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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Larry Lade" data-source="post: 1520662" data-attributes="member: 2676">Checking on the Pied-billed Grebe Nests this morningStarting out for the oxbow lakes region south of Saint Joseph, Missouri, this morning I was met with light rain. It stopped raining before long and I had pretty good viewing at the various lakes.First stop was Horseshoe Lake on Pettet Road. I was viewing some of the PIED-BILLED GREBE nests when I noticed a dark bird about 20 feet behind one of the nests. The dark bird was partially obscured by the lotus plants which were fringing the line of small willow trees. I started checking the field marks; yellow tipped red bill and frontal shield, white outer undertail overts with a black center, a mostly all dark bird, the legs were a little yellowish (but could of had some mud on them) and a white line bordering the bottom of the wing. It was a COMMON MOORHEN. I watched it for about twenty minutes as it stayed pretty much in the same general area. A couple of times it scrambled up a branch of a near by willow and perched about three feet above the surrounging water. For extended periods it would just preen and sit.A GREEN HERON flew out of and then back into the roadside willows while I was watching the COMO. Also, there was a BELTED KINGFISHER perched in a snag in the lake.A drake BLUE-WINGED TEAL flew over the west end of the lake as I was heading over to Muskrat Lake. At the edge of Muskrat Lake, I counted seventeen GREAT BLUE HERONS and two breeding plumaged CATTLE EGRETS.I tallied PURPLE MARTIN, and all five species of swallows (TREE SWALLOW, NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW, BANK SWALLOW, CLIFF SWALLOW and BARN SWALLOW) while making the rounds. Over at Mud Lake I observed a female BLUE GROSBEAK sitting on a utility wire. Sparrows seen were VESPER, LARK and GRASSHOPPER.Stopping by the stockyards on my way home I added EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE and a male GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE to my morning's list.52 species seen this morning.</blockquote>

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