[mou] busy weekend

[Steve Weston]

The heavy winds brought in some good birds, but made it hard to see them. 
The best bird of the weekend was viewed under such horrible conditions, that 
I could not see it well enough to feel confiident of my ID.  Many of the new 
birds were only heard, at times testing my ear rusty from too long a winter.

Saturday I headed down to Hok-si-lah in Lake City for a MRVAC field trip 
that we hoped would be rich in warblers, vireos, thrushes, and other 
migrants.  The birds were low in density.  The warbler waves were mostly 
Yellow-rumps.  The vireos were brielfly heard and left un-identified.  And 
the thrushes were all Robins.  Still, the eight warblers included a 
Blackburnian male that was a most cooperative thriller.  We also had looks 
at a brillant Indigo Bunting, a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, an Eastern Towhee, 
and Lincoln Sparrows.  Birds that were definitely heard, but seen by few or 
none, included Scarlet Tanager, Baltimore Oriole, Blue-winged and 
Golden-winged Warblers.  When we were not scaning the trees, we found the 
first blooms of Wild Geranium, and a patch of Trillium.  I left early.  I 
hope the others found more interesting birds later.

I stopped briefly at Lake Bylessby at dusk, and found that looking through 
the scope into the wind and concentrating on the vibrating images in the 
scope I could definitely make out birds on the opposite shore.  The Pelicans 
were big and white and the gulls were small and white.  I think I finally 
started vibrating in the wind myself so that I could resonate with the 
scope, but I was able to pick out three or four shorebirds, all plovers. 
One was definitely a Killdeer and a second was a Semi-palmated Plover.  The 
third was a lighter Semi-palmated Plover, which suggested a Piping Plover. 
I decided to move to a more sheltered spot,  so I moved down onto the beach. 
Now I was looking straight into the wind at a beach that was bare of 
shorebirds.  after a careful search found no shorebirds and moved back to my 
original station, and found no change in the wind,  less light and 
visibility, and no shorebirds.  With my eyes tearing up from the wind, the 
image the scope totally unstable, and the clouds grayer and lower, I left, 
hoping to find better conditions the next day.

On Sunday with the wind blowing from the south rather than straight into my 
face from the east, the trees offered some better shelter.  The shorebirds 
were more numerous (or more visible) but less interesting.    There were 
four or five easy Lesser Yellowlegs and about six to ten peeps.  At first I 
was looking to the south at the small flock of peeps that were facing into 
the wind.  Trying to ID shorebirds from their butts, is not one of my 
strenghts.  But, after a while the group broke up and and a sideways 
orientation revealed Semi-palmated Sandpipers.   The best find was a Yellow 
Tiger Swallowtail butterfly.
In woods nearby I found my first Northern Waterthrush and American Redstart. 
The gray treefrogs were beginning to call.

At 140th Street marsh, I found a bopping beautiful Spotted Sandpipper in the 
last stages of molting into its spots.  The first family of Canadians had 
six goslings.  I found little else of interest.  Back at Lake Quiggley, I 
heard my first Chimney Swifts, Great Creasted Flycatchers and copes gray 
treefrogs.

This morning (Monday), I stepped out my front door to the senernade of 
Tennessee Warblers and the wary glances of a Swainson's Thrush.  I would 
have liked to have found the time to check who the Tennessees were 
serenading.  It sounds like it should be rich birding.

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