This past week has seen quite the surge in Yellow-rumped Warbler numbers. Most Yellow-rumped were seen in groups of 2-5 with the largest flocks of 10-15 birds. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary this week with the most unusual bird being a Rough-legged Hawk south of Norwood this morning.
Select counts April 10 Rapids Lake MVNWR Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 5 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 9 Hermit Thrush 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler 40 (scattered mainly along the river and west of Rapids Lake) American Tree Sparrow 3 Field Sparrow 7 Vesper Sparrow 3 Savannah Sparrow 1 Dark-eyed Junco 6 Eastern Meadowlark 8 (wondering if 4 of these were young from previous years as 4 were just feeding in the sand right below one that sang normally from its territory just above them) Purple Finch 2 April 12 Rapids Lake MVNWR Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 4 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 12 Hermit Thrush 3 Yellow-rumped Warbler 48 (more west of lake and south of visitors center than along the river compared to the 10th) Field Sparrow 7 Vesper Sparrow 1 Eastern Meadowlark 3 Purple Finch 2 (in the same tree as the 10th) 16 waterfowl species across rural Carver County including 12 Common Merganser on Maria Lake and 40 Red-breasted Merganser on Lake Waconia Rice Lake 3 Greater Yellowlegs (few other distant probable yellowleg species) ~350 Pectoral Sandpiper (on April 10 there were no shorebirds and very few ducks, so this flock of Pectoral was likely a new flock compared to those seen the previous weekend) Bonaparte's Gull 8 April 14 Carver Park Common Loon 1 Double-crested Cormorant 60 Great Blue Heron 2 Great Egret 1 Osprey 3 Sandhill Crane 1 Belted Kingfisher 1 Eastern Phoebe 4 Golden-crowned Kinglet 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 23 Hermit Thrush 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 45 American Tree Sparrow 1 Chipping Sparrow 5 Field Sparrow 5 Swamp Sparrow 12 White-throated Sparrow 1 Dark-eyed Junco 13 Eastern Meadowlark 1 Lake Waconia Red-breasted Merganser 19 Common Loon 1 Horned Grebe 1 (possibly more as there were several more grebe-sized birds further back from the one) American Coot (large rafts all week) New Germany area Great Blue Heron 3 Great Egret 2 Blue-winged Teal 50+ Green-winged Teal 10 Greater Yellowlegs 5 Lesser Yellowlegs 3 Assumption Lake Brown Thrasher 1 Rice Lake Greater Yellowlegs 30+ Lesser Yellowlegs 50+ Pectoral Sandpiper (few mixed in with a mainly Lesser Yellowlegs flock, additionally ~75 shorebirds too far to positively ID of likely Yellowlegs and Pectoral species based only on size/shape) Bonaparte's Gull 1 ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html