[mou] Todd Co. Cerulean & Blue-winged Warblers

[Benjamin Fritchman]

This morning, I (along with Carol Schumacher, Bob Ekblad, Jeff Stephenson, 
and Ron Erpelding) was fortunate enough to find two very rare warblers for 
Todd County. I've lived in Todd County for 7 years now, and both were new 
for me in the county. We also had a Clark's Grebe at Lake Osakis, which was 
seen from Battle Point County Park.

Blue-winged Warbler-2 different birds in separate locations! The first was 
heard and seen interacting with a Golden-winged Warbler(maybe some 
interesting hybrids are soon to come...). The location was 5 miles east of 
Long Prairie along 295th ave., about 1/2 mile south of Hwy. 27.
The second Blue-winged was found east of Burtrum, where 341st ave. and 168th 
st. come together.

Cerulean Warbler-Roughly 4 miles south of the 2nd Blue-winged warbler is a 
WMA on the east side of 341st ave called Oak Ridge WMA. There is an area to 
pull in where it looks like they've done some cutting recently. Park here 
and walk straight east towards the lake. The Cerulean was actively singing 
and defending his territory here. You could here him from pretty far away, 
and he never stopped singing. We got great looks....the Cerulean even came 
down to ground level, and we were able to see it from above....I've never 
seen the back of a Cerulean...usually it's a white belly straight above me 
in the canopy of the tallest trees!

We ended the day with 124 species in Todd. 10 short of breaking the 
record.....next year....

Ben Fritchman

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