Yesterday at noon, I was at the canoe access parking lot at the very south
end of Banning State Park, 1.5 miles south of 123 on Pine Avenue where it
terminates at the substation.  I could hear a Louisiana Waterthrush singing
from the parking lot.  I tracked it down and found it singing along Skunk
Creek.  This morning, the bird was still audible from the parking lot, but
about 100 yards upstream.

Yesterday, I also checked the Louisiana Waterthrush spot reported at the end
of the Wolf Creek Trail at Banning last year and found nothing.  This new
spot is much more accessible!

Over the last 3 days, I made 2 stops at the Moose Lake sewage ponds, 3 stops
at Sandstone, 1 stop at Hinckley, and checked exposed shoreline along
Sturgeon Lake and a huge mudflat from a drained beaver pond in Kanabec
County and found NO shorebirds whatsoever and ducks were scarce.  On the
plus side, many of the marshes in the area that still hold water have
American Bittern, Virginia Rail, and Sora still around.  Migrant sparrows
were completely absent as were Yellow-rumped or other warblers except the
waterthrush.

-- 
Shawn Conrad
www.itascacnfbirding.com

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