I spent the day birding from the twin cities area down to Lake Byllesby. Not surprisingly, there were lots of other birders out and about. The big highlight of the day was a Chestnut-collared Longspur, observed around 12:30 among a large flock (500+) of Lapland Longspurs at the Randolph industrial site in Dakota County. This site is just off MN Hwy 56 (Randolph Blvd) north of Randolph. From Hwy 56, turn west onto 284th St E. It's essentially a small network of roads that don't connect to anything, but run through some really nice grassland habitat. The longspur flock was moving around a lot, frequenting fields on the north and south sides of the road west of the first stop sign. The vegetation south of the road makes it impossible to see them when they're on the ground; the field north of the road is bare stubble, and they spent a lot of time feeding in it. The majority of the flock departed to the north around 1:00, but is probably still in the general area. At the time the Chestnut-collared appeared, I was with Steve Weston and another birder. The Chestnut-collared was seen only in flight - it made several passes by us, giving a unique flight call. I was able to follow it for 30-45 seconds and see the extensive black on the breast and sides contrasting with the pale face, as well as the white wedges in the tail, which were much more extensive and differently-shaped than the Laplands. Unfortunately we weren't ever able to find it on the ground to get longer looks. We also spent a long time looking for Smith's Longspurs in the flock, without success. Otherwise, birds were everywhere today, including many recent arrivals. Some notable things: Many places: Vesper Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Phoebe, Tree & Barn Swallow, Wood Duck, Green-winged & Blue-winged Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup Bass Ponds (with Alexis Powell & several others) - loads of Hermit Thrushes, Ruddy Duck, Hooded Merganser, Horned Grebe Old Cedar Ave bridge area (with the same folks): - 1 Broad-winged Hawk, many calling Virginia Rails, Great Egret, Trumpeter Swan, White-throated Sparrows Randolph industrial site - Northern Harrier, both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, Savannah Sparrow West end of Lake Byllesby (where I ran into Laura Coble) - Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs, ~20 Pectoral Sandpipers, 3 Semipalmated Plovers, 2 Sandhill Cranes, 5 Greater White-fronted Geese, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Redhead, Am. White Pelicans, 20 Bonaparte's Gulls, Lapland Longspur (fly-over) East end of Lake Byllesby - Field Sparrow (at the county park / boat launch), 3 Common Loons, 20 Pied-billed Grebes, Kestrels North of Vermillion, I found several Loggerhead Shrikes at the sites along Fischer and Emery Avenues described by Bill Stauffer. A quick note on these shrikes - I went by this morning and couldn't find them. Went back this afternoon and they were very cooperative. So it pays to try the same spot at different times of day. I'm sure I'm forgetting things... it was a wonderful day to be out! Matt Dufort Minneapolis ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html