During this past weekend, May 26-27-28, my Minn Birding Weekends group (MBW) turned up several birds of note in southwestern Minn, especially a Buff-breasted Sandpiper and 3 Henslow's Sparrows. The quite unexpected Buff-breasted was found in a flooded field in Pipestone Co along 110th Ave between Hwy 23 and 131st St. Unfortunately, it flew N and out of sight before the entire group (myself included) arrived to see it, and the bird was not relocated. Although this species is a locally regular migrant in late summer- early fall, it is only casual-accidental in spring (e.g., I can recall seeing it only once before in Minn during spring migration). The Henslow's Sparrows were seen/heard at 2 locations: 2 individuals at Touch the Sky Prairie NWR in Rock Co, 3.2 mi W of Hwy 75 along 171st St (thanks to a tip from Shawn Conrad); and 1 near the NW corner of Pipestone Nat'l Monument, across the road from Woodlawn Cemetery along 121st St. Some other highlights during this weekend included: - Greater Scaup: Pipestone sewage ponds - Least Bittern: Luverne sewage ponds and Woodstock WMA (5 mi E of Holland, Pipestone Co) - dark-morph Swainson's Hawk: adult along CR 5, ~2 mi W of Pipestone (only the 2nd dark-morph I can recall seeing in Minn) - Peregrine Falcon: unexpected adult flying N over Blue Mounds State Park - total of 17 shorebird species: mostly in flooded fields in Pipestone Co; incl Willet and Hudsonian Godwits along 81st St just E of the SD border, and Red-necked Phalarope at Pipestone sewage ponds - Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: thicket by the Blue Mounds State Park swimming beach - Lark Sparrow: visitors center parking lot at the S end of Blue Mounds - Blue Grosbeak: besides 2-3 expected pairs at Blue Mounds, there was a pair at Pipestone Nat'l Monument There were also still a few migrant flycatchers (Olive-sided, Yellow- bellied, and Alder) and warblers (N Waterthrush, Tennessee, Blackburnian, Blackpoll, and Yellow-rumped) passing through. On the other hand, we were unable to find any Gray Partridge, Soras, either cuckoo, or Western Kingbirds (!), and we only saw Upland Sandpipers at 2 locations. Kim R Eckert [log in to unmask] http://www.mbwbirds.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html