What a difference a year makes. Deep snow and thick ice cover at this time
last year to the arrival of swallows to the area about 20-30 days early this
year. 2 swallow species arrived today along the west bank of the Minnesota
River at Rapids Lake MVNWR. 2 Northern Rough-winged Swallow and 1 Tree Swallow
were meandering north. The song of the Northern Rough-winged Swallow was
what initially got me to look to the sky. Since I identified the song of the
Rough-winged first, this marks the first year that Tree Swallows have not been
the 1st identified swallow.
Full Rapids Lake MVNWR count
Canada Goose ~25(didn't pay too much attention to these)
Trumpeter Swan 3
Wood Duck 14
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal 2
Northern Shoveler 3
Redhead ~20
Ring-necked Duck ~200
Common Merganser 23
Wild Turkey
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Bald Eagle 5 (2nd morning in a row that a young Bald Eagle failed at his
attempt to catch a duck)
Sandhill Crane 1
Killdeer 2
Ring-billed Gull 3
Mourning Dove 2
Great Horned Owl 1 heard only
Belted Kingfisher 1 (compared to the arrival of other species this year, this
is relatively late)
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker 4
Eastern Phoebe 2 (1 initially singing from farmhouse but flew about 100 yards
south, 2nd about 1/4 mile south of that)
Blue Jay
American Crow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Tree Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 (different locations than the overwintering birds so
likely recent arrivals)
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin
American Tree Sparrow 5
Fox Sparrow 15 (a couple more probably heard)
Song Sparrow 25+
Harris's Sparrow 1 (same bird as yesterday)
Dark-eyed Junco 7
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark 1
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
North of Assumption on the east side of Cty. Rd. 33, 2 flocks totaling ~195
Greater White-fronted Geese flew in from the northwest and landed in a field.
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