Roy Zimmerman photos
Well, it seems that Jerry saw the face pattern, Jeff could see the spread tail was unbanded, this medium-brown falcon was larger than a kestrel…. So, naturally, after an hour or so of soul-searching, we concluded by default that the bird circling over the Wheaton sewage ponds on Friday had to be a Prairie Falcon! Of course, it was unfortunate that no one could tell for sure if it had black axillaries (which can be less than obvious on this species), and that only some of us saw it well enough to mull over and piece together its identity.
But even if you didn’t add this rarity to your list, there were other birds to count among the day’s highlights. The amazing North Ottawa impoundment hosted most of these, especially those two Snowy Egrets and what had to be a few thousand shorebirds – probably the most I’ve ever seen at one site in Minnesota – attracted to the two miles worth of mudflats. Most significant among these by far were no fewer than 60+ Hudsonian Godwits, which must have set some sort of record since just one is unusual enough during fall migration. In all, there were 15 shorebird species at N Ottawa to bring the day’s total to a respectable 18, and there were also Western, Red-necked, and Eared grebes here – all with babies (aw!).
The birding did slow down somewhat on the main Saturday-Sunday portion of the MBW, especially as the high winds blew in a cold front on Saturday afternoon and never let up. Both days recorded sustained winds of 20-33 mph with the highest gusts at 44, as we approached the all-time MBW record of 56 mph wind gusts. There were fewer highlights on these days, although on Saturday there was a nice assortment of woods birds in that farm grove along Big Stone CR 8, and that stone barn on the Stevens-Big Stone county line was a unique diversion. Surprisingly, though, Thielke Lake was almost empty, and the auto tour at Big Stone NWR was very disappointing.
Those who managed to brave the strong winds and cold on Sunday morning at the Morris sewage ponds were rewarded by unusually close views of 12 shorebird species concentrated in front of us in a relatively sheltered corner of the far pond. And we were able to find a SWELL spot out of the wind (i.e., Scandia Woods Environmental Learning Lab), where an unexpected gnatcatcher and several other passerines were sheltered. But this area and Saturday’s farm grove were the exceptions, as the passerine migration was very slow and we only came up with eight warbler species in three days. In all, we did come up with a composite total of 125 species: 111 on Friday’s pre-MBW, and a windy 101 on the main MBW.
BIRD LIST
- pre-only = only found on Aug 21 Traverse-Grant pre-MBW (i.e., Stevens-Big Stone-
Traverse-Grant Co’s)
- MBW-only = only found on Aug 22-23 Stevens-Big Stone MBW (i.e., Stevens-Big Stone -
Lac Qui Parle Co’s)
- species not annotated with pre- or MBW- were seen on both parts of the weekend
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal (incl white-winged partial albino at Morris sewage ponds!)
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail (pre-only)
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Ring-necked Pheasant
Wild Turkey (MBW-only)
Pied-billed Grebe
Red-necked Grebe (pre-only; with young at North Ottawa impoundment)
Eared Grebe (pre-only; also with N Ottawa young)
Western Grebe (pre-only; also with N Ottawa young)
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret (pre-only; 2 at N Ottawa!)
Green Heron
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned/Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail
Sora
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover (pre-only; N Ottawa)
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper (pre-only)
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Hudsonian Godwit (pre-only; 60+ at N Ottawa!)
Stilt Sandpiper (almost everywhere; best views at Morris sewage ponds)
Sanderling (pre-only; N Ottawa)
Baird's Sandpiper (best at Morris)
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher (juveniles at N Ottawa & Morris)
Wilson's Snipe
Wilson's Phalarope (pre-only; Graceville sewage ponds)
Red-necked Phalarope (best at Morris)
Franklin's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Black Tern
Forster's Tern (pre-only)
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl (pre-only; near Mud Lake)
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker (pre-only)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (MBW-only)
Downy Woodpecker (MBW-only)
Hairy Woodpecker (MBW-only)
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker (MBW-only)
American Kestrel
Prairie Falcon (pre-only; Wheaton sewage ponds!)
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Alder/Willow Flycatcher (pre-only)
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher (MBW-only)
Western Kingbird (pre-only; Jerry-only)
Eastern Kingbird
Warbling Vireo
Philadelphia Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Sedge Wren
Marsh Wren (heard-only?)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (MBW-only; a SWELL bird spotted by Linda)
Eastern Bluebird (pre-only)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher (pre-only)
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Waterthrush (MBW-only)
Black-and-white Warbler
Tennessee Warbler (MBW-only)
Nashville Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Yellow Warbler
Wilson's Warbler (MBW-only)
Chipping Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow (pre-only)
Vesper Sparrow (pre-only)
Savannah Sparrow (pre-only)
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal (MBW-only; heard-only?)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (MBW-only)
Bobolink (pre-only)
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird (good no's at many locations)
Brewer's Blackbird (pre-only)
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird (pre-only)
Orchard Oriole (MBW-only)
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch (MBW-only)
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
MORRIS MBWeekend SUMMARY
August 19 - 20 - 21, 2016
Well, some of us (myself included) are content to just make lazy, wild guesses about stuff. Others take a more calculated approach….
"Out of curiosity, I counted the PUMA on the wire in the photo below. This was the last section of wire and the picture was taken after the birds had settled down after we had been watching the shorebirds for a while. I came up with 660 birds in the photo between the two poles. There were six section of wire. Although the last section was the mostly densely packed, it was also significantly shorter than the other five sections. So, if we assume that the other sections had a similar number of birds, the total on the wires would be 3960. This, of course, doesn’t include all the birds that were flying over the ponds, which had to be in the hundreds. So, I say your estimate of 4000 as a minimum was pretty good.” -Howard Towle
* * *
MORRIS MBWEEKEND SUMMARY
August 21 - 22 - 23, 2015
….So, there you go! It seems the easy-way-out, wild-guess approach works after all. Anyway, it was a most impressive sight (or “Huge!” as The Donald might say), and 4,000 represents the second-largest concentration of Purple Martins ever recorded in MN, according to the MOU website.
Indeed, I’d have to say that the highlights on this MBW were mostly modest until we made it to the Morris sewage ponds. Before then, our best finds were a curious-looking leucistic Canada Goose in Big Stone Co, a fair assortment of shorebirds (14 species Friday-Saturday plus a 15th at Morris; there were no large mudflats, with the North Ottawa impoundment especially disappointing), an unexpected E Screech-Owl heard by day in Stevens Co, and a few migrant passerines of note (e.g., Olive-sided Flycatcher, Northern Waterthrush, Palm, Black-throated Green and Canada warblers – but only 10 warbler species in all).
But then came those thousands of martins crowding the wires by the sewage ponds, and even more eye-opening were the shorebirds waiting for us at the last pond. Foraging nearly at our feet only some 30 feet away in perfect light were all four Minnesota peeps: Baird’s, Semipalmated, Least, and White-rumped sandpipers – the latter quite rare in fall migration. (The only thing missing was Western, which is only Casual in MN.) Never before had I seen these four together anywhere for such close study at one time!
“No Refunds”, indeed! In fact, maybe it’s time for a new MBW slogan this fall, one that is more in line with this election year: "Make MBWs Great Again”.
BIRD LIST (118 species total, plus Blue Grosbeak in Swift Co Sunday afternoon)
PRE = found on pre-MBW only, August 19 (92 species; Stevens-Big Stone-Traverse-Grant
counties)
MBW = found on main MBW only, August 20-21 (105 species; Stevens-Big Stone-Traverse-
Lac Qui Parle counties)
(species not annotated PRE or MBW were found on both portions)
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Ring-necked Pheasant
Wild Turkey MBW
Pied-billed Grebe
Western Grebe PRE
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
American Bittern MBW
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron PRE
(Plegadis ibis, sp. - we couldn’t relocate the one seen on Thursday in Traverse Co)
Turkey Vulture
Osprey PRE
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Broad-winged Hawk PRE
Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail (heard-only) MBW
Sora
American Coot
Semipalmated Plover MBW
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper MBW
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Stilt Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper MBW
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
dowitcher, sp. (probably Short-billeds)
Wilson's Snipe PRE
Wilson's Phalarope
Franklin's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Black Tern
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
cuckoo, sp. (a fly-by in Stevens Co) MBW
Eastern Screech-Owl (heard-only) MBW
Common Nighthawk PRE
Chimney Swift PRE
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel PRE
Olive-sided Flycatcher MBW
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe MBW
Great Crested Flycatcher MBW
Eastern Kingbird
Yellow-throated Vireo MBW
Warbling Vireo MBW
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay MBW
American Crow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow PRE
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Sedge Wren PRE
Marsh Wren
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Gray Catbird MBW
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Waterthrush PRE
Black-and-white Warbler MBW
Tennessee Warbler MBW
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Yellow Warbler
Palm Warbler MBW
Black-throated Green Warbler MBW
Canada Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Clay-colored Sparrow MBW
Field Sparrow MBW
Savannah Sparrow MBW
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow (heard-only) MBW
Rose-breasted Grosbeak MBW
(Blue Grosbeak - the Swift Co stake-out seen by 7 of us Sunday afternoon)
Indigo Bunting MBW
Bobolink PRE
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark PRE
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird PRE
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
All four Regular MN peeps (left to right: Baird’s, Semipalmated, Least, White-rumped),
Morris sewage ponds (Roy Zimmerman photo)
White-rumped Sandpiper, Morris sewage ponds (Roy Zimmerman photo)
Purple Martins, Morris sewage ponds (Roy Zimmerman photo)
Blue Grosbeak, Swift County (KRE “digiscope” photo)
Yes, I know that Friday’s pre-MBW itinerary was supposed to include Traverse County, but we didn’t quite make it there. It seems there was just too much to see in Grant County, first at the North Ottawa impoundment and later at Pine Ridge County Park. As expected, we spent much of the morning at N. Ottawa where those summering (and evidently breeding) King Rails dashed across the road and gave at least a few of us a brief look. This represented a new addition to the all-time MBWeekends list, which now stands at 364 species! – or 363, after the recent ruling that Iceland and Thayer’s gulls are the same species. There was also a decent assortment of shorebirds, including Baird’s and Solitary which were not seen on the main MBW, and in retrospect we probably had a going-away look at a flock of Black-necked Stilts as we approached the impoundment.
Your Spineless, Wishy-washy Tour Leader then decided on a fashionably-late lunch at Pine Ridge park, where we found only one vacant picnic table, marginal outhouses – and a totally unexpected group of calling Red Crossbills! It took awhile for us to track them down as at least five of them silently fed on spruce cones in the grove of mixed conifers (see photo). This was also one of three places where we found Olive-sided Flycatcher, which proved to be our only early fall migrant passerine.
Noteworthy as well on Friday was an uncharacteristic absence of any wind, and most of the next day surprisingly remained just as calm. Saturday started nicely with a Common Gallinule heard along Stevens CR 9 (it had not been reported since July), the wetland at the corner of Big Stone CRs 25 and 10 then had its usual large assortment of shorebirds (including Black-bellied Plover) and other waterbirds, and our best selection of resident woods birds (including Scarlet Tanager) was found at Big Stone Lake S.P.’s Bonanza Grove. We finally made it to Traverse County after lunch where still more shorebirds were in the potholes along CR 2 and back in the Big Stone Co. wetlands west of Graceville.
Of course, this annual Morris-based MBW wouldn’t be the same without our requisite group dinner at Bello Cucina, and they again came through with fast and efficient service – i.e., 17 of us taken care of in only an hour and 15 minutes, allowing enough time for an evening return to North Ottawa. Although the weather was deteriorating and overcast skies brought dusk in prematurely, we mostly escaped the rain and it was definitely worth the trip. This time a juvenile King Rail (maybe two?) ran across the road as some MBWers were looking at the right place at the right time. An American Bittern even posed in the road at the same time, and nearby we managed to see (and hear!) an early Long-billed Dowitcher plus two Plegadis ibis (probably White-faced) as it got dark.
Rain was still in the forecast for Sunday morning, but luckily it held off until almost lunch time. This allowed us to come up with yet another group of Red Crossbills (six this time) feeding on spruce cones in the cemetery in Morris (!), and by now it seemed evident that some sort of crossbill irruption was taking place in western MN. (An unexpected Red-breasted Nuthatch was also present with the crossbills.) There was then time for a stop at the Morris sewage ponds before the rains came, and here we found Red-necked Phalaropes, plus Sanderlings and several other shorebirds at point-blank range for convenient study, as our shorebird total reached a respectable 18 species.
Bird List (124 species)
• Friday pre-MBW: Stevens, Grant Co’s
• Saturday: Stevens, Big Stone, Traverse, Grant Co’s
• Sunday: Stevens Co only
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall (pre-MBW only)
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Canvasback
Redhead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Ring-necked Pheasant
Wild Turkey
Pied-billed Grebe
Red-necked Grebe (pre-MBW only)
Eared Grebe (pre-MBW only)
Western Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
King Rail
Virginia Rail
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
[Black-necked Stilt: possibly seen flying away from N Ottawa?!]
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Stilt Sandpiper
Sanderling
Baird's Sandpiper (pre-MBW only)
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper (pre-MBW only)
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Wilson's Phalarope
Red-necked Phalarope
Franklin's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Black Tern
Common Loon (pre-MBW only)
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker (pre-MBW only)
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel (pre-MBW only)
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher (pre-MBW only)
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Yellow-throated Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Sedge Wren
Marsh Wren
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
House Sparrow
House Finch
Red Crossbill
American Goldfinch
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart (pre-MBW only)
Yellow Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow (pre-MBW only)
Field Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow (pre-MBW only)
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Scarlet Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Dickcissel (pre-MBW only)
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark (pre-MBW only)
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
* * *
Also see the 2016 and 2015 MBWs summaries
following the summary of the 2017 MBWeekend
__________
MORRIS MBW & pre-MBW SUMMARY
August 11-12-13, 2017
