Hello Birders, I am glad to see that spring has come and so have the birds. My dad and I birded this weekend, mostly in the Missouri River valley on both Saturday and Sunday, camping in Onawa as we made our way south. Going from our home in Bronson, we stuck close to the river, spending part of our day birding and the other part relaxing and fishing. We came out with a modest total of 87 species as we went through Woodbury, Monona and Harrison Counties, with 21 waterfowl species and 6 shorebird species. We had lots of first of the year birds. Here are some highlights, with one observation made on April 1 included:
April 1 14 American Pipit at Luton WMA N April 2: 18 Great Egret at Brown's Lake, Sandhill Lake 1 Redhead at Badger Lake WMA 1 Canvasback at New Lake 14 Red-breasted Merganser at Brown's Lake 15 Sandill Crane at Tieville Bend WMA (flyover) 1 Baird's Sandpiper at Sandhill Lake 3 American Woodcock at Lewis and Clark State Park 53 Ring-billed Gull at Weedland Access 15 Harris's Sparrows in one row of bushes on 235th st in Woodbury ~10 Smith's Longspur at Sandhill Lake (flyover) April 3: 1 Common Goldeneye at Round Lake WMA 1 Swainson's Hawk on Hwy 30 near Desoto Bend NWR 9 Northern Harriers in Harrison County (not seen in any other county) 10 Franklin's Gull Deoto and Murray Hill Overlook (pinkest one I've seen) 1 Field Sparrow in the Loess Hills State Forest-Preparation Canyon 1 Chipping Sparrow in Blencoe Good Birding, Tucker J. Lutter Bronson, IA 712-948-3696 --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/membership.asp. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
