[mou] Salt Lake Festival

[Steve Weston]

I went to the Salt Lake Festival in Lac Que Parle County this weekend, which 
was awesome.  With a larger number of birders than last year, we had a 
slightly better species count than last year with about 131 species on 
Saturday, adding a few more on Sunday.  The weather was near perfect, 
although windy as usual on the plaines.  Water levels were high with good 
shorebird habitat in the flooded fields, and poor shorebird habitat at Salt 
Lake.

We had about twenty-five species of waterfowl, including a Ross's Goose and 
four Snow Geese on Salt Lake, and not including a hybrid Cinnamon x 
Blue-winged Teal.  One of the hybrids was located on Saturday, a second on 
Sunday.  At least sixteen species of shorebirds were seen, including:
Black-bellied Plover (1)
Am. Golden Plover (28 in one flock)
Gr. Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs (common)
Willet (14 in one flock)
Baird's Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe (many winnowing)
American Woodcock
Wilson's Phalarope (greatlooks, common)
both Godwits
Am. Avocet

Popular sightings with newer birders included the Wilson's Phalarope, Sora 
Rail, and Lark Sparrows.  New arrivals included Northern Rough-winged 
Swallows, Orange Crowned Warbler, Lincoln's Sparrow (Sunday), Tennessee 
Warbler (Sunday), and Warbling Vireo (Sunday).  While the White-faced Ibis 
on Saturday was the bird of the day, the well-reported Glossy Ibis on Sunday 
was the bird of the weekend.

Common birds that were everywhere included Phaesant and Northern Harrier. 
Anywhere you walked, you flushed Phaesants.  On the other hand, only two 
species of warbler were noted on Saturday and if you found any crows, you 
could count them all on one hand for the day.  I saw three.

We had one mystery hawk, which was a totally black hawk with translucent 
windows in its wings.  The size and long wings and tail, produced a tenative 
ID by me as a Rough-legged Hawk, but it was not included in the totals.

Other wildlife included singing Chorus and Leopard frogs and American and 
Great Plaines toads.  Ticks were only a problem if you got out of the car 
and walked off the road.  I pulled 77 off at one stop.  Red Admiral 
Butterflies had arrived and were easy to find especially on Sunday.

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