I spent the last five days birding the Minnesota River Valley between Swift and Brown counties. Some highlights: Acadian Flycatcher - Upper Sioux Agency State Park, Yellow Medicine County This bird was discovered on Monday morning. It is located near the Riverside campground. Take the road down to the Riverside campground. Near the bottom there is an out-house on your left. To the right is a trail-head that splits into two trails. Take the left trail. The bird was on territory after about 50 to 100 yards from the trail-head. It is very vocal (singing PIT-SEE) and very active, staying mostly about 20-30 feet up in the trees and rarely sitting still for longer than a minute. It was still present on Tuesday. Prothonotary Warbler - Redwood County This bird was found Tuesday at the Lower Sioux Agency Historic site along county road 2 about 3 miles east of its intersection with US Highway 71. Hike the river trail east of the interpretive center down to the river. The trail makes a complete loop around the historic site and is rather steep in places. Listen for the Prothonotary along the backwaters of the river. It was very vocal when I saw it mid-afternoon. Other notes: A cooperative Eastern Screech Owl along Chippewa county road 40 about .25 mile west of the Renville county line (or about 200 yards downstream from the MN River public access). Another Eastern Screech Owl in the tent campsite at Fort Ridgley State Park in Nicollet County Wednesday night. Eight calling Whip-poor-Wills were heard at Upper Sioux Agency State Park, along Chippewa county 40 and Renville county's Skallbekken county park Sunday and Monday night. Two Swainson's Hawks in section 20 of Stately Township in Brown county on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, a Western Kingbird along Brown county road 9 one-half mile north of the Watonwan county line. Gray Partridge was seen Thursday at a WMA on the north side of state highway 68, two miles west of Brown county road 12. This is about midway between New Ulm and the town of Essig. Thursday, a single Henslow's Sparrow was heard singing along the east side of Brown county road 11 in some CRP land just north of the town of Essig. Also at Flandrau State Park on Thursday was a migrant Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Migrating warblers were essentially absent in Chippewa, Swift, Renville and Yellow Medicine counties Sun-Tues. Brown county hosted 21 species of warblers on Wednesday-Thursday. These were found at Flandrau State Park, Lake Hanska county park and along the Minnesota river. Interesting were Mourning Warblers. There were none on Wednesday, but at least six were found at Flandrau State Park on Thursday. The Sleepy Eye sewage ponds were uneventful with very few birds to report. Regards,,,, ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html