-RBA
*Minnesota
*Minnesota Statewide
*December 10, 1998
*MNST9812.10

-Birds mentioned

• American White Pelican
• Double-crested Cormorant
• Tundra Swan
• Canvasback
• Ring-necked Duck
• Oldsquaw
• White-winged Scoter
• Ruddy Duck
• Sandhill Crane
• Killdeer
• Common Snipe
• Iceland Gull
• Lesser Black-backed Gull
• Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
• Carolina Wren

Hotline: Minnesota Statewide
Date: December 10, 1998
Sponsor: Minnesota Ornithologists' Union (MOU)
Reports: (612) 780-8890
Compiler: Anthony Hertzel
Transcriber: Anthony Hertzel
Re-transcriber: David Cahlander (dac@skypoint.com)

This is the Minnesota birding report for Thursday December 10th sponsored by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union.

There were two WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS on Forest Lake in Washington County on December 3. A WHITE-WINGED SCOTER was also seen at Lake Pepin on the 9th near the Goodhue-Wabasha County line. And two WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS were on Centerville Lake in Anoka County also on the 9th.

A female OLDSQUAW can be seen on Lake Ripley in the town of Litchfield in Meeker County, and it was seen as recently as December 6th. Check the southwest corner of the lake.

Drew Smith reported that both LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL and ICELAND GULL were seen December 7 at the Pine Bend Landfill, Inver Grove Heights, Dakota County. The Lesser Black-backed can also be found late in the afternoons on Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis.

Karl Bardon reports the following remarkable counts at the Reno Bottoms, Houston County on December 7: 40,000 CANVASBACK, 6000 TUNDRA SWANS, 3000 RING-NECKED DUCKS, 1930 RUDDY DUCKS, 2 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, 1 OLDSQUAW, 1 AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, and 1 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT, plus 32 COMMON SNIPE and 11 KILLDEER at a mudflat near the town of Brownsville.

In Rochester, Olmsted County, a CAROLINA WREN was seen again at Leslie Kottke's feeder on December 10th. Please call Leslie before visiting. A second CAROLINA WREN was seen along Houston County Road 26 about a mile south of the town of Brownsville.

Unusual is the late SANDHILL CRANE seen December 6th by Ken Lafond at Sherburne NWR in Sherburne County. Also late was the YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER seen December 10th by Manley Olsen at Normandale College in Minneapolis.

The next scheduled update of this tape is Thursday December 17th.

Send your rare and unusual Minnesota sightings to our electronic hotline: MnRBA@linux.winona.msus.edu. To learn more, send a message (the message being these two words: info end) to mnrba-request@linux.winona.msus.edu.

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