Marsh Madness

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In an effort to keep my kids from turning into zombies as they watch and play their devices, I decided that we should get some fresh air while mom was at the grocery store.  So we went hiking for a little bit on a local Wildlife Management Area.  The kids enjoyed walking through puddles and little rivers everywhere; I enjoyed the Northern Harriers, Northern Flickers, and the sound of numerous Song Sparrows.  But the wind cut our enjoyment short, so we headed back to the vehicle to go home.

Just as we were within mere steps of the car, I got a text from Randy that a friend of his found some American Black Ducks today just a few miles to the north of us!  After consulting Google maps to know where to go, the kids and I were off.

We got to the area, but there must have been at least a dozen sloughs and ponds lining this one mile section of road.  And there were ducks everywhere – Mallards, American Wigeon, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers, Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads, Redheads, Canvasbacks, Gadwalls, Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, Common Goldeneye, Ring-necked Ducks, and Lesser Scaup.  We did our best to find the needle in the haystack, but we came up short.  Instead, I opted to take a picture of a few ducks I don’t normally get to photograph.

Canvasback

Canvasback

Buffleheads

Buffleheads

We gave up the search and headed toward home on some roads we’d never traveled.  That’s always highly recommended.  We encountered some more fun recent arrivals, like a Greater Yellowlegs, Great Egrets, Belted Kingfisher, and an Eastern Phoebe.  One of our staples was in a puddle just off the road and was quite photogenic today – the Wood Duck and his mate.  Wood Ducks have been my favorite duck since I was a kid and long before I was a birder.   They never fail to bring the wow factor.

Wood Duck pair

Wood Duck pair

IMG_7692As we drove on, Evan spied his own pair of Wood Ducks in a marshy little puddle on his side of the road.  The kids and I watched them for quite a while as they tried to evade us in the thin cover.  These two were more in sync with each other than the previous pair as they were at least heading the same direction in life.

IMG_7701Once we got home, the kids hopped out of the car to go play with the neighbor girl.  As I was unloading my things I heard an awful noise, like a cat being murdered. It had been nearly a year, but I knew the sound and I can assure you that, indeed, a cat was not losing its life.  It was the disturbingly cool croaking sound of a Yellow-headed Blackbird! In the yard no less.  It didn’t take me long to locate it at the top of one of the trees.

I snapped a couple unremarkable photos and then went about my business. Later on as Melissa was looking out the kitchen window, she saw two Yellow-headed Blackbirds on the backyard feeder.  The bird is so well-named that she knew what it was without asking and was quite impressed with their beauty.  I went outside to try for some better photos and ended up catching a Yellow-headed Blackbird and one of our many Brown-headed Cowbirds sitting together on a branch.  The cowbird was slightly less photogenic.

Yellow-headed Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird

Yellow-headed Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird

Our yard has the sounds of a marsh lately with all the Red-winged Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and now Yellow-headed Blackbirds all joining the chorus.  It was just a banner day for blackbirds in the yard.  We, of course, had our Common Grackles but also a European Starling and quite possibly a Rusty Blackbird.

As you can see in the photo above, the gloomy, overcast day started to brighten up.  I was walking through our house later on when the glorious late afternoon sunlight caught the breast of one of these Yellow-headed Blackbirds on our front feeder.  More than once I have been caught dead in my tracks by the likes of an Indigo Bunting, Baltimore Oriole, or Rose-breasted Grosbeak bathing in this perfect light.  Today it was the Yellow-head’s turn.  Our house makes for the perfect photography blind on such an occasion.

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We ended up with four of these beauties in the yard tonight.  Migration is a fascinating thing.  Just a couple hours prior to this mini-invasion I had seen a report from about 60 miles south of us that huge flocks of these birds were coming through.  It was phenomenal that these birds just appear all the sudden and seemingly out of nowhere.

The arrival of this special yard bird caused Evan to reminisce/gloat about how he got his Yellow-headed lifer before me last year when five of these guys invaded the yard while Melissa and I were away for the weekend and Grandma and Grandpa were holding down the fort.  It took me a good couple weeks before I eventually found my own.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds and the rare Yellow-vented Blackbird

Yellow-headed Blackbirds and the rare Yellow-vented Blackbird

The celebration of blackbirds continued as the different species found their way into the spotlight, or sunlight rather.

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Brown-headed Cowbird

Common Grackle

Common Grackle

Migration certainly is an exciting time.  With the uptick in yard activity, this grackle nearly exploded because he couldn’t contain his excitement.

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But migration is also a time of good-byes.  We seem to be having the classic long Minnesota good-bye with our American Tree Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos.

American Tree Sparrow

American Tree Sparrow

Today our yard had the sound and feel of a prairie marsh.  Pretty soon there will be warblers spazzing in the treetops and tough sparrows lurking under the shrubs.  One birder I follow once equated birding to one big Easter egg hunt.  And I can’t wait to see what the Easter Bunny brings tomorrow.

Exciting Yard Birds – The Oregon Junco and Purple Finch

Birding has slowed down a lot, and life has been busy.  Needless to say, we don’t get out much.  We have had some fun yard activity recently, though.  I was thrilled to see the male Oregon Junco drop by our feeder this past week.  Excuse the bad photo as it was taken through a dirty window near dark.

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We had this western stray show up last February which I reported on eBird.org, a world-wide database of bird sightings.  With my new sighting of the Oregon, I decided I’d look up Oregon Junco sightings for Minnesota on eBird.  There were not many for our state in the history of eBird.  I noticed, though, that my sighting was not showing up on the distribution map.  Any rare bird is automatically flagged in the system to be reviewed by an expert before being added to the map.  I hadn’t checked on the status of my sighting since I entered it in February.  I was annoyed that it still wasn’t showing up.  I hadn’t even gotten a rejection notice from eBird.  So I emailed them.  eBird apologized for the mistake, reviewed my sighting with photo documentation, and subsequently approved it.  They also encouraged me to submit my October sightings as well.  So I did, and now our yard is one of the few documented locations of the Oregon Junco in Minnesota.

This evening I had another sighting of an Oregon Junco, but this time it was the female! I have submitted this to eBird and am currently waiting on their review.  Here is a picture of her.  Notice the gray hood and the tan sides and brown body. The male has a black hood with a richer chestnut color all over.

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Here are some better photos of the male Oregon Junco from last winter.

IMG_0407IMG_2664The other day as I was watching for more opportunities to photograph and document this cool visitor, I spied a different-looking bird on our feeder.  I recognized it instantly as being the female Purple Finch!  A new yard bird!  The white-eyebrow is the distinguishing field mark that sets it apart from the nearly identical female House Finch. Evan was right with me when I saw it, and he quickly got excited at this “new” bird.  We got our lifer last May when we went to Brainerd chasing the Painted Bunting.  Even so, it was still really cool to have one come to the yard. Hopefully we get a male next time.

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How about you?  Are your feeders full of seeds and ready for the winter birds?  You just never know what kind of cool birds will show up.

The Warbling Vireo – Finally

When I asked Joel, another birder in our area, about Warbling Vireos, he advised me to learn their song.  He said they stay in the leafy treetops and are hard to see, and the sound is really the only way to track them down this time of year. Joel told me that we shouldn’t have to leave the yard to find one. We took his advice and learned the song – a fast, loud warble with a rising note at the end.  It’s very distinctive. (Listen to the song yourself.) Ever since we learned it, we have been hearing them all over – in the neighborhood and on our Blue Mounds trip.  However, we’ve had a tough time viewing them.  After several attempts of tracking down the sound, I have caught glimpses of the bird but without the aid of binoculars or a camera.  Evan still had never seen one.

The good news is that vireos are persistent singers.  They just don’t quit.  The bad news is that these Warbling Vireos like to change positions a lot.  They don’t sit still and are often hidden in the foliage.  To make it more challenging, they are plain birds that don’t pop among the leaves.

Today we heard one in the neighborhood and went on the hunt.  Several times I saw it for a brief moment before it would flit to another tree where it would just be absorbed into the leaves.  Only when it would fly would we catch sight of it again.  On one of the these flushes, Evan was finally able to see it, securing this life bird for himself.  After a lot of patience, I finally got a picture when one landed in some bare branches in our back yard.  IMG_4009It was fun to get a life bird and new yard bird today, and it was also fun to again be successful at tracking a bird down by sound.

 

Two Less Migrants to Worry About

The urgency to try to get some of the last migrating birds heading north was only increased by the weather forecast for the week: rain every day.  It wasn’t supposed to start until 9 AM this morning, so we had a limited window to get out birding.  I woke up early to a light spitting from the sky.  It was good enough to go.  After letting Evan sleep in a little bit, we headed back to Robbins Island.  It was cold, but we were dry.  We were on the hunt for the Blue-headed Vireo and the Black-throated Green Warbler.

IMG_3667There wasn’t much new this morning.  The flycatchers of the Empidonax genus were everywhere.  These “Empids” are practically indistinguishable except by voice.  There are four or five possible species we could get in our area during migration. Even though we were armed with a limited knowledge of their calls, none of them were making a noise which made it impossible for us to make an identification.  Until we can nail one down with certainty, we will refrain from putting it on the life list.

There was one flycatcher that caught my attention as it perched on a branch.  From my studying, I immediately recognized the white stripe running down the center of the breast of this guy.

IMG_3669This unbuttoned-vest look is a classic field mark of the Olive-sided Flycatcher.  This was a life bird for us and a migrating bird at that.  They will not be around in the summer. Shortly after this we found another.  It was fun to watch them fly out, grab an insect, and fly right back to the same perch, over and over again.

IMG_3666After awhile, Evan grew tired of being out, so we headed home.  After lunch and some down time to play, the kids and I headed back to the park to try one more time for our targets of the Blue-headed Vireo and Black-throated Green Warbler.  The forecast had changed to just cloudy for the day, and Melissa needed some peace and quiet to get some papers graded anyway.  Both of my little birders were enthusiastic to go, and they each had their own sense of style for dressing for the field.

IMG_3680Skirts or not, there is no slowing this girl down as we ventured into a marsh where our target, the Blue-headed Vireo, had been seen just yesterday evening.

IMG_3682One thing we had to do was head down to the water again to skip rocks.  Along the way I was pleased to find a male Bay-breasted Warbler and a female Blackburnian Warbler. As the kids played by the water, I was able to study the swallows flying over the lake a little more closely.  One of them was one we needed – the Northern Rough-winged Swallow.  This is a summer resident, but it was still nice to add a life bird.

The kids were great sports as we walked, stopped often, and looked at distant birds.  It was time for them to have some fun, so we made our way to the playground.  However, one of the birds we stopped for was a new bird and a passer-through: the Philadelphia Vireo.

IMG_3688It was finally time to get to the playground.  Three life birds weren’t the only triumph of Evan’s day.  Nope, today he conquered the monkey bars and made it all the way across to the platform!

IMG_3690We ended our day at Robbins Island by finding an unexpected, active warbler – the Yellow-rumped Warbler.  What’s it still doing here?  We haven’t seen one for two weeks now.

IMG_3693We didn’t get either of our targets today.  As much as I want to see the Blue-headed Vireo and the Black-throated Green Warbler, the thrill of the hunt lives on.  Besides, we always find a lot of other good birds (both lifers and familiar ones) that aren’t on our short list. Not only that, but there are two less species that will not pass us by this migration.  That itself is a victory.

Sunday Afternoon at Robbins Island

With migration drawing to a close, the pace at which we’re adding new birds has dropped off sharply.  Evan added 26 new birds to his life list last weekend.  Until today, we have not added a single new bird since that monumental weekend. It’s to be expected that we won’t add big numbers to our life lists anymore this season since we have seen a lot of the birds and since migration is ending.  It is now time to become much more intentional in our birding by seeking out our summer residents in their habitats.  We have many of these regulars to chase and add to our lists. I enjoy this type of birding.  It is more like hunting and less like winning the birding lottery.  Both are fun, but going after and finding a specific target is very rewarding.

Not only is it the time to find resident birds, but it is also the time to enjoy those that have chosen our yard to make their home for the summer.  We have now had a pair of Indigo Buntings at our house for eight days.  I think they’re here to stay.

IMG_3604Evan’s doves drop by regularly (Eurasian Collared Doves).  We had a record high of three of them in the yard today.

IMG_3623I’ve really come to enjoy this resident House Sparrow who thinks he’s a finch.

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Though we are shifting into resident birds, migration is still somewhat alive.  We decided to check out Robbins Island today.  It was a family affair. Melissa wanted to do some running in the park, and the kids and I wanted to check out the birds.

IMG_3661 With the trees covered in leaves now, birding has become more challenging than it was a week ago.  The kids and I went down the trails slowly, and Melissa went off running. We saw plenty of birds, but most were high in the trees in bad light.  There were flycatchers all around.  We need to study their sounds so we can identify them correctly.  We still found some warblers.  Like a lot of birders, I really like this family of birds.  They are colorful gems in the woods.  I typically do not keep lists of species I see every time I go out, but I do like to count warbler species.  Today we found lots of Tennessee Warblers, several Yellow Warblers, a couple Blackpoll Warblers, and a few American Redstarts.  We heard the Ovenbird and Chestnut-sided Warbler.  The best warblers that we found, though, were a single Canada Warbler and a single Mourning Warbler.  Eight species of warblers gives me hope for still finding our target, the Black-throated Green Warbler.  Steve and Randy have each had this bird in their yard within the last day.

Birding wasn’t the only thing on the agenda today.  Of course we had to practice skipping rocks.

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Evan finally had success with skipping a rock!  He was pretty proud.

IMG_3647These guys had fun playing with rocks or garbage in Marin’s case.  While they played, I looked at all the swallows, warblers, and flycatchers along the water’s edge.  Birds weren’t the only things moving around today.  There were fishermen, frisbee-golfers, and hikers out in the park.  I would say runners, too, as Melissa was running, but she took a wrong turn in the woods and ended up out of the park running all the way around Foot Lake!  It was much farther than she intended to go.  It turns out that she was on her own birding adventure. There were several Canada Geese with goslings along the trail. When Melissa went by some of them, one put its head down, straightened out its neck and hissed at her!  That’s all the motivation she needed to run fast and get back to the park.  These geese around Foot Lake are nasty.  My friend Joe once had to ride his bike through a huge flock on this path (they refused to move) and ended up running over and killing one!  He was too afraid to go back into the mob of geese to check on it.

Once Melissa was out of harm’s way and had rejoined us, we made our way back to the van.  And then a huge new bird fluttered in the tree above.  It was our lifer, the Great Crested Flycatcher!

IMG_3655I couldn’t have asked for a more patient bird.  It would fly a couple feet away, pose, fly a couple more feet, pose, and so on.  Even so, I couldn’t get on it very well with the camera.  Melissa and Evan patiently kept pointing it out for me.  Although at one point Melissa told me I had to be faster with the camera.  At least Evan is fast at using the index to look up and read about his new bird.

Evan Robbins IslandWe’re hoping to get out and catch a few more migrants before they’ve all headed north. In the meantime, though, we are making plans to hunt down our summer targets.

A Rare Bird Chase – Multiple Targets Acquired

When I got done writing yesterday’s post, I didn’t think it was possible to have another epic day.  But that’s just what happened today.  It all started last night when I saw a posting on MOU-Net that a Lazuli Bunting had been spotted at someone’s feeders in Hutchinson.  This is a gorgeous blue and rust-colored bird that resides in the western part of the country.  It is a rare stray to Minnesota.  One had showed up a couple weeks ago in the Cities, and I was tempted to chase that one.  However, I figured that we’d see one someday when we took a road trip out west.  The Cities is a two-hour trip, and the sighting was during the work week.  It just wouldn’t have worked.  Hutchinson was only a 45-minute trip, though, and it was the weekend.  Pete, the person who posted the sighting of the Hutch bird, said he’d provide updates the next day if it was still there. Melissa and I decided that this was another bird worth chasing.

This morning around 8:00 I saw a posting that said it was back at 7:30!  While we were tempted to skip church and chase this bird, we decided to wait until after church.  I was fairly calm and confident that since the bird showed this morning that it would probably be around periodically throughout the day.  In the meantime, though, I watched out our windows.  The oriole activity has been nuts.  A couple of them looked a little different.  It turns out we had female and first-year male Orchard Orioles at the feeder!  A life bird!  I was hoping we’d get to see the mature male to clinch this one, but for now this guy will do.

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As I watched our yard birds, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lifer from yesterday make an appearance and partake of our oranges – the Tennessee Warbler.  This was a real treat because we have not really had any warbler activity in our yard.  IMG_3487One of the birds that amused me this morning was a House Sparrow who thinks he’s a finch.  This sparrow has learned to cling to the finch feeder, even hanging upside-down. House Finches don’t get any love in the birding community or general population, so I went to grab my camera to show this guy off.  As I walked to the window, I looked out and froze.  This is who I saw.

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The Indigo Bunting!!  Not only was this a life bird, but it was a major target bird for the summer of 2013!  I couldn’t believe it – the male Scarlet Tanager and now this guy in less than 24 hours in our yard!  I snapped a quick picture and then calmly said, “Evan, walk – don’t run; we have the Indigo Bunting.”  Everybody came out for this one.  Even non-birding Melissa knew of this bird and had to see it.  She even asked to see my pics on the LCD right away.

It was just a general buffet of color around our yard this morning.  The American Goldfinches and Baltimore Orioles are thick lately.  Here I caught one of each in the same shot.
IMG_3492We finally went to church, and I tried to not think about what emails were waiting in my pocket.  Once we got to the car after church, I checked for updates on the Lazuli.  Nothing new.  Oh boy.  So I called Pete.  He said it was showing well until about 10:00.  Then it was absent until about noon when it only appeared for a minute or two.  That was enough information to make this mission a go.

We stopped and ate some lunch in Willmar before heading southeast to Hutch.  Once there we had to make a potty-stop for Marin.  This potty-training business is really starting to handicap our birding. Minutes felt like hours.

We finally made it to the house which we found with no problem.  When you chase a rare bird, you don’t really have to know the exact address.  Just look for the small flock of people with binoculars.  We quickly hustled across the street to join them – three sets of binoculars pointed up looked promising.

Lazuli Sighting

It turns out these two fellows (the homeowner is nearest the door) from Lonsdale had been watching the feeders from inside the house but had not had any luck.  They were watching warblers out front when we arrived.  The one they were currently viewing was a big target for me and a life bird for both of us – the Cape-May Warbler.

IMG_3520It was such a fantastic bird.  Here’s another shot to show it off some more.

IMG_3519The two gentlemen decided to walk around the block looking for the Lazuli Bunting.  Pete invited Evan and I to come inside to watch for it from the best vantage point, his dining-room window.  Pete was a gracious host who watched with us and visited about birding and teaching.  Undoubtedly he’s had several strangers stop by during the day and welcomed them.  I love how birders are a friendly bunch who help each other out and want others to share in the joy of a cool bird.

We watched and watched.  It was dead.  Not a single bird of any sort was showing. After nearly twenty minutes, the activity finally started to pick up.  A goldfinch here, a few Pine Siskins there, and some squirrels gave us something to look at.  The best bird to hold our attention while we waited was the Ovenbird.  We got to see his beautifully striped head as we looked down at him while he bobbed alongside the house in the flower garden going from hosta to hosta.  Pete went about his business while we watched and fielded calls from other birders. We had been there for nearly 45 minutes when it happened.

“Dad, I just saw the Lazuli fly into that tree!”  I didn’t see anything, but I’ve learned to trust my son when it comes to birds.  I looked at the bird to which he was pointing and quickly pulled up the binoculars.  It was, in fact, the Lazuli!!!  I snapped off a few quick pictures.  The quality isn’t the best since I was shooting through glass at an angle and was fighting with a camera that wanted to focus on leaves.  I got one decent shot which at least shows off how magnificent this bird is.
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While we were watching, I heard Pete on the phone with another birder say, “Hold on, I have a sharp-eyed six-year old who just found it.” I didn’t have much of an opportunity to photograph it as it flew away moments later.  It was not on the ground feeding where it had been seen all morning and last night.  Without Evan, we probably would have missed it.

Minutes later, the Lonsdale birders came into the house.  One of them had seen it from standing outside.  They watched for awhile and then decided to canvass the block again. We waited for Pete to finish up his phone conversation so we could thank him and say good-bye.  It was a Minnesota birders good-bye as we had to show each other pictures of the bunting and pictures of leucistic birds we’d each seen.  Then as he walked us out, he pointed out another life bird that was flying high, the Chimney Swift, and told us how they live in his chimney.

It was finally time to drive again.  I called up my cousin Brett who lives in town to see if we could drop by for a visit.  We had a fun time with them and got to watch our daughter be a show-off with all her dance “moves.”  But the birding was far from done for the day, so it was time to go.

Our next stop was a home about 5 miles southwest of Hutch where a Great-tailed Grackle had been consistently seen in someone’s yard for a couple weeks.  This is another bird that is north of its normal range.  Pete had made the report on this bird too and told us that the homeowners were fine with people parking in their driveway and walking around their yard.  So we did just that.  Unfortunately we were not able to come up with the grackle.  Maybe we’ll see it in two weeks when we have to head back to Hutch for my cousin’s daughter’s graduation party.

We were homeward bound now and flying high on birding adrenaline.  At least two of us were anyway.  As we got close to our house, Melissa was on the phone with her mother telling about all the phenomenal birding today.  I was impressed that Melissa not only knew how many lifers we got today, but that she also knew their names.  Just as we approached the one-mile mark from our house, I spotted an LBB that was a candidate for a life bird.  I whipped the van around and drove back.  We found it again with no problem.  Sure enough, it was a life bird – the Vesper Sparrow.

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We are now 2 for 3 on our chasing trips.  Six lifers today – and some real lookers at that.  Today was a birding day that we won’t forget. It was even more special that we got to enjoy it as a family.  Meeting nice new people and visiting with family was an added bonus.  Oh, and that finch-like House Sparrow?  Here he is.

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Birding in Paradise – Pinch Me

Today the floodgates opened.  As I sit down to write this post and reflect back on this day, I still can hardly believe all the life birds we saw.  Words can hardly do this day justice.  The pictures will tell the story better than I can.  Some are good and others will just have to do.  As you read our story and see our pictures, I hope you will be in awe of what’s out in creation.

Before I tell the story of today, I want to back up to last night.  While we were at our small group Bible study, Steve had called and texted.  I didn’t see this until we got home. When I did see he’d been trying to get ahold of me, I knew something was going on.  I finally connected with him and got the scoop.  Warblers.  Everywhere.  He spent two hours at the small patch where we’ve been birding, known as Bergquist Wildlife Area.  I could not wait until morning.  The alarm was set for 5:30 so Evan and I could do some birding before we had to come back in to take care of Marin at 8:30 while Melissa had a girls’ event today.  I woke up this morning but not to my alarm.  It was 7:10!  I hustled and got Evan out of bed, and we were at Bergquist within a half hour.  Not much time to bird before we had to head back.

Right away we found a life bird for Evan – the Gray Catbird.  I actually saw this one on the feeder at home this morning, but Evan didn’t hear me call to him.  When I took the picture, I got the message on my camera screen that there was no SD card!  I quickly remembered I had a spare.  Whew.

Gray CatbirdShortly after this we found this plain, but pretty bird.  We identified it later as the female Scarlet Tanager – a definite lifer for both of us.  How I wish it had been the male.

IMG_3382The warblers were all around.  We quickly found our lifer, the American Redstart.  These were very abundant this morning.

IMG_3423Then we found the Blackpoll Warbler – another lifer.

IMG_3446There were so many birds in every direction.  We stayed motionless and had new birds coming to us all the time.  Another lifer – a beautiful male Bay-breasted Warbler dropped to a branch 5 feet in front of me, but I wasn’t able to get a picture.  By this time we had to go home, but not before picking up another lifer – the gorgeous Magnolia Warbler!

IMG_3396We went home and decided we’d grab Marin and come right back.  This was an incredible day, and there were more birds to be had.  Steve joined us for round 2.  It was definitely distracting to bird while managing Marin and settling fights between these siblings, but we managed.  It was nice to have Steve along to help point out new birds and ones I was still trying to photograph.  Here is a lifer he found for us – the Wilson’s Warbler.IMG_3418

And then the Golden-winged Warbler.  Excuse the bad photo, but it’s hard to photograph these small, ADD birds!

IMG_3424We found an Eastern Kingbird – another lifer.

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Then we found a Flycatcher that remains unidentified.  There are several Flycatchers, and the best way to tell them apart is by voice.  I guess we’ll have to study our sounds before we can add them to the life list.

IMG_3413Steve picked up a life bird today that is one of my favorite birds of all time.  The Blackburnian Warbler.  I was later able to find one that was close, and we got some good looks at this male.  This wasn’t a life bird for Evan and me, but we never tire of seeing them.

IMG_3428I also spotted but was not able to photograph the beautiful Northern Parula.  This sky-blue bird with a yellow underside was a lifer as well.  How I wish I could have photographed it.

Another non-lifer that we saw several times was the bird that hooked me into this sport – the Chestnut-sided Warbler.   His call is the “Pleased to, pleased to, pleased to meetchya!”  We were pleased to meet him again too.

IMG_3425It was absolutely crazy how many birds there were.  Every direction, every level you looked, you’d find birds.  The diversity was mind-boggling.  If you’ve ever seen the movie, The Big Year, today was reminiscent of that scene where the birders go to Texas to experience the fallout of birds from a massive storm.

Here is another lifer we picked up – the Tennessee Warbler.

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Here’s an LBB lifer that we got – the House Wren.

IMG_3441After spending two hours at Bergquist, the kids had to go to the bathroom.  Evan – no problem.  Marin – problem. We’re potty-training her, so she has difficulty to begin with. Combine that with trying to have a little girl go in the woods, and you have major problems!  Pee filled her water boots, soaked her pants, and sprayed all over my hand. Birding was over.  We hustled home.

We changed clothes, had a bite to eat, and decided to head back to the patch for trip #3.  There was so much going on there that we couldn’t stop.  Earlier when I asked my little birders who wanted to go back, both shouted, “Meeeeeee!”  Look at them making lists already.  I taught Evan the short code for bird names.  He learned quickly and was marking down everything.

IMG_3444On this third trip we encountered our lifer from Thursday – the Northern Waterthrush.

IMG_3376We also got a chance to photograph another lifer from Thursday – the Broad-winged Hawk.

IMG_3451During this outing, Melissa finished up her girls’ outing and stopped by to pick up Marin. Now it was time to do some serious birding.  Here’s my buddy investigating birds? Nope, turtles again.  See the notebook and pencil, though?

IMG_3465We didn’t see much more after Marin left.  We found another lifer – the Eastern Wood-Pewee.

IMG_3457After this bird, we decided to head home.  Then I remembered a tip from one of our readers and decided to check out the fairgrounds.  Wow, were there birds there too! I was able to photograph a lifer for Evan – the Common Yellowthroat.

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We picked up more life birds here that I wasn’t able to photograph – my camera battery died after nearly 8 hours of work today!  Those lifers included the Canada Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo, and Palm Warbler.  We also saw the non-lifer Mourning Warbler.

It was an epic day.  How do you top something like that?  Well, you come home to find the male Scarlet Tanager in your own yard!

IMG_3473It was also fun to see both the front yard and back yard feeders loaded with American Goldfinches.

IMG_3476This was an incredible, exhausting birding day. Here is the re-cap of lifers.  I’m doing this mostly for myself to help me count them:

Gray Catbird (Evan)

American Redstart

Scarlet Tanager

Bay-breasted Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Northern Parula

House Wren

Golden-winged Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

Eastern Kingbird

Common Yellowthroat (Evan)

Northern Waterthrush (Thursday and today)

Broad-winged Hawk (Thursday and today)

Eastern Wood Pewee

Tennessee Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Canada Warbler

Yellow-throated Vireo

Palm Warbler

Evan added 18 life birds today (2 of the 20 above were on Thursday).  I added 16 just today.  We saw a total of 20 warblers today (not mentioned were the Yellow, Ovenbird, Orange-crowned, and Black-and-White).  Amazingly we did not see a Yellow-rumped Warbler, and we missed on the Blue-winged and Black-throated Green which were present last night.

What a day.  I don’t know if we’ll ever have another life bird day like this again.  This was absolutely incredible.

A Local Birding Patch – Bergquist Wildlife Area

Even when the blog is silent, the birding goes on and the life birds trickle in.  This past week we’ve had the opportunity to explore Willmar’s Bergquist Wildlife Area twice and have found birding success each time.  This wooded park, hardly bigger than a football field, borders a lake and contains a small pond.  It is a lovely sanctuary for birds (and other wildlife) in the midst of the city.  We took a quick walk there on Mother’s Day.  Here are the highlights:

Spotting the Swainson’s Thrush – a life bird.

IMG_3346Seeing the Yellow-rumped Warbler again (one of several) – a common colorful bird that moves constantly.

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Watching turtles bask in the sun – big brother is always looking out for his sister.IMG_3347Spending time with Mom who puts up with our birding hobby addiction.

IMG_4269Tonight after school, Evan and I went through Bergquist again because we got the daily update from Steve who hikes it during his lunch.  Several birds on Steve’s list were potential life birds for us.  We found two life-birds tonight.  One was the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.  This time Evan saw it with his own eyes, and I finally got a good look.  Now we could officially count it.  Sorry, but I couldn’t get a photo of that quick little bugger.  I did capture this lifer – the Black and White Warbler.

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It was fun to watch warblers in the treetops again.  They bring so much life and color to the woods, but they are so difficult to photograph because of their size, constant movement, and propensity for being in the tops of trees.  Watching through the binoculars is a lot more fun and relaxing than watching through the camera while trying to get a shot.  Here is an attempt at photographing a male Yellow Warbler.  I think he was in the center of my frame but moved just as I took the picture.  We’ll see more of these at my parents’ house this summer and hopefully get a better picture then.

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The yard birds have also been fun to watch.  We’ve had Baltimore Orioles coming to eat our oranges and grape jelly for four days now.  We keep hoping an Orchard Oriole will drop by soon. On Mother’s Day we were visited by a life bird for me – the Brown Thrasher.  Evan got his when he went to his Uncle Larry’s a couple weeks ago with my parents.

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I also got a chance this week to photograph a bird we’ve seen sporadically and have nick-named Poop-head, our second leucistic Common Grackle to visit us this spring.

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With migration underway, the local birding can be pretty exciting.  We have dozens and dozens of birds to see that are back in the state already.  We’ll be looking up.

A Sweet Lifer and a Striking FOY

I came home tonight to observe a strange sight: 10 Pine Siskins on the bird feeder.  It was so odd to not have a single one all winter but have them now during migration.  By all rights these birds should be gone to the far north by now.  They must be birds from further south moving their way north.  Since it was a life bird just yesterday, I was still intrigued with them and observed them for awhile.  As I watched these birds, a chunky sparrow with a dark head came running out of our front cedar bush.  It was new, and I didn’t have to look it up because I had been waiting to see it any day.  It was the Harris’s Sparrow!  

IMG_3260It was nice to finally get this target bird.  Now the challenge and hope was that Evan would see it.  I called Melissa and told her to be on the lookout when they pulled in the driveway.  She said she didn’t even want to tell him in case it wasn’t there.

Soon enough Melissa and the kiddos got home, and the Harris’s Sparrow was nowhere to be seen.  Evan asked me about birds I had seen, and I talked about the Pine Siskins. I held back on the new sparrow because I wanted him to not fret about seeing it.  I was confident it would be back.  I didn’t have to wait long before I spotted it again and called him over.  I pointed to it, and he exclaimed, “Whoaaa…”  Without telling him the bird, I asked him what it was.  He quickly replied, “The Harris’s Sparrow!”  We do our homework around here.

It turns out that we had a few of these around tonight.  Here are some shots from the backyard feeder.  It’s such a cool looking sparrow.

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We continue to have White-crowned Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows.  Here is another picture of the White-crowned.  IMG_3246

Someone from the metro described today’s wave of new birds as a floodgate that had been opened.  We’re not getting as much as our metro neighbors, but we had some fun visitors tonight.  In addition to the Pine Siskins and all the sparrow species, a Yellow-rumped Warbler landed in the yard but disappeared before I could get a picture.  It is my new nemesis bird.  The best visitor, though, besides the life-bird sparrow, was our FOY male Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  For the non-birder, FOY stands for First Of Year. This one even held Melissa’s attention tonight.

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