[mou] Dakota Co.

[Steve Weston]

My first noteworthy experience was when I was downtown Minneapolis and I 
found a pedestrian staring at the top of crab apple tree trying to find the 
singing bird, which I explained was a House Finch, which I have seen nesting 
in even more barren areas downtown.

My last load for the day left me in Hastings with plenty of light left in 
the day and no pressing engagements.  My first stop was 180th Street Marsh 
(about four miles east of Hwy 52).  The water was high and I found no 
shorebirds or anything else of interest until just before you head up the 
hill going west.  I found Scott Meyers staring through his scope at a 
beautiful, although not entirely cooperative Snowy Egret.  Thanks....

Talking to other birders who had just arrived from Lake Byllesby, I decided 
not to head there, even though the was a mix of shorebirds, although 
"nothing of interest".   I headed east, first checking on the Loggerhead 
Shrike on Emery near 170th, which I caught a glimps of.   I checked on a few 
grassland habitat areas, but found no Dickcissels or Bobolinks.  At the 
Empire Substation on 210th, I found a pair of Kestrels, and found singing 
Brown Trasher and Western Meadowlark.   Jirik sod farms just to the west of 
there had plenty of flooding, providing inviting shorebird habitat. Although 
my stardards might be off, as I only found two L. Yellowlegs.

I started toward home, figuring I had light and time to run through the 
University land and turned onto 190th from Biscayne.  In the first flooded 
farm field I found the largest flock of Solitary Sandpipers I had seen: 14, 
along with 4 Spotted Sandpipers, 4 L Yellowlegs, and a Greater Yellowlegs. 
I was thinking this the first time I had ever found more Solitary Sandpipers 
in migration than Yellowlegs.  At the next flooded field, I saw nothing in 
the weeds until I brought up my binoculars.  I found a flock of at least a 
hundred Lesser Yellowlegs.  With all the movement of birds and my moving 
around to check out different parts of the field,  i settled on a 
conservative estimate of at least 120 Lesser Yellowlegs.  I counted no more 
than four Greater Yellowlegs, one more Solitary Sandpiper, two Semi-palmated 
Sandpipers, and two Pectoral Sandpipers.  One last field had anothe 12 
Lesser Yellowlegs and another Greater Yellowlegs.  These birds were all in 
an area that I had never found more than just a couple of shorebirds.

Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN
sweston2@comcast.net