[mou] notes from the MN River Valley & west central MN

[William Marengo]

Bonnie Mulligan, Charlie Greenman, Esther Gesick, Paul Egeland and I spent
Friday through Sunday birding along the Minnesota River to parts of
west-central Minnesota this past weekend. Some highlights:

Friday:
Peregrine Falcon diving on Blue-winged Teal - Gaylord sewage Ponds (Sibley
County)
Merlin - patrolling the shorebird area along state highway 4 in Nicollet
county
Red-necked Phalaropes - Gaylord sewage Ponds 
Two Buff-breasted Sandpipers - Fairfax Sewage ponds in Renville county

Saturday:
"Blue" phased Snow Geese - One in Yellow Medicine county and two others at
Salt Lake
American Bittern - Lac Qui Parle county
Sanderling & American Golden Plovers - Salt Lake

Sunday (all the Big Stone NWR):
Snowy Egret - On the shore of the MN River via the auto-tour 
One American Avocet 
One Black-bellied Plover

Shorebirds are still in good numbers at Salt Lake and in the Big Stone NWR.
The best shorebird viewing at the refuge is along a refuge access road south
of Big Stone county road 21, just south and east of Odessa. We totaled 19
species of shorebirds over the course of these three days.

Red-tailed Hawks, Cooper's Hawks and Northern Harriers were also plentiful
throughout.

Regards.
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