With family gone & Labor Day off, had an opportunity to bird extensively around Sherburne NWR (7 locations), Princeton, Foley (empty)/Gilman ponds and around home over the weekend. Most days were rather quiet (both before and after the storms), but total (89) wasn't terrible. List follows, with occasional observations:
Pied-billed Grebe American White Pelican (320 on the Auto Tour Friday night, 100+ on Orrock Lake Saturday) Double-crested Cormorants (200+) Great Blue Heron (no Green Herons all weekend) Great Egret Canada Goose Wood Duck Mallard Blue-winged Teal Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Ring-necked Pheasant Ruffed Grouse Wild Turkey (two on the cemetary road that has just opened) Sandhill Crane Killdeer Yellowlegs species (3/4 of a mile away at 60X on the Auto Tour) Solitary Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Baird's Sandpiper (one, would give it a 90% probable ID based primarily on length of feathers beyond tail) Pectoral Sandpiper Common Snipe Ring-billed Gull Rock Dove Mourning Dove Common Nighthawk (five over Mahnomen trail Friday night) Belted Kingfisher Red-headed Woodpecker (Sherburne CR 3 near ponds) Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Eastern Wood-Pewee Eastern Phoebe GC Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird (only two all weekend) Yellow-throated Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Warbling Vireo Philadelphia Vireo Red-eyed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Common Raven (5th or 6th time this year I've found one in the general NWR area - always a different spot - this time on the back side of Blue Hill Trail - over the winter one even spent time in the church parking lot on Highway 2 - Craig Mendel noted one was nesting this spring) Tree Swallow Bank Swallow Barn Swallow Black-capped Chickadee Red-breasted Nuthatch (number moving through as well as residents) White-breasted Nuthatch Marsh Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet (have had a small flock/group every month of the year in the coniferous area on Blue Hill Trail, bit of a puzzle) Ruby-crowned Kinglet (personal first of fall) Eastern Bluebird American Robin (Monday did not see for four hours of birding) Gray Catbird European Starling Cedar Waxwing Golden-winged Warbler (most warblers were individual, no mixed flocks greater than 10-15 birds all weekend) Tennessee Warbler Nashville Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Magnolia Warbler Pine Warbler (beautiful look at a fall plumage bird from 10 feet in the evergreens) Black & White Warbler American Redstart Ovenbird Mourning Warbler Common Yellowthroat Wilson's Warbler Canada Warbler (very light necklace) Scarlet Tanager (yellow only) Chipping Sparrow Clay-colored Sparrow (six in home fields) Field Sparrow Vesper Sparrow Song Sparrow Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Indigo Bunting (actually brown bunting) Bobolink (single in the home fields) Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Baltimore Oriole American Goldfinch House Sparrow Good birding to all! Al Schirmacher Princeton, MN Mille Lacs & Sherburne Counties
