. I also had a surprising flyover Spotted Sandpiper near the overpass of the 101 over Hwy. 212 while I was driving.
The two fields explained above are pretty good right now but look like they could dry up soon. Both could be worth checking for the next week or so. Good birding, Jason Caddy Minneapolis j.ca...@hotmail.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
