The fall season in Carver County is right on schedule with today seeing the biggest influx of migrant warbler to the area. I saw my first migrant warbler of the fall back on July 28 at Rapids Lake. A small wave including a male Tennessee, female Golden-winged, and female Pine Warbler were feeding along the east shore of Rapids Lake that day, and a male Nashville Warbler was on his own on the opposite side of the lake. The Tennessee Warbler was not a surprise that early nor the Nashville(though it was my personal earliest fall for the species), but the Golden-winged and especially Pine were quite early. I didn't turn up many migrants during the first 1/3 of August, but I was able to find lone Alder Flycatcher, Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, and Northern Waterthrush. Early yesterday along a rural road south of Mayer I found a Northern Waterthrush in scrub along the edge of the road, and about 1/4 mile from that a male Tennessee Warbler was in a tree and scrub along the road at the edge of a farm field. Later that morning at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum I found my first Blackburnian and Chestnut-sided(2) Warbler of the fall. Today's influx of warbler at the arboretum matches up pretty well with last year. On August 14, 2015 I counted 6 Chestnut-sided Warbler at the arboretum. Today I counted 7. Also present this morning at the arboretum were Olive-sided Flycatcher, Blue-winged Warbler, Brewster's Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Mourning Warbler(2), Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, and Canada Warbler. As for other species, so far I am off to my best start to the fall in terms of species variety. Shorebirds haven't exactly been abundant, but I've had a bit more luck this August compared to last year with 12 shorebird species. Franklin's Gull have been much more numerous so far this fall compared to past years. Otherwise it seemed to me like a lot of the local breeders cleared from the area a bit earlier than usual this year.
John Cyrus ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
