Saturday afternoon, I stopped by two glacial lakes in the Prairie Pothole Region: South Twin Lake (Calhoun Co.) and Sunken Grove WA (Pocahontas Co.). Each place featured 23 species of waterfowl and good numbers of migrants overall. Unexpected birds included a Tundra Swan at Sunken Grove and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull among over 800 gulls gathering at South Twin.
Around this time of year at South Twin, there are usually smaller numbers of Ring-billed Gulls that come in to lounge on the water in the afternoon, after spending much of the day foraging in nearby fields. But on this visit, with about 60 percent of the lake still frozen, many gulls were atop the ice and gorging on Yellow Perch and Black Bullheads. The LBBG was perched out on the wider southern half of the lake, where the ice was most extensive. The Tundra Swan at Sunken Grove was a new bird for me in Pocahontas/Calhoun and represented one of my few encounters with this species in the southern extent of the PPR. This individual was trying to stay closely alongside (on the water and through the air) two strikingly larger Trumpeter Swans that seemed interested in remaining one step ahead. Duck and goose numbers at South Twin, in descending order of abundance: Mallard - 3,820 Greater White-fronted Goose - 1,850; more than I would expect so late into March Green-winged Teal - 740; along the unfrozen hemi-marsh at the northeast end Northern Shoveler - 635 Gadwall - 290 Lesser Scaup - 215 Wood Duck - 93 Canada Goose - 76 Common Merganser - 75 Ring-necked Duck - 73 Northern Pintail - 72 Bufflehead - 53; a good spring count for this little diver Ruddy Duck - 51 American Wigeon - 48; also a nice number for spring Snow Goose - 45; all but 6 were blue morph Redhead - 30 Ross's Goose - 8 Canvasback - 8 Red-breasted Merganser - 6 Cackling Goose - 2 Greater Scaup - 2 - drake and hen Hooded Merganser - 2 Blue-winged Teal - 1 Some other migrants at South Twin, including multiple FOY: Pied-billed Grebe - 1 Double-crested Cormorant - 11 Northern Harrier - 2 Lesser Yellowlegs - 4 Least Sandpiper - 3 Pectoral Sandpiper - 6 Ring-billed Gull - 820 Herring Gull - 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull - 1 adult, mentioned above Tree Swallow - 2 Fox Sparrow - 6 Swamp Sparrow - 2 Yellow-headed Blackbird - 1 male singing Duck/goose/swan numbers at Sunken Grove, again in descending order: Mallard - 530 Greater White-fronted Goose - 510 Ring-necked Duck - 285 Gadwall - 230 Northern Shoveler - 120 Wood Duck - 85 Green-winged Teal - 61 Lesser Scaup - 55 Canada Goose - 40 Ruddy Duck - 23 Northern Pintail - 19 American Wigeon - 11 Canvasback - 9 Redhead - 6 Bufflehead - 5 Common Merganser - 5 Hooded Merganser - 3 Trumpeter Swan - 2 Snow Goose - 2 Ross's Goose - 1 Blue-winged Teal - 1 Greater Scaup - 1 drake Tundra Swan - 1 Some others at Sunken Grove: Bald Eagle - 2; pair at nest (also nested here in 2012) Pied-billed Grebe - 2 Great Blue Heron - 18 perched on nests in rookery American Coot - 4 Wilson's Snipe - 2 Fox Sparrow - 8 Swamp Sparrow - 1 Rusty Blackbird - 18 -Shane Patterson Ames, Story Co. --- 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/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
