Hey Minnesota-
Our neighbor across the river (where I currently live, unfortunately) has instituted a bit of a community birding challenge that I have found interesting. Wisconsin, too, is suffering from a massive Dickcissel infestation, and the challenge has been laid down - find Dickcissel in every county. They're doing very well, too (see the forward from the wisb list at the very bottom), even getting Dickcissel in the relatively forested northwest and northeast counties. After getting my first Douglas Co., MN dickcissels last weekend, I thought I would see how well Minnesota was doing. The answer? Despite all those reports on the listserve, not very well, according to eBird. Below are the counties for which there are no eBird records of Dickcissel this year. A fair fraction of those counties have none or only one eBird list submitted for the whole year! I know we have more counties than Wisconsin, but we're closer to the core dickcissel range and we have better habitat! We should be able to best them in number of counties (87 vs 72 - can we beat 72?), even if we can't find Dickcissel in Cook or Lake counties. We're at 44 right now. Below is the list of counties for which there are no record of Dickcissel this year. Anoka county??? And I can't believe no one has submitted a list this summer for Traverse Co - there are good birds out there. So, if you already have a record for one of these counties, please go to eBird and enter it. If you're traveling through any of these counties, stick your head out the window by a large field, and tick a dickcissel, and then enter it. And if you really want to be nice, hop the river and see if St. Croix, Pepin, or Pierce Cos in Wisconsin have and Dickcissel, and ebird those. Good birding! Jesse Ellis Dane Co. WI List of Dickcisselless Counties of Minnesota. anoka becker beltrami benton brown carlton cass chippewa clearwater cook crow wing grant isanti itasca kanabec kandiyohi kittson koochiching lake Lake of the woods le sueur lincoln ONLY ONE eBIRD LIST SUBMITTED THIS YEAR? lyon mahnomen marshall meeker mille lacs morrison nobles ONLY ONE eBIRD LIST SUBMITTED THIS YEAR? norman NO eBIRD LISTS? otter tail pennington NO eBIRD LISTS? pope NO eBIRD LISTS? red lake renville roseau stevens NO eBIRD LISTS? swift traverse ONLY ONE eBIRD LIST SUBMITTED THIS YEAR? waseca watonwan wilkin ONLY ONE eBIRD LIST SUBMITTED THIS YEAR? yellow medicine On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 5:40 PM, tom prestby <[email protected]> wrote: > If you live in or near or are traveling to Buffalo, Juneau, Lincoln, > Menominee, Pepin, Pierce, St. Croix, Waupaca, or Waushara Counties please > read this email carefully!! If not, please read it anyway! :) > > As many have noticed, it has been an incredible summer in the state for > Dickcisslels in coverage and density, especially in central and northern > Wisconsin. Southern Wisconsin is not missing out either--ridiculously high > counts such as 65 have been recorded by Bill Mueller and Noel Cutright at > the Forest Beach preserve in Ozaukee County. While doing field work in the > central and northern part of the state the last couple weeks, I have been > trying to find them in each county by making short drives in open areas and > listening out the car window. It has worked in every county I have tried. A > couple weeks ago, on my way up, I pulled off I-94 in Jackson County and > found 19 Dickcissels on a short drive near the Hixon/Alma Center area. On > this same day, Ryan Brady found 29 in Ashland/Bayfield Counties. Over the > next few days as I continued north, I realized they were very easy to find > in Taylor, Chippewa, Rusk, and Sawyer Counties including 19 on a short > drive near Exeland and 4 on m > y Couderay BBS (1 of which was in Washburn County). Around this same > time, Nick Anich found 9 in Iron County, one of the most forested counties > in the state. On my way east after my NW Wisconsin field work, I ticked > them off for Price County near Phillips by driving less than a mile off my > route on Hwy 13. I wasn't sure if the impressive numbers from NW Wisconsin > would translate to NE Wisconsin but this became obvious when I counted 19 > on a drive in open areas near Argonne in Forest County a couple days ago. > And finally, yesterday, Nick Anich and I found a couple in Vilas County and > we did not have to even leave the parking lot of the hotel he was staying > at (Derby Inn) to do so. > > By finding them in Vilas County, we completed a sweep of far northern > Wisconsin thanks to the efforts of Kay Kavanaugh and others in Florence and > Marinette Counties and Andy Paulios in Douglas County. This brings me to > the important part of this post. We have the opportunity this year to eBird > a Dickcissel in every single county in the state this summer. We are > actually already very close-- the counties that have not recorded > Dickcissel in eBird are BUFFALO, JUNEAU, LINCOLN, MENOMINEE (this will be > the tough one since it is literally almost all forested), PEPIN, PIERCE, > ST. CROIX, WAUPACA, and WAUSHARA. If you live in or near any of theses > counties or if your summer travels take you through any of them, please > take a few minutes (probably all you'll need) to listen in some open areas > and enter your sightings into eBird. It would be pretty cool to record this > species in every county in the state this summer. You will probably find > some bonus birds too-- I heard Western Meadowl > ark in Taylor, Marathon, Sawyer, and Forest Counties while looking for > Dickcissels and Le Conte's and Henslow's Sparrows in Rusk County. > > Good luck! > > Tom Prestby > Woodruff, Oneida County > #################### > You received this email because you are subscribed to the Wisconsin > Birding Network (Wisbirdn). > To UNSUBSCRIBE or SUBSCRIBE, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: > http://www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn > To set DIGEST or VACATION modes, use the Wisbirdn web interface at: > http://www.freelists.org/list/wisbirdn > Visit Wisbirdn ARCHIVES at: http://www.freelists.org/archives/wisbirdn > > > -- Jesse Ellis Post-doctoral Researcher Dept. of Zoology University of Wisconsin - Madison Madison, Dane Co, WI ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
