[mou] Great-tailed Grackles-Brown Cty

[Dennis/Barbara Martin]

Watched a single male Great-tailed Grackle eat snails at the Somsen WMA,
which is on the corner of State Hwy 14 and Cty Road 12, just west of New Ulm
in Brown County.  There was also a female (presumably a female as we presume
that it is to early for a juvenile Great-tailed Grackle to be flying around
and it is hard to tell them apart) at the Rosenau-Lambrecht WMA about two
miles west of this location on Hwy 14.

At the Bashaw WMA in Brown County we refound Brian Smiths two Henslow's
Sparrows on 130th Street (one on private hunting land and the other on the
WMA land) and an additional one on the west side of the WMA on 380th Ave,
one half of a mile south of 140th Street.  Technically this one is on CRP
land next to the WMA.

Also of interest today was the action on the nature viewing/hunting dock
next to the public access on the south side of Swan Lake in Nicollet County.
Between 3 and 4:15 PM today we saw no fewer than 6 Least Bitterns either fly
by rather close or walk by not far into the marsh.  In addition we heard two
additional birds that may not be duplicates of the above.  At the same time
there were at least 20 fly by Black-crowned Night Herons going back and
forth between various points.  Presumably some of the herons were
duplicates.  There must be a lot of mouths to be feeding for all the
activity.  We know both species breed on the lake and have seen them there
before but nothing like this in the middle of the afternoon in July.

Dennis and Barbara Martin
dbmartin@skypoint.com