[mou] aberrant Ruddy Duck

[Kim R Eckert]

At the Albany sewage ponds in Stearns Co yesterday afternoon, May 4,  
Linda Sparling and I observed an unusually plumaged male Ruddy Duck.  
Unlike a normal Ruddy with a large white face patch, this bird had a  
mostly blackish head with a small diffuse whitish area on the lower  
part of the ear covers. In his field guide, David Sibley illustrates a  
Ruddy Duck somewhat similar in plumage to ours, and later today I  
should have time to place a photo of it on the MOU website's Recently  
Seen page.

There were just a few other highlights during the Minn Birding  
Weekend's May 2-3-4 trip in Sherburne Co, western Stearns Co, and in  
the Lake Osakis area of Douglas/Todd Co's:

Eared Grebe - Princeton sewage ponds, Sherburne Co (a bit farther E  
than usual)
Clark's Grebe - on Lake Osakis, Todd Co (1 just E of the town of Lake  
Osakis; associating/possibly paired with a Western Grebe)
Willet - shore of Lake Osakis, Douglas/Todd Co's (flock of 13 at  
public access on Douglas Co Rd 10, just W of the county line; they  
also flew out over the lake into Todd Co)
Eurasian Collared Dove - Sauk Centre, Stearns Co (along Sinclair Lewis  
Ave on the E edge of town)
Common Raven - Sherburne NWR headquarters (a bit farther S than usual)
Eastern Towhee - New Munich, Stearns Co (1/2 mi E of town on Co Rd 30;  
apparently somewhat unusual in Stearns Co)

Overall, mostly because of cold rains on May 2 and high winds both May  
2 and 3, we found the birding difficult. As other observers have  
noted, many spring migrants have been behind schedule so far. In all,  
we found 133 species, but there were only 10 shorebird, 7 warbler, and  
11 sparrow species, along with just a handful of other recent arrivals  
(e.g., Black Tern, Least Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, Marsh Wren,  
Swainson's Thrush, Rose-breasted Grosbeak).

Kim Eckert