[mou] Bairds SPs & others/Shorebird Question?

[JELLISBIRD at aol.com]

    Had 26 Greater Prairie Chix (Saturday) feeding in a clover field before 
dusk at Rothsay...only saw 4 Sandhills. Ashby Sewage Ponds had 5 Wilson's 
Phalaropes and 1 Spotted, but 2300 Franklin's Gulls. Osakis SPonds had 1800 or so. 
    Paused a while when I saw a group of shorebirds flash by as I went by a 
cattle feedlot I've worked before in Douglas County. When I had stopped and 
found them, the group of 9 Bairds Sandpipers were belly down in the depressions 
made by tractor tires in a dried mud/dirt road. I assumed they were hiding as I 
stopped quickly after I saw them flying. It seems they were dust bathing as 
several of them eventually scurried over to a straw/manure pile to forage at 
the edge of the pile where the mud was very oozy and ripe. I tried to make the 
two juveniles into something rare but after I got the adults (alternate plumage 
Baird's) the juveniles were easier. 
    Anyway...I've never seen 9 Baird's at a time and never in a 9 for 9 group 
(in Douglas County no less)...so..the question is whether other birders have 
seen shorebirds (besides Killdeer) in cattle (or other livestock) feedlots. I 
specifically wonder about lagoons, although the ones I saw yesterday were not 
in a lagoon nor was there even any surface water present. Thanks in advance 
for your thoughts or shared experiences.
        John Ellis-St. Paul 
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