Fall migration was in full swing today on Park Point. I had many warbler clusters and in some areas there were so many birds that it was like they were dripping from the trees above. Most of the flocks were in the pine forests from the airport and east. The most common species were American Redstarts and Nashville Warblers but there was a fair amount of diversity with 19 species seen. I had several Golden-winged Warblers along with Blackpoll, Bay-breasted, and Cape May Warblers. The dogs were out in force this Sunday which inhibited the shorebird search but near the end of the point I had three Sanderlings, two Baird's Sandpipers, a Ruddy Turnstone, a Spotted Sandpiper, a Semipalmated Sandpiper on the harbor side (where I almost never see any shorebirds besides Spotted Sandpipers), and fantastic close looks of a Buff-breasted Sandpiper (associated with and dominating one of the Baird's Sandpipers). Some other interesting birds were: a female Indigo Bunting in the open stretch past the airport, two Merlin, a Cooper's Hawk and a Caspian Tern on the Minnesota side of the Superior Entry associating with a large grouping of gulls. I also added Ruffed Grouse with its teenage young and a sprinting Wild Turkey in Carlton county. The Caspian Tern was one of six "year birds" I picked up on the day and happened to be my 500th bird in 2016- a year which included non-bird-centric family trips to Costa Rica, South Carolina, and Oregon. Whoo-hoo!
Good Birding, Jason Caddy 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
