[mou] Lawrence's Warbler?- Clay Co. Marbled Godwits-Wilkin

[Melissa Driscoll]

Hello!

Yesterday I saw a pair of Marbled Godwits in a wet hay field ~3.5 miles
west of the town of Rothsay on Co. Rd. 26, on the north side of the
road.

Today, at Blanket Flower SNA, in SE Clay County I was stumped by a
small warbler-sized bird.  The head looked very much like a
Golden-winged Warbler, but it did not have a yellow bar on it's wing. 
Instead there were two whitish bars on the wing. The closest to what I
saw is pictured on page 355 of the National Geographic's Field Guide to
the Birds of North America, Second Edition, the middle picture of
Lawrence's Warbler (hybrid between a Golden-winged Warbler and a
Blue-winged Warbler).  I had a bit of time to look things up and look
back at the bird before it took off.  It made a high-pitched sound
similar to a Golden-crowned Kinglet, or a Golden-winged Warbler (but not
like a Blue-winged warbler).  Before it took off it was foraging near
the ground and on the ground in a small Aspen clone (clump) on a very
hilly prairie area.  I am still unsure what I saw but I thought it would
be fun to share it.

Other species of  birds at Blanket Flower SNA today were (in order of
appearance):
Killdeer
Am. Robin
Am. Crows
Mourning Dove
Wild Turkey - 5 toms and 4-6 hens
Mallards
Greater Prairie Chickens -  booming all over 
Ring-billed gulls (flying over)
Chickadees
Downy Woodpecker
Song Sparrows
Red-winged blackbirds (flying over)
Canada Geese (flying over)
Blue Jay
Tree Swallow
Northern Flicker
Piliated Woodpecker
Horned Lark
Common Loon (flying over)
Great Blue Herons (flying over)
Wilson's Snipe
Tundra Swans (flying over)
Vesper Sparrow
Double-Crested Cormorants (flying over)
Willow Flycatcher
Hairy Woodpecker
THE MYSTERY BIRD MENTIONED ABOVE
Northern Harrier
Turkey Vulture

And a bunch of Western Chorus Frogs singing up a storm!


Happy Birding! (and frogging)
Melissa

Melissa Driscoll
DNR Natural Resource Specialist - SNA Bird Survey Coordinator
1509 1st Avenue North
Fergus Falls, MN 56537

218-739-7576
218-739-7601 fax
email: melissa.driscoll@dnr.state.mn.us