Following the unexceptional spring of 2015(but great fall), the May of 2016 was once again unexceptional. I was out 15 days between May 4 and May 25. It appeared that a lot of migrants were overflying the area. There never was any poor weather either overnight or during daylight that would force birds to the ground. Most summer resident birds seemed to arrive to their territories like normal, but there weren't ever any higher numbers of resident species that were likely continuing on north. Birding this month was much more of a slog, as I did not come across a single "wave" of migrants. While in the end my migrant warbler totals this last month were higher than any of my lowest totals from past spring seasons that I put a significant amount of time into birding, if I had walked the shorter routes I was walking 2008-2012 this year's totals probably would have been terrible. Migrants were all very scattered with migrant warbler usually with no more than another 2-3 other migrants if that. I probably did not spend enough time out the final 1/3 of May to see a lot of flycatcher. Migrant vireo numbers were again less than stellar. Resident vireo numbers were normal but like the resident warbler, it seemed like only the vireo that are nesting in the area were observed. I guess I should stop expecting migrant sparrow in the spring excluding White-throated and Fox, as I did not see a single Harris's Sparrow and found very few Lincoln's and White-crowned. Species that I should have seen at this point in the year but have yet to see include Franklin's Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, Forster's Tern, Black Tern, Green Heron, Cape May Warbler, Pine Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Harris's Sparrow, and Savannah Sparrow(either missed every time I visited Rapids Lake or oddly yet to/not returning to the unit this year). Some of these species I probably could have found easily if I spent time in rural areas of Carver County, but so far this year I'm not that interested in spending a lot of time driving around looking for birds. I would think that I should have come across at least half of the missed species randomly when I was out this last month. I did not spend any time looking for shorebirds, so I did not see many shorebirds this spring. There were no unusual sightings this May.
Warbler species seen each day followed by cumulative migrant warbler count May 4 3 May 5 12 May 6 13 May 7 12 May 8 10 May 11 18 May 12 19 May 14 21 May 15 21 May 17 12 May 18 18 May 19 15 May 20 11 May 22 14 May 25 5 Ovenbird 41 Louisiana Waterthrush 1 (April) Northern Waterthrush 20 Golden-winged Warbler 9 Black-and-white Warbler 27 Tennessee Warbler 88 Orange-crowned Warbler 6 Nashville Warbler 67 Connecticut Warbler 1 Mourning Warbler 5 Northern Parula 2 Magnolia Warbler 23 Bay-breasted Warbler 1 Blackburnian Warbler 12 Chestnut-sided Warbler 8 Blackpoll Warbler 10 Palm Warbler 23 Yellow-rumped Warbler 158 (includes March and April counts but not January/February) Yellow-throated Warbler 1 (April) Black-throated Green Warbler 11 Canada Warbler 6 Wilson's Warbler 18 Numbers of resident warbler (Blue-winged, Prothonotary(at least 6 territories), Yellow, Yellowthroat, and Redstart) were good. Other species cumulative counts Olive-sided Flycatcher 1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1 Alder Flycatcher 4 Willow Flycatcher 8 Least Flycatcher 63 Blue-headed Vireo 10 Philadelphia Vireo 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 91 (March and April) Ruby-crowned Kinglet 81 (April and May) Veery 3 Gray-cheeked Thrush 4 Swainson's Thrush 10 Hermit Thrush 21 (April) Wood Thrush 14 ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
