[mou] This weekend in SW Minnesota

[rdunlap@gac.edu]

   Thanks to Barb Martin for promptly posting the Sprague's Pipit at Red Rock
Prairie.  I first flushed the bird around 3:15 this afternoon. I noticed how it
popped up quickly and flew upwards in a "stair-step" manner, which got my hopes
up. I stalked the bird until I found it standing upright in some short grasses
that had been mowed along the fenceline, allowing me to get definitive looks. 
Luckily, there were 3 radios among the five of us (Bill Marengo, John and Chris
Hockema, and Josh Watson), so I was able to get everyone's attention once I had
good enough looks to clearly identify it.  It took about ten minutes for
everyone to walk across the prairie to where I was.  Even more luckily, the
bird was content with staying put in the short grasses not 40 feet from where I
was standing.  Once everyone arrived, we all had spectacular looks at the bird
clearly visible now in the short grasses on the other side of the fence no more
than 20 feet in front of us!  From the Nature Conservancy sign on the west end
of the prairie, walk east across the prairie about a quarter-mile to a
half-mile back to the fenceline. On the west side of the fenceline, there is an
area of mown grass that parallels the fenceline.  This is where we observed the
bird.
   We (along with Brian Smith, Ben Fritchman and his mother) spent most of
Saturday at Spirit Lake waiting for the Black-headed Gull to fly into
Minnesota.  It happened when we were all out to lunch in Iowa.  While waiting
for the gull, some of us went over to the Great-tailed Grackle spot (Hwy. 86
and CR 4) and found 7 birds (6 females/juveniles and one molting male).  Later
that evening most of us got to see the Short-eared Owls flying over Red Rock
Prairie. Before the prairie, we found a decent shorebird spot along Hwy. 71 a
few miles north of Windom; the spot is on the east side of the highway.  Here
were probably a thousand gulls (mostly Franklin's), and a good number of
shorebirds including Long-billed Dowitchers, Black-bellied Plovers, and
Sanderling. Apparently the area is private property, so it must be viewed from
the road. I believe it is marked as Warren Lake in the DeLorme Atlas.  Bill,
Josh, and I went listening for the Eastern Screech-Owls at the traditional spot
northeast of Luverne in Rock County around 10:00 pm.  We heard at least two
giving whinnying calls.
   This morning we (Bill, John, Chris, Josh, and myself) checked the Luverne
(Gold'n Plump) sewage ponds.  The two ponds at the very western end (you have
to drive through a somewhat hidden path in the trees) had decent habitat, but
mostly Killdeer were present.  At Blue Mounds State Park, we found a few
interesting migrants: several flocks of Pine Siskins, a few Purple Finches, and
a Winter Wren.  On the west side of Hwy. 75 near the Blue Mound Wayside Chapel,
we found a EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE sitting on the telephone wires. This is just
south of the main entrance to the state park.  This afternoon the only thing of
note at Red Rock Prairie was the Sprague's Pipit, but I can't complain.
-Bob Dunlap, Nicolett County