Curt Rawn, Tony Lau, Brad Abendroth and I tallied 116 species between four sites in Faibault, Jackson, and Cottonwood Counties today (+1=117 from Freeborn County).
The highlight was experiencing a small scale fallout of 15 warbler species at Old Mill Park in Minnesota Lake (Faribault County), in addition to other neotropical migrant songbirds (as it seems to be the case with almost everyone posting on MOU today). Here is our warbler list from Old Mill, plus other birds of note observed there: Tennessee Warbler (~3) Nashville Warbler (~5) Orange-crowned Warbler (2) Golden-winged Warbler (2; one male, one female) Yellow Warbler (3) Chestnut-sided Warbler (~7) Magnolia Warbler (3) Yellow-rumped Warbler (10+) Palm Warbler (~4) Blackpoll Warbler (~10) Black-and-white Warbler (~12) American Redstart (4) Common Yellowthroat (3) Northern Waterthrush (2) Ovenbird (~20) Western Grebe (1, although apparently there is a colony here) Virginia Rail (1) Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (1) Eurasian Collared-Dove (2 at grain elevators in town) Common Nighthawk (1) Ruby-throated Hummingbird (1) Warbling Vireo (1) Yellow-throated Vireo (1) Blue-headed Vireo (1) Purple Martin (~6) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (2) Gray-cheecked Thrush (3-4) Swainson's Thrush (2) Eastern Towhee (1) Lincoln's Sparrow (~12) White-crowned Sparrow (4) Harris's Sparrow (1) Fox Sparrow (1) The Des Moines River in Jackson County was quiet, although we did observe 4 male Orchard Orioles. At Timber Lake Wildlife Management Area (Jackson County), we observed at least 6 Harris's Sparrow, 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and 2 Bobolink, among other species. Talcot Wildlife Management Area in Cottonwood County gave us our sixteenth warbler species for the day, a male Wilson's Warbler. A couple other birds of note there include ~10 Harris's Sparrow, Peregrine Falcon, 8 duck species, and an Eastern Kingbird (1 on the way to the WMA), plus other more common birds. We found no decent shorebird areas, so our shorebird count for the day was only 5. In total, there were 9 duck species, 8 raptor species, 5 swallow species, and 12 sparrow species. Some misses included Horned, Eared, and Red-necked Grebes, Common Loon, Northern Harrier, Swainson's Hawk, Wild Turkey, Sora, Upland Sandpiper, Black Tern, Red-headed Woodpecker, Loggerhead Shrike, Bank Swallow, Brown Creeper, Hermit Thrush, a few warbler species (i.e. Blackburnian, Black-throated Green), Northern Cardinal, Indigo Bunting, Ammodramus sparrow spp., and Savannah Sparrow. All in all, it was a fine day to be out birding! Alyssa DeRubeis Lake Mills, IA ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
