3/29/14
Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter
Southwestern Minnesota Birding Days
Field Trip Report
March 26, 27, 29, 2014
While leading a field trip out of Ortonville, the last few days. Our group was
treated to one of the better flights of Geese that I have ever encountered in
Minnesota. Over the 3 days of the trip, our group easily observed 100,000 plus
Geese in flight and in the fields around Big Stone and Traverse counties. We
started the trip on Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm and observed an amazing flight
of Geese, observed right from the Econo Lodge Parking lot in Ortonville. With
1000s of Greater White-fronted Geese and a mix of Snow, Ross's, Canada and
Cackling Geese mixed in. Thursday morning while birding in Ortonville around
8:00 am we observed another large flight of Geese. This time it was mainly
Snow and Ross's Geese, which we observed a continuous stream of birds for about
45 minutes. But the best of all was on Friday morning, when we were at the
Reservation Dam WMA on Lake Traverse. Around 11:00 am, we observed a flight of
around 100 thousand primarily Snow and Ross's Geese. With the lakes still
frozen, the waterfowl seemed to stay close to the rivers in the area and the
fields near by.
Here are some of the birds our group observed during the trip:
Greater White-fronted Geese
Snow Geese
Ross's Geese
Cackling Geese
Canada Geese
16 species of Ducks, including an American Black Duck observed at the
Reservation Dam WMA and some Greater Scaup observed at the outlet to Big Stone
Lake.
Wild Turkey
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Great Horned Owl
Short Eared Owl - This sighting was of a single Short Eared Owl in flight
harassing a Bald Eagle. It was interesting to see the interaction between the
two species. This was at the Reservation Dam WMA, at 10:30 am.
Northern Shrike
Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting
Purple Finch
----
Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net
Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
