Today, July 7th, Melinda and I were supposed to go visit my sister Patricia and her husband John at their new condo in Bloomington. My sister wasn't feeling well so Melinda asked if I wanted to go look for a new bird. That's a dumb question, I thought. I always want to go look for new birds. But I balked at first, thinking that it would end up just another long drive to Dundas, Minnesota to try for the Swainson's Hawk and then not see it. I was even more skeptical being that we wouldn't be there until after 11am. Well, we arrived about 11:20 am and drove down a few dirt side roads; the roads in the area where the bird has been spotted as of late. We were just about to drive on out of the area when we spotted a large raptor flying in the eastern sky. As we were looking at it, another raptor came out of no where; flying overhead toward our vehicle. We both got out our binoculars and we were both surprised to see that it was one of my nemesis birds; the Swainson's Hawk. The photo posted is not the best but based on the field markings, it was clearly the bird in question. It was also clearly being chased by a Red-winged Blackbird. The Swainson's Hawk was a Lifer for me, making my North American Life List 459 species. 480th bird if you include my birds from Germany. The hawk was added to my Minnesota list which now stands at 308. I have now seen 297 of the 315 Minnesota Regular Bird Species. 18 to go!!!!
