Thursday: Spent the day birding the Minnesota River Valley Wildlife Refuge in Bloomington with Craig Mandel and Martyn Kenefick. Martyn was visiting the Twin Cities from Trinidad and Tobago and is the author of the field guide for those islands. In the morning we birded the trail to the west of Old Cedar Bridge where we found some 67 species, of which I logged 62. Not only were the number of species good, but the numbers were impressive. This included 18 warblers, the most common being American Redstart and Blackpoll, which we found at least 30 of. These included the early migrant Yellow-rumps and well as the late Canadas. We had 7 species of flycatcher, I added an eighth in the afternoon, missing only the Acadian and Willow, both of which could possibly have been represented by silent individuals. The most common flycatcher, surprisingly was 5 Yellow-bellies. Interesting finds included 2 Pine Siskins (perhaps they will be breeding in the area) and a Philadelphia Vireo. The most shockingly common bird was Scarlet Tanager, which were numbered at least 30 or 40. Eleven were visible at one time at one point.
In the afternoon I took a couple of novice birders out to the refuge visitor center and the bass ponds adding 11 more species, the most notable was a Red-headed Woodpecker, visible by feeders of the visitor center, where it might be nesting. Warblers and thrushes continue to be hanging around my yard in good variety. Canada Geese production is definitely down this year on our lake. Gosling broods number from 1 to 5 and there are many geese around with no young. No Mallard broods have been seen yet. Two Wood Duck broods have been seen hanging together. One has 11 ducklings, the other over 20. I haven't examined the ducklings to confirm that they are all Wood Ducks. I have not yet checked my boxes, all 4 of which we believe were occupied. The backyard is becoming noisy at night with the songs of treefrogs. The earlier songs had been gray treefrogs, but now more Copes gray treefrogs are joining the orchestra. Last year at the climax of the chorus, Copes outnumbered grays 10 to 1. We have yet to hear toads, but I expect them to join in the next few days. Steve Weston On Quigley Lake in Eagan, MN swest...@comcast.net ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
