31 Days of Birding update

Well, my quest to go birding for 31 days in May is going fantastically well.  I am thoroughly enjoying birding so much, and I am seeing tons of birds in the process!  Unfortunately, it hasn't left a lot of time for blogging!

My updated list of species seen is here.  I saw a Tennessee Warbler today for my 124th species of the month!

Other highlights include a Black-throated Blue Warbler in Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, a Barred Owl calling while we slept in Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, and Great Horned Owls nesting in T.S. Roberts Bird Sanctuary in Minneapolis.

31 Days of Birding

I just finished doing 30 Days of Biking, which is a challenge to get people to ride their bikes every day in April.  Doing that has inspired me to start my own challenge for May, which is 31 Days of Birding!  I am going to get out and bird every single day in May.

As part of this challenge, I am going to keep track of every bird species I see in May.  So as to not bore you, I will be keeping the list as a separate page, then linking to it here.  As part of this, I will also be keeping a total of the number of bird species I see for the month.  As I've never been much of a lister, I don't really have any idea of the total number of bird species that I see.  It will be interesting to see what totals I get to for this month of birding!

Yesterday, we were at Interstate State Park in Wisconsin, and it seems like spring migration was really kicking in - we saw several new species for the year, including Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, and Golden Crowned Kinglet!  I can't wait to see more!

Canoeing the floodwaters of the Minnesota

On my way to work, I regularly bike over Fort Snelling State Park on the Mendota Bridge.  Lately, the water has been extremely high - much of the low lying land was flooded.  The view from the bridge was pretty cool, as you could see large tracts of forest that looked like some sort of mangrove swamp as there was no land to be seen beneath them!  As I biked back and forth across the bridge, it seemed to me that it would be fun to take advantage of the unusually high water and canoe amongst the trees.

So on Sunday, we grabbed the canoe and headed down to Fort Snelling (after a bike trip to Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, but more on that in another post).  We canoed around in the "swamp", pulled out and picnicked on "Picnic Island" (which had been almost entirely underwater a week or two earlier), saw a muskrat enjoying the relative solitude of the closed park and enjoyed boatloads of Yellow-rumped warblers.

Invasion of the Butter Butts

Photo by John Harrison

Yellow-rumped warblers (Dendroica coronata) have invaded Minneapolis!  In the last couple of days, they have been everywhere!  Yellow rumps (affectionately known as Butter Butts) are one of the first warblers to arrive in the spring, and they are sure proving it this year.

Over the last few days, it has been a joy to watch the Butter Butts in our neighborhood.  It is really cool to see warblers after their long absence.  And they are highly active, colorful feeders that are fun to watch.  We've had them in abundance all around our condo - they are in the trees, in the bushes, on the sidewalk, in the alley, on the neighbor's roof, in the lawn - everywhere!  We grilled out in our backyard tonight, and the Butter Butts were not scared away, and in fact they were often just feet away from us, despite the fact that we were doing nothing to be quiet or unobtrusive!

One of the adaptations that makes it possible for Yellow-rumps to arrive earlier than other warblers is their ability to digest waxes.  These little birds can digest waxy berries, such as those of the wax myrtles and bayberries, that other birds are incapable of digesting.  Having an alternate food source is highly convenient when you are trying to race north.  For most insect eating species, it can be disastrous when a cold snap comes during their northward migration.  As we know all too well from this spring in Minnesota - cold weather and snow can come along much later than normal average dates.

If such cold snaps cut off food supply, even a few days of colder than average weather could be fatal.  However, the Yellow-Rumps (along with Tree Swallows) have developed the ability to digest waxy berries.  If a cold snap comes along and cuts off the supply of insect food, they switch over to the few waxy and unpalatable berries that have stayed on the bush over the winter.  This extra food supply is often enough to get them through a few days of unseasonably cold weather.

Welcome back, Butter Butts!

The Flight of the Timberdoodle

Tonight, we went out to Black Dog Fens to see the displaying American Woodcock (aka Timberdoodle).  Last year, we wanted to see the timberdoodle, but we got rained out of the several times that we tried to see them.  This year, we were determined to see them, so we thought we'd start early in the season to give ourselves plenty of chances.  Tonight, the weather looked good (high of 64 during the day, no rain until tomorrow), so we headed down there to try to see them.

As we started walking through the preserve, it was just about sunset.  The western sky was lit up with a pink wash.  As we walked in, we heard many American Robins singing.  Ducks streaked across the sky, looking for a place to spend the night.  Then, off in the distance, I heard a faint "peent".  It was a fair ways ahead of us on the trail, so we continued to walk.  As we went along, we started hearing more and more "peents" from different areas of the fen.  We finally reached a part of the trail where it seemed like one woodcock was closer to river than we were, and one was farther away.  We stopped to listen and wait.

The birds continued to "peent" from the ground, warming up for their dramatic flight displays.  We heard a few "yip yips" in the distance that we took to be coyotes.  Then, we heard a twittering sound, and we spot a woodcock flying through the air.  The wings seem to be going a mile a minute, and in silhouette, the bird looks like a bat with a giant, heavy body.  That first woodcock spirals up in the air, using its wings to create the twittering sound.  As it nears the top of its flight path, the twittering begins to pulse, with bursts of twittering followed by apparent silence.

Then, the timberdoodle descends extremely rapidly.  He comes down quickly, but not evenly.  The birds I observed seemed to make one steep dive, then take a break in the middle, then dive again quickly.  After that they leveled off and landed on the ground.  At first, the birds are fairly easy to track.  But then, after a few rounds of flight display, I can't follow their flight with the naked eye.  It is too dark for me to see them at the high point of their flight display.  I lose sight of them before they start diving.  With the binoculars though, I can still follow them through the whole display.  

After we've watched for a while, we decide to start heading back for the car.  We walk along, but the woodcock are still peenting.  After a bit, I hear a loud peent that is just behind us.  I sense that it is close and head back for a look.  I turn on my headlamp, and catch a glimpse of shine.  That is the timberdoodle's eye!  A closer look reveals the bird is right on the path!

If you'd like to see what the woodcock looks like as it peents on the ground, check out the video here.  Go here for some good recordings of both the flight sounds and the peenting.

No April Fools!

This is no April Fools Joke: I'm going to be blogging again!

I've been meaning to get back to posting again for a while and now I'm finally doing it.  I expect to be posting once a week or so at the start - I want to be consistently posting new material.

This winter, we went camping in Boundary Waters in the winter for the first time.  It was amazing - this photo gives a glimpse at what it was like.  

I am really excited for spring to come though.  The northward migration of birds is already started.  When we were in Ann Arbor, we did a lot of spring birding.  I think we got spoiled with all of the fantastic birding locations there.  Due to the need for birds to migrate around or over Lake Erie and Lake Huron, northwestern Ohio, southeastern Michigan, and southwestern Ontario have some world-class birding hotspots.  When we moved to Minnesota, it was a bit of an adjustment not having anyplace like Point Pelee or Crane Creek.  So, I got out of the habit of birding a lot during spring migration.  But there is lots of great birding to be done in Minnesota.  And this year I really want to take advantage of it.

I am going to make a concerted effort to see displaying American Woodcocks this spring.  Last spring we tried to see them, but the weather was bad every night that we tried to go.  This year I have high hopes of success!  Let me know if you've got any favorite spots near Minneapolis.

I also want to try out some new and exciting ID guides that are out there.  I am intrigued by the new Crossley bird guide.  I think I am finally going to get a bird field guide for the iPod.  The new Sibley Guide to Trees takes a birding approach to field identification of trees.

And of course, there will be plenty of camping and nature watching to report on.

I look forward to posting again on Green Guide to the Galaxy!