I went on a trip with my mother to four western Minnesota counties that I had never birded before and checked out what the prairie had to offer. We spent the morning and afternoon of 5/28 in Clay county and Polk counties and hit Marshall county just before dark. We did a little birding at Rothsay in Wilkin county today (5/9). The weather was not ideal for birding either day, with spotty showers and high winds, but we were able to pull out some good birds. The area is beautiful and if you haven't checked it out before it is worth a trip.
Highlights: Henslow's Sparrow- One seen and heard very well at Bluestem Prairie SNA along CR 12 just east of 150th Street on the north side of the road. Greater Prairie-Chicken and Upland Sandpiper- I finally saw my first Greater Prairie-Chicken (four of them) and got a good view of a bird I usually have a lot of trouble finding, the Upland Sandpiper, both at Felton Prairie. Warren Sewage Ponds- The other surprise of the trip (other than the Henslow's Sparrow) was the incredible amount of bird activity at these sewage ponds. The conditions were atrocious, with driving winds and dropping temperatures on the night of 5/28, and I think that drove surrounding birds to this location. Here are the numbers I got at the sewage ponds (excluding some common birds with low numbers): Wilson's Phalarope- 95- This estimate is probably on the low end as the eastern pond was swarming with a huge flock and a scattered second flock. Dunlin- 6 Least Sandpiper- 2 Pectoral Sandpiper- 2 Marbled Godwit- 1 Black Tern- 12 Franklin's Gull- 17 Canvasback- 15 Ruddy Duck- 4 Green-winged Teal- 4 Blue-winged Teal- 14 Lesser Scaup- 6 Northern Shoveler- 8 Gadwall- 8 Mallard- 15 Cliff Swallow- 215 (obviously an estimate) Barn Swallow- 175 (obviously an estimate) Tree Swallow- 15 Bald Eagle- 2 Brewer's Blackbird- 2 Yellow-headed Blackbird Horned Lark- 2 Common Loon- 1 Bobolink- 1 Vesper Sparrow- 1 I had to very careful at the Warren sewage ponds because the birds were being extremely skittish so I was just peeking over the top of the berm and then ducking back down again. I'm sure I missed many birds that were just on the other side of the berm or small shorebirds that were on the far side of the ponds. West side of Rothsay WMA. There was a small marshy area that was in front of a farmhouse that held a few shorebirds including: Wilson's Phalarope- 9 Pectoral Sandpiper- 3 Semipalmated Sandpiper- 11 I think there was one other species involved but I could not get a good scope view of one of the shorebirds that was mostly obscured by the grass in front of it. Overall, the windy conditions led to changed feeding behaviors and many species were not being vocal, especially the flycatchers and the rails/ bittern. I ended up with around 86 species for the western counties with several other species being added on the drive up. I don't think I had any migrants other than the shorebirds. Notable misses in the western counties (Wilkin, Clay, Polk, Marshall) include: Chestnut-collared Longspur- 0 Le Conte's Sparrow- 0 ( although there were tons of Grasshopper Sparrows and I may have confused each others song) Western Kingbird- 0 (a bit of a surprise) Blue Jay- 0 Black-capped Chickadee- 0 Good birding, Jason Caddy South Minneapolis ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
