I spent 6+ hours yesterday morning and early afternoon, birding along the west side of the Mississippi River in south St. Cloud. I started near River Bluffs Regional Park off Clearwater Road, and made my way up to Beaver Island, on the south end of SCSU campus, with most of my time spent around the St. Cloud Country Club neighborhood. There were lots of warblers and other neotrops - not the huge numbers we had a week ago, but a good mix and steady action. The area provides an excellent mix of hardwoods, pine, flowering trees (lots of bugs), shrubby edges, tangled grape vine, snags, as well as more manicured properties that were devoid of birds except for cardinals, chipping sparrows, and other city birds. I was so enthralled, I only consumed ONE cup of coffee all day. Unheard of for me! I had 19 species of warblers - I didn't think I'd find nearly that many, as the "action" in our part of MN has gone down a lot in the last couple of days. Lots of flycatchers, mostly least, but also great-crested, alder, eastern kingbird, and of course, phoebe. Blue-gray gnatcatcher (lots) Ruby-crowned kinglet Swainson's thrush Veery Gray catbird Cedar Waxwing Indigo bunting Baltimore oriole Orchard Oriole Rose-breasted grosbeak LOTS of ruby-throated hummingbirds LOTS of American goldfinches Northern waterthrush Black-and-white warbler Tennessee warbler (lots) Orange-crowned warbler Nashville warbler Common yellowthroat American redstart (lots) Cape May warbler (only 1) Northern parula (only 1) Magnolia warbler Bay-breasted warbler Blackburnian warbler Yellow warbler (lots) Chestnut-sided warbler Blackpoll warbler Palm warbler NO yellow-rumped warblers Black-throated green warbler Canada warbler (only 1) Wilson's warbler Betsy Beneke St. Cloud
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