These two Fergus Falls-based MBWs included some areas

that the 2025 MBW will not visit, but the birding potential should be similar.

________

ROTHSAY W.M.A. MBW and CLAY-NORMAN pre-MBW SUMMARY

October 16-17-18, 2015

After that strong cold front passed through earlier in the week, perhaps it wasn’t too surprising that birds were relatively scarce at several of our stops. Still, we managed to put together a fairly impressive list of 90 species in all during the three days, with 63 of these on our alleged “Clay Co” pre-MBW (that spent much of the day in Norman Co), and 77 species on the main MBW in Wilkin and Otter Tail counties. Impressive as well was the weather, especially on Saturday with pleasant temperatures in the 50s under sunny skies and virtually no wind to speak of – and calm days on the prairie are pretty uncommon. There was really no wind on Friday either, although the morning was cold before we finally caught up to the sun in Norman Co; the winds did return on Sunday, although they were nothing out of the ordinary, and it eventually reached the 60s that afternoon.

Perhaps the only real disappointment was that two of our best birds, both on Saturday, were hard to see. Those few Smith’s Longspurs mixed in with the Laplands at that pond on 230th St in Wilkin Co refused to land for more than a few seconds, and some MBWers were unable to spot the ones with bright buffy underparts circling overhead. And it was long after sunset and almost too dark to see anything when that Short-eared Owl decided to fly in front of us on CR 26, land unseen in the corn stubble, and take off again before those with sharper eyes than mine could point it out to everyone.

But we had no trouble on Saturday seeing that unprecedented and surprising concentration of 2,000+ Brewer’s Blackbirds in that pasture just west of the Wilkin-Otter Tail county line – it was by far the biggest flock of this species I’d ever seen, and it was apparently the highest count ever reported in MN. We had also started the day with a very late and unexpected Semipalmated Plover (along with an American Golden-Plover and Greater Yellowlegs) at that Otter Tail Co wetland en route to Rothsay, and an exceptionally close and cooperative Le Conte’s Sparrow was spotted by Linda M and we scanned that new Wilkin Co impoundment along 290th Ave.

Also of note in Wilkin Co on Saturday were Greater Prairie-Chickens in the Rothsay WMA area and at Town Hall Prairie SNA, a Eurasian Collared-Dove in the town of Rothsay (along with an earlier fly-by along CR 26), and two Northern Shrikes (at Rothsay WMA and near Town Hall Prairie). On Friday there were also prairie-chickens at Felton Prairie along with an unexpected Black-billed Magpie, a dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk en route to Norman Co (this and Hermit Thrush were new for my Clay Co list!), and we found some Common Redpolls in Ada and Twin Valley.

Thanks to all of you for coming, and I especially appreciate the flexibility of those on Friday’s pre-MBW, which was thrown in at the last minute and didn’t quite end up in the county where Your Spineless, Wishy-Washy Tour Leader had planned. (But I do have to wonder how many more Clay County birds I could have had that afternoon….)   

BIRD LIST

C = Clay Co (Oct 16 pre-MBW)

N = Norman Co (Oct 16 pre-MBW)

W = Wilkin Co (Oct 17)

O = Otter Tail Co (Oct 17-18)

Snow Goose          N,W

Cackling Goose          N,O,W

Canada Goose          C,N,O,W

Trumpeter Swan          N,O,W

Tundra Swan          N

Wood Duck          N

Gadwall          N

American Wigeon          N

Mallard          N,O,W

Northern Shoveler          N,W

Northern Pintail          W

Green-winged Teal          N,O,W

Canvasback          N,O

Redhead          O,W

Lesser Scaup          O

Bufflehead          C,O,W

Hooded Merganser          C,O,W

Ruddy Duck          W

Ring-necked Pheasant          C,O,W

Greater Prairie-Chicken          C,W

Wild Turkey          N

Pied-billed Grebe          O

Great Blue Heron          O,W

Bald Eagle          C,N,O,W

Northern Harrier          C,O,W

Red-tailed Hawk          C,N,O,W

Rough-legged Hawk          C

American Coot          N,O,W

Sandhill Crane          W

American Golden-Plover          O

Semipalmated Plover          O

Killdeer          N,O,W

Greater Yellowlegs          O,W

Wilson's Snipe          O,W

Bonaparte's Gull          C,O,W

Franklin's Gull          C,O

Ring-billed Gull          C,O,W

Rock Pigeon          C,N,O,W

Eurasian Collared-Dove          O,W

Mourning Dove          O,W

Great Horned Owl          W

Short-eared Owl          W

Belted Kingfisher          W

Red-bellied Woodpecker          O

Downy Woodpecker          C,N,O,W

Hairy Woodpecker          C,N,O,W

Northern Flicker          C,N,W

Pileated Woodpecker          O

Northern Shrike          W

Blue Jay          C,N,O,W

Black-billed Magpie          C,N

American Crow          C,N,O,W

Horned Lark          C,W

Black-capped Chickadee          C,N,O,W

Red-breasted Nuthatch          N

White-breasted Nuthatch          N,O,W

Golden-crowned Kinglet          N,O

Ruby-crowned Kinglet          N,O

Eastern Bluebird          C,N,O,W

Hermit Thrush          C

American Robin          C,N,O,W

European Starling          C,N,O,W

American Pipit          C,N,O,W

Cedar Waxwing          O,W

Lapland Longspur          C,N,W

Smith's Longspur          W

Palm Warbler          W

Yellow-rumped Warbler          C,O

American Tree Sparrow          C,N,O,W

Chipping Sparrow          N

Savannah Sparrow          C,O,W

Le Conte's Sparrow          W

Fox Sparrow          N,O,W

Song Sparrow          C,N,O,W

Swamp Sparrow          W

White-throated Sparrow          W

Harris's Sparrow          C,N,O,W

White-crowned Sparrow          N

Dark-eyed Junco          C,N,O,W

Northern Cardinal          O?

Red-winged Blackbird          C,N,O,W

Western Meadowlark          C,O,W

Rusty Blackbird          C,O,W

Brewer's Blackbird          W

Common Grackle          C,N

House Finch          N,O,W

Common Redpoll          N

Pine Siskin          C,N,W

American Goldfinch          N,W

House Sparrow          C,N,O,W

*          *          *

ROTHSAY MBW SUMMARY  /  OCTOBER 13-14, 2007

Could this have been the only MBW this year on which I couldn't complain about the weather? With light winds, sunny skies, and a perfect high around 60 on Saturday, the weather was about as ideal as it ever gets here in mid-October. Of course, a cold front with winds roaring out of the NW might have stirred up some migration, and a rainy (or snowy!) day might have grounded some longspurs and other migrants, but this time I'll take the pleasant weather.

In all, we came up with a surprisingly good total of 90 species. Most unexpected among these had to be Saturday's drowsy Surf Scoters at the sewage ponds and the two very late Chimney Swifts (heading north?) on Sunday. But the exceptionally nice views we had of those Le Conte's Sparrows at Western Prairie were also especially memorable, as were the assortment of shorebirds on Sunday, that Pileated flying into Wahpeton, ND (where I assume the species is uncommon to rare), the Northern Shrike hunting near Otter Tail Prairie, and the flock of Brewer's Blackbirds uncharacteristically attracted to that Wilkin County pond.

Perhaps most impressive of all, though, were all those chickadees migrating through the wide open spaces of the relatively barren Red River Valley, the uncounted numbers of American Pipits attracted to that one sugar beet field west of Rothsay, and that vastly larger and uncounted flock of mostly Red-winged Blackbirds near Otter Tail Prairie on Sunday!

In all, then, there was more than enough to compensate for the unexpectedly low numbers of cranes and prairie-chickens, and the absence of any Short-eared Owls and Smith's Longspurs. Of course, we were without the spotting abilities of Linda S, who I'm sure would have found all these for us. She had other unexpected plans, though, and by Saturday afternoon it was unfortunately pretty obvious she would lack the gall to be able to bird with us at all. Certainly, we're all glad that everything (well, at least her gall bladder) apparently came out OK!

BIRD LIST          

W = Wilkin County (on October 13)

O = Otter Tail County (mostly on October 14)

Canada Goose   WO

Mallard   WO

Blue-winged Teal   WO

Green-winged Teal   O

Redhead   W

Ring-necked Duck   W

Lesser Scaup   W

Surf Scoter   W (2, mostly asleep, at Breckenridge sewage ponds)

Ruddy Duck   W

Ring-necked Pheasant   WO

Greater Prairie-Chicken   W (why so few?)

Pied-billed Grebe   O

Eared Grebe   W (2 at the sewage ponds)

Double-crested Cormorant   O

Great Blue Heron   WO

Great Egret   WO

Black-crowned Night-Heron   O

Osprey   O

Northern Harrier   WO

Sharp-shinned Hawk   W

Red-tailed Hawk   WO (why so few?)

American Kestrel   WO (ditto)

American Coot   WO

Sandhill Crane   W (only ~100 total, mostly near Western Prairie)

Black-bellied Plover   O

American Golden-Plover   O (mostly uncooperative)

Killdeer   WO

Greater Yellowlegs   WO

Lesser Yellowlegs   O (just one)

Pectoral Sandpiper   O

Dunlin   O (decent looks at 2)

Wilson's Snipe   WO (= 8 shorebird species along Otter Tail Co Rd 15)

Franklin’s Gull   WO

Bonaparte’s Gull   O

Ring-billed Gull   WO

Rock Pigeon   WO

Mourning Dove   O (why so few?)

Chimney Swift   O (one of the latest dates ever in northern Minn!)

Belted Kingfisher   WO

Red-bellied Woodpecker   WO (near their northern range limit)

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   W

Downy Woodpecker   WO

Hairy Woodpecker   WO

Northern Flicker   WO

Pileated Woodpecker    W (and flying into North Dakota!)

Eastern Phoebe   O

Northern Shrike   O (near Otter Tail Prairie!)

Blue Jay   WO

American Crow   WO

Horned Lark   WO

Barn Swallow   WO

Black-capped Chickadee   WO (why so many!?)

Red-breasted Nuthatch   W (in "uptown" Rothsay)

White-breasted Nuthatch   WO

Brown Creeper   O

Marsh Wren   O

Golden-crowned Kinglet   WO

Ruby-crowned Kinglet   WO

Eastern Bluebird   W (why so few?)

Hermit Thrush   WO

American Robin   WO

European Starling   WO

American Pipit   WO (including 100s in that one Wilkin County field!)

Cedar Waxwing   W

Orange-crowned Warbler   W (by Lake Breckenridge)

Yellow-rumped Warbler   WO (but why no Palms?)

American Tree Sparrow   W

Chipping Sparrow   W

Vesper Sparrow   W

Savannah Sparrow   WO

Le Conte’s Sparrow   W (5 or 6 most cooperative birds at Western Prairie!)

Fox Sparrow   WO

Song Sparrow   WO

Lincoln’s Sparrow   WO

Swamp Sparrow   O

White-throated Sparrow   WO

Harris’s Sparrow   WO (several good looks)

White-crowned Sparrow   W

Dark-eyed Junco   WO

Lapland Longspur   WO (but, alas, no Smith's)

Red-winged Blackbird   WO (by the 1000s near Otter Tail Prairie!)

Western Meadowlark   WO

Yellow-headed Blackbird   O (just one)

Rusty Blackbird   O (with all the shorebirds)

Brewer’s Blackbird   W (unexpected numbers by that pond & pasture)

Common Grackle   O (why so few?)

Purple Finch   W

House Finch   WO

American Goldfinch   WO

House Sparrow   WO