I wanted to add to Joel's post of our Rochester birding experience.
Thank you Joel for joining me and making this experience so
delightful! Thanks so much for all of the recommendations and
offerings regarding birding sights near Rochester. Joel had responded
and offered to bird with me, so we hooked up.
Joel and I met two other birders whose names I don't recall (but whose
presence added so much) at the Izaak Walton wetlands as mentioned in
Joel's post below. The weather was chilly at 8:00 a.m. and windy as
can be. We wandered into the southern portion of the wetlands area
(you just park on the road for this one) and saw a little action but
the wind kept things down quite a bit. We went deeper towards the
river and wave upon wave of beautiful warblers crashed on us. It was
pure bliss. To accent the beauty of the experience, dozens of
varieties of wild flowers were blooming including carpets of bluebells
trillium, anenome, lilies, and other flowers apparently only Joel knew
in our group. Ferns were everywhere. It was simply breathtaking and
a gold mine for birding. It was awesome to see so many relatively
rare (for me anyway) birds in numbers greater than one or two.
I wanted to add the other warblers we saw just to re-experience the
feeling - Plus I counted a remarkable 22 warbler species (for me
anyway)!
Tennessee
Nashville
Ovenbird
Yellow
Blackburnian
Black-Throated Green
Palm
Blackpoll
Redstart
Black-and-White
Northern Waterthrush
Wilson's Warbler
Along with a very cooperative Swainson's Thrush,
Wood Ducks,
a few possible Least Flycatchers (they never sang but looked like them),
Bald Eagle,
Turkey Vulture,
heard Great Crested Flycatcher,
Red-Breasted Grosbeak
And the usual band of resident feathered beasties.
It was a thrill also to have several of the birds be lifer's for the
other two birders who had joined us.
Joel's post
This morning Thomas Maiello and I birded the Izaak Walton wetlands
just SW of Rochester, and found excellent numbers and variety of
warblers. 19 species if I am counting correctly. Some highlights:
- many Chestnut Sided, Redstart, and Nashville
- 7+ Magnolia
- 3-5 Golden-winged
- 2-4 Parula
- One Common Yellowthroat, but from only 5’
- Blackburnian
- Cape May
- Bay Breasted
For most species we had multiple individuals and excellent looks.
It helped that we found an area protected somewhat from the strong
south wind.
We also saw several species of warbler at my house. So it is time to
play hooky, maybe get the warbler flu, and get out to see warblers.
Good luck to you all!
Joel Dunnette
Thomas Maiello
Angel Environmental Management, Inc.
Maple Grove, MN
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