[mou] Snowy Plover, Lac qui Parle Co., and Plegadis ibises, Big Stone Co.

[Chu, Philip]

Yesterday, Sunday, 6 August, Peder Svingen and I found one juvenile Snowy
Plover along the west shore of Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge's East
Pool, meaning that at least one of the two previously reported chicks has
fledged successfully.

To get to the area in question, take the so-called Banding Site Road - the
road that continues east from the eastern terminus of Lac qui Parle CR 40 -
until you reach the shore of East Pool.  This is a walk of about
one-and-a-third miles; you have to walk because the road is blocked by a
locked gate.

Having followed the Banding Site Road east until it reaches the shore of
East Pool, walk left, i.e., northwest, along the shore for roughly
two-thirds of a mile; at about two-thirds of a mile the shoreline turns
north, and by looking up to the north you'll see the area in which the
juvenile Snowy was observed.

We saw the Snowy during our weekly census of East Pool, and that census
tallied nearly 7100 individuals of 21 species.  More than half of the
individuals were in the same area as the juvenile Snowy.

Also, during a shorebird survey in Big Stone Co. on Saturday, 5 August, I
found 22 young Plegadis ibises in a pothole in Toqua Twp.; the pothole is
located along CR 54 1.6 miles W of CR 61 (which is, I think, the same as
saying that the pothole is 0.4 miles E of CR 7).  Unfortunately, about 10
minutes after my arrival something "spooked" everything in the pothole, and,
whereas the pothole's shorebirds returned, the ibises did not, flying off
out of sight toward the SE.

Phil Chu
Department of Biology
St. John's University
Collegeville, MN 56321