Andrew Krenz, Benji Inniger, and I attempted to break the Hey Birders, Andrew Krenz, Benji Inniger, and I attempted to break the record Benji and I set in 2008 for Blue Earth County (157). While coming up short by 12 species, it was definitely one of the best big days I've ever attempted considering the conditions.
Summary: 01:00-21:00--145 species: 12 waterfowl, 2 grebes, 3 herons, 7 hawks, 18 shorebirds, 4 owls, 6 woodpeckers, 8 flycatchers, 3 vireos, 6 swallows, 4 thrushes, 11 warblers, 10 sparrows, 10 blackbirds. Significant finds: Common Gallinule (Maple River WMA), Prothonotary Warbler (Minneopa SP/Watonwan WPA), Eastern Screech-Owl, Long-eared Owl, Greater White-fronted Goose (O.A. Vee WMA), Willet (Gilfillin Lake), Ruddy Turnstone (Gilfillin Lake), Eurasian Collared-Dove in a new town (Vernon Center), Gray Partridge, Upland Sandpiper on a nest on the Martin County side of the road (thanks...sort of...Ron Erpelding--not included). Significant misses: Pileated Woodpecker, American Bittern, Least Bittern, non-resident passerines. Here's where it may get a little long. The forecast was for 20-25 mile an hour winds throughout the day and afternoon thunderstorms. After last year's dousing during our Waseca Big Day, I was willing to face bad weather again if it produced the same record results. We significantly altered our record-setting route in order to compensate for the high winds and poor nocturnal listening conditions, selecting protected river valleys and small wetlands with trees on their south side that could break the wind. We also changed our dawn spot from Cobb River WPA to Minneopa State Park to compensate for what has been a relatively poor warbler showing this spring. Our usual migrant trap is completely leafed out and would have been on the windward side (hearing and seeing warblers would have been difficult at best). The river bottoms below the bluff at Minneopa seemed to afford the best chance at migrants. We also needed to visit Gilfillin Lake before the heat of the day to take advantage of this lake that is being drawn down. The route ended up working pretty well. Over 1,000 birds were present that morning on Gilfillin Lake with most being Semipalmated Sandpipers. However, the variety pushed us over 100 species for the day by 9:00am: Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, both yellowlegs, Willet (2), Spotted Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone (1), Least, White-rumped, and Pectoral Sandpipers, Dunlin, and Wilson's Phalarope (1). We added Hudsonian Godwit (a couple of locations), Baird's Sandpiper, and Short-billed Dowitcher at other locations to round out the list. We had only 5 migrant warblers (Connecticut, Mourning, Tennessee, Blackpoll, and Wilson's), only 1 migrant thrush (Swainson's), only resident vireos (no Blue-headed or Philadelphia), only resident sparrows (no Nelson's, Le Conte's, Lincoln's, or Zonotrichiaspecies). Flycatchers were the only passerines in which we saw most the migrants (missing only Yellow-bellied). That certainly suggests that 157 species is beatable. We were in awe much of the day. The clouds were spectacular and we saw little rain in spite of the towering thunderheads. We had very few slow periods but also had only two big surges (Minneopa SP and Gilfillin Lake). To God be the glory! Happy birding! Chad Heins Mankato P.S. Tom Dahlen alerted me to an American Avocet at Gilfillin Lake on Sunday. I checked it out and found only about 200 shorebirds there including the avocet. "But ask the animals and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?" --Job 12:7, 9 ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
