Tag Archives: MN North: Cloverland

Northeast Minnesota Spring Birding Migration

Year 8,

Although it was 14F at sunrise this morning, there are starting to be signs of spring migration. With that thought in mind, both for myself, and everyone else I compiled a spreadsheet of bird sightings / locations using seven years of my data from the months of April and May. You may download your PDF copies (no cost) immediately below the sample rows. The migration PDF’s have active web links to the appropriate blog post and Google Maps location. Each document has 160 sightings.

Sample Content (first ten rows sorted by date)

Date Bird Species Location
2-Apr Fox Sparrow Amity
6-Apr Common Magpie Sax-Zim Bog
6-Apr Hooded Merganser Sax-Zim Bog
6-Apr Trumpeter Swans Sax-Zim Bog
6-Apr Western Meadowlark Sax-Zim Bog
9-Apr Trumpeter Swans MacQuarrie Wetlands
9-Apr Snow Bunting Sand Lake Pine Forest
9-Apr Spruce Grouse Sand Lake Pine Forest
12-Apr Rough-Legged Hawk Sax-Zim Bog
12-Apr Snow Bunting Sax-Zim Bog

With that thought I visited some of my spring haunts this morning. Birds were scarce, but I did find a Red-Tailed Hawk couple establishing their territory, and a Ring-Billed Gull standing on the ice. Once we get a few warm days a few area ponds will start of have some open water (attracting early season ducks). Oh yes, I checked on my owl family this morning. The youngsters were well covered up by Mom given the cold weather.

Rusty Blackbird

Year 7

I went looking for Pine Grosbeaks at some old berry / crabapple farms and found instead one of the birds of the Boreal Forest which is unfortunately experiencing the greatest population drop of any kind of bird in North America. Rusty Blackbirds breed up in the Boreal Forest swamps north of the border in Canada, and we occasionally see them here in northern Minnesota during their southern migration. Their population drop has been estimated at 85 to 99 percent over the past 40 years. Hopefully they are not a “canary in coal mine”.

Wildflowers and Birds!

Year 7

As I type this post today’s how each day holds such different weather here in northern Minnesota. Yesterday was perfect … sunny skies, mild winds and a temperature in the mid 70’s. Needless to say I went birding at sunrise. Today, however, Lake Superior is showing who is boss. We may reach 60F, and their a brisk wind off the lake just to made the constant rain and fog a bit colder. We turned on the gas fireplace in our living room when our inside temperature fell to 62F.

Yes, I went birding to the Wisconsin Grasslands in NW Wisconsin yesterday. The young are exploring the meadows while demanding to be fed. Here are a few photographs taken early yesterday morning.

Killdeer and Wildflowers

Eastern Meadowlark Juveniles