[mou] birding around

[Steve Weston]

ORCHARD ORIOLE
PROTHONOTORY WARBLER

On Sunday we hit a couple of spots in Dakota County and headed down to check out the Cannon River / Vermillion River bottoms north of Red Wing in Goodhue County.  

We left a car at the truck stop by the Pine Bend and found several Dickcissels in the grass around the 117th Street bridge at US 52.   Heading south, we caught a glimpse of a bird that we failed to ID at 65mph, so we came back to the spot just south of the refinery.  Our objective was no longer on the wire, but we found a first year male Orchard Oriole on the fence.  (Warning: security is skittish at the refinery and not welcoming to birders with binoculars.  This warning comes from earlier experiences.)
We stopped by 140th Street marsh and found water being pumped into the marsh, which for the first time in months was filling.  A Swainson's Hawk flew into the high voltage tower behind the marsh.  In the trees east of the marsh and just before the drive way, we found two male Orchard Orioles, one of which was singing.

We headed down to the bottom lands along the Cannon River, east of where it crosses Hwy 61.  This is the first left turn after the turn off for Treasure Island.  We turned off the road onto the old highway bridge and hiked the trail.  A very pleasant walk with good birds, but nothing worthy of mention.  The black raspberries were very satisfying.  The butterflies were more commanding of interest with 95+% of the butterflies were red admirals.  In addition we had eastern comma, mourning cloak, and hackberry emporers.  We also found ebony jewelwing and violet dancer damselflies.

We continued down the road to the boat launch on the Vermillion River.  Walking the trail from the parking lot we found two pairs of cooperative Prothonotory Warblers.

Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN
sweston2 at comcast.net
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