Hello All-
Announcing the results of the 3rd Annual Douglas Country Big Day by the Ellis family. Participating were dad John, and sons/brothers Jesse (me, writing) and Alex. Due to time contraints, we made the unusual decision to do our Big Day from 6pm August 2nd to 6pm August 3rd, which made for much different general bird-finding tactics. Total for the day was 118 species, a little below our goal of 120. Weather was great (clear, still, 83 degrees) the evening of the 2nd, but the third dawned a little chilly, and never topped 66 degrees, and a breeze picked up toward the end of the count period. Highlights in taxonomic order: Cattle Egret, seen on the Grant Co. line near Pelican Lake, as a single flyover SNOW GOOSE - we found a Blue Goose at the Osakis sewage ponds. This bird was seen both the evening of the 2nd and late in the day on the 3rd. Osprey - a pair was circling over Swim Lake in the early minutes of our count 11 species of shorebirds, including RUDDY TURNSTONE at Osakis Sewage Ponds and American Woodcock doing a partial display twitter in NE Douglas Co. All expected Woodpeckers save Red-bellied Black-and-white Warbler All 8 expected breeding sparrows, including Grasshopper Sparrow Weak spots in our list included a few big duck misses, such as Gadwall, Ruddy Duck, and Ringneck, disappointingly few migrant warblers, a general scarcity of raptors besides Kestrel and Red-tail (we missed Broad-wing, Cooper's, Swainson's and Bald Eagle, and only had singles of Red-shoulder and Sharpie), and several misses and near misses on normally common breeders, such as Tanager and Virginia Rail. The last is one of the challenges of a late summer big day, I guess. Also, we had very few locations with shorebirds present. However, it was exciting to explore our favorite county, try a new and unusual Big Day format, and find some good birds for August in the county. If anyone has questions, either reply to this address to my father, John, or email me at [email protected]. Good birding, Jesse Ellis
