[mou] Swan Lake-Nicollet Cty

[Dennis/Barbara Martin]

It looks like the draining of Swan Lake to take out the carp is finally
starting to produce some mud flats.  We found a flock of about 100
shorebirds (all peeps with most being white-rumps) at the public access dam
area on the south side.  At the nearby handicapped hunter access all the
water was gone and there were extensive mud flats.  Jim Otto and Doug Kieser
told us that the conservation club area had hundred of shorebirds in front
of it.  Again, they had nearly all peeps with the majority being
white-rumps.  This was on Sunday and the wind was too rough for us to be
able to tell if there were flocks of shorebirds out over the lake.

Interesting is that at the same time there appeared to be lots of water on
the north and northwest bays with the water still well into the cattails.
Maybe the channels between these areas and the south side are already dry,
thus not allowing the water on the north side to flow through to the dam and
exit channel.  A drainage ditch on the north side was full of water so there
is more to flow into the lake from that area.

Recent comments about the recent arrival of Dicksissals were apparent to us.
We found lots of that species in Blue Earth and Nicollet counties.
Interesting is that May 28th was our earliest date for seeing them in the
spring.  If we lived closer to Iowa I'm sure we would see them a few days
earlier.  We think that everybody ( including us) hopes to see this very
late migrant earlier than they really ever show up.  Any records in April
would have to be at the very end of April and would probably only be in
those years that the species is found in much higher abundance than normal.
This year does not seem to be a year of much higher abundance yet.

Dennis and Barbara Martin
dbmartin@skypoint.com