[mou] Nobles County update

[Benjamin Fritchman]

I spent the day in Nobles County today. John Hockema and I located a white 
tern at 7:30 this morning at the eastern end of Lake Ocheda. It looked 
promising, but after ten minutes of watching it from across the lake, it 
dissapeared, and we never were satisfied with the looks we had to eliminate 
Forster's. It wasn't until around 3 this afternoon that any more terns were 
refound. Going one mile north from the CR 5 bridge, then turning west for a 
little over a mile, you can look south to see a sand bar. Here we found two 
white terns roosting. Again, even with several people looking at them for an 
extended period of time, they were not identified to a species. The distance 
was too far, and private property separated us from the birds. They may well 
have been Forster's. It was definitely interesting though. It'd be 
interesting to see if the Least Tern is refound and whether or not a second 
bird is present.

Otherwise, there were no positive sightings of the Least Tern that I'm aware 
of today.

As for the Prairie Warbler. It was refound this evening by Dave Cahlander. I 
believe he got pictures. So if you go for the Prairie Warbler, don't give up 
on the Least Tern yet! Lake Ocheda is a big lake with a lot of it hard to 
see. The Tern could be there still.

Ben Fritchman
Long Prairie, MN