What a great birding day! Quite unintentionally, as I had other things needing doing, so I made relatively brief, dedicated bird-watching times for the day, but the birds obliged whenever I stepped out.
Wrapping up (for now, anyway) birding for the day in-between work (or is it work in-between birding?), I figured I'd tally up my species for the day. Still feeling that migration is behind the ball a bit, I didn't see quite a few expected birds today, so I expected a total of around 75 species or so. But between a morning walk at the nearest nature center, backyard birding, and a short afternoon stroll in my neighborhood, I wound up finding 95 species today--all told, traveling less than 14 miles from my house, and equalling about 5 hours of time outside. No rarities or much to excite the die-hard among us, but the sheer abundance and variety out there today made me very happy. About two-thirds of the species are from this morning at Oakdale Nature Preserve, but I was spoiled in my yard today with an abundance of warblers (including a lovely male Bay-Breasted that hung out in the same patch of trees at eye level for about 30 minutes; at one point sharing a branch with a Blackburnian). A Harris's Sparrow was a favorite find from the afternoon. Hope the birds found you as well! Kyle Te Poel Stillwater Township, MN ---- General information and guidelines for posting: https://moumn.org/listservice.html Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.
