September 12, 2014 Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter Southern Minnesota Birding Days September 11, 12, 2014 Field Trip Itinerary Our group enjoyed some great birding in Martin & Faribault county the last few days. On Thursday we birded in Faribault county and observed 88 species of birds, including five species of Vireo and 17 species of Warblers. We made lots of stops along the Blue Earth river and some county parks and WMAs and WPAs. We observed migrating song birds at most of our stops. Today we birded in Martin county and observed 91 species of birds, including five species of Vireo and 17 species of Warblers. On there way home Susan and Ken Schumacher also spent some time in Faribault county and observed a Ruddy Turnstone at the Wells WTP. The bird was still present at 6:30 pm. Here are some of the species we observed on the trip: Shorebirds: Killdeer, Spotted, Solitary, Least, Baird's and Pectoral Sandpipers, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs, Ruddy Turnstone and Wilson's Snipe. The Ruddy Turnstone was observed in the Southern cell of the Wells WTP. Which is located West of the town of Wells along Highway 109. The Turnstone and other Shorebirds were observed along the Southern shore of the cell. Franklin's Gull - 100s were observed on most of the lakes we visited and also in flight during the mornings. Eastern Screech Owl Yellow-throated Vireo Blue-headed Vireo - We observed several dozen Blue-headed Vireos, at various locations in the two counties. Warbling Vireo Philadelphia Vireo - We observed, 6 at five different locations on the Thursday and several today. Ruby-crowned Kinglet - These were observed in small numbers on both days. Brown Thrasher Warblers Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Blue-winged, Black-and-white, Tennessee, Nashville, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Cape May, Northern Parula, Magnolia, Bay-breasted, Blackburnian, Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Blackpoll, Black-throated Green, Canada & Wilson's Warbler. Here are some of the locations we stopped at that had good numbers of migrants: Pilot Grove Lake WPA, Dobson Cemetery, Woods Lake County Park, Steinberg Nature Park, Wolter Park, Klessig County Park, Timberlane County Park, Cedar Park & the Ceylon & Wells WTP's. All these locations, plus another 30+ random stops along the Blue Earth River and the East Chain of Lakes in Martin county, held some nice waves of Warblers and other birds. It is interesting that in the 1000s of Warblers our group observed over the two day period. Not a single Yellow-rumped Warbler was observed. Craig Mandel Minnetonka, Hennepin County [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
