In general, early to mid-June is a great time for avid and novice birders to canoe shallow prairie marshes in search of the many species of waterfowl and waterbirds. Sightings may include grebes, coots, ducks, geese and swans, as well as blackbirds, wrens, rails, minks, raccoons and otters.
The following is a list of recent, significant sightings:
A male PRAIRIE WARBLER is patroling a territory at Ritter Farm Park in Lakeville, in Dakota County. Jim Mattsson first found it on June 6th, and it is still present and vocalizing in the area. To view this bird, take I-35W to the 185th Street Exit. Continue on the service road that runs south along the east side of the interstate for roughly one mile, and then turn west. Take a right at the sign for Ritter Park, and continue one-half mile to the main parking lot. Walk from the parking lot along the main trail north to Shelter #4. Continue on, staying to the right at the fork in the trail. After a few hundred yards the trail will parallel the north boundary fence — look for a small white sign that reads “Grant-in-Aid Trail”. This is the northeastern edge of the warbler’s territory.
The ROCK WREN and two SAY’S PHOEBES are still being seen at Felton Prairie. From Felton, travel south on State Highway 9, then east to the end of the pavement on Clay County Road 108, and turn left to the gravel pit entrance. Look for the phoebes around the north and east rim of the pit. The wren can still be found near rock pile #6002.
On June 10th, Julian Sellers found a LITTLE BLUE HERON in a small flooded field beside Wilkin County Road 30, roughly 200 yards west of I-94, and about five miles north of the town of Rothsay. Roger Schroeder found a SNOWY EGRET in the city of Marshall, in Lyon County, on the evening of the 8th, at the pond south of the Fire Station on Saratoga Street.
On June 15th, Bill Tefft found a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD near the road that circles the ballfields at Vermilion Community College in Ely, in St. Louis County.
A HOODED WARBLER was seen on June 15th by Paul Gempler in the Schulz Lake area of Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Dakota County. The exact location was immediately south of Schulz Lake, near Trail Marker E8.5. Another Hooded Warbler was found by Al Schirmacher on the 11th on the Blue Hill Trail at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in Sherburne County.
A male SUMMER TANAGER was seen by Jay Hamernick on June 9th at Lake Vadnais, in Ramsey County. It was in the pines, south of the lake, across from the Lake Vadnais Church on Twin Lakes Boulevard.
There was an interesting report on June 13th of a first-year BLUE GROSBEAK in a field just southwest of the town of Vermillion in Dakota County. The bird was photographed along County Road 66 just over one-tenth of a mile west of where Fisher Avenue intersects 200th Street.
A GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE was seen by Denny Martin on the 12th in a marsh across from Split Rock Creek State Park in Pipestone County.