Wood Stork
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Author Archives: Josh
Wood Stork in Minnesota!
From reading the blog it may seem that I bird all the time. The truth is that I squeeze in little bursts of birding around the regular stuff of life. One of those regular things has been some home improvement, specifically a bathroom remodel. Daily birding forays have been replaced with daily trips to Menards and Home Depot. And instead of roaming the countryside freely looking for birds, I have been confined to a 7-foot basement bathroom with no window. But I had been diligently putting in my time because I was looking forward to a full-fledged birding adventure with Steve last Saturday to Felton Prairie to look for Chestnut-collared Longspurs and other prairie goodies. Even with that to look forward to, though, I was growing weary of the bathroom project. If only there was a reprieve.
It turns out there was. On Friday morning a very interesting email came in: the previous evening a Wood Stork had been found by a farmer in southern Minnesota very near the Iowa border when he was surveying damage to his grove from one of the recent storms that had pummeled the area. Likely this bird had been blown in by one of the big storms. I wasn’t even sure what a Wood Stork was, so I researched it and discovered this bird only lives in Florida and the Gulf Coast and that this was only the second time it had been in Minnesota! There was a catch, though. The person reporting stated that they had not yet secured permission from the homeowner for birders to come see it. All he could say was that it was along the I-90 corridor west of Blue Earth. Not only that but there was no fresh information of the bird being seen that morning. I would need more info than that to make the 3-hour one-way trip. Nevertheless I had told Evan and Melissa about it, planting the seed that we may need to take off later.
Almost immediately after the email came in I got a call from Randy. He wanted to chase it on the limited information hoping more details would trickle while in en route. I’m surprised he called me first. Maybe he figured I’d go because I was also a teacher and had the time off, or maybe he figured I’d be an easy sell based on my chase history. Anyway, I turned him down saying I needed more to go on. It was back to working on the bathroom for me. Yuck.
Early afternoon came with a new email: the bird was refound and the exact location was given! When I told Melissa, she surprised me by saying, “Well, I’m up for an adventure. Do you want to go?” Do I?! I called up Randy and made arrangements for him to join the family on this wild bird chase. Since Randy works with Melissa and gets along great with the kids, I knew he wouldn’t mind tagging along with the whole fam.
We had a pleasant drive down visiting and surveying all the flooding due to the incessant rains we’ve had. As someone on Facebook stated, our new state motto will likely be “The Land of One Lake.” Once we got to our location, though, we nearly panicked because we didn’t see a big, white stork, but even more worrisome was that we didn’t see any birders anywhere. This was a second state record; there should be birders everywhere. We figured this was bad news and that people had scattered to go refind this thing. Eventually we caught sight of another birder driving slowly. Our hopes were lifted when we saw him stop for awhile. Did he see it? Then he ended up going down a steep embankment onto what appeared to be a frontage road along I-90. What was he doing? We watched him go into this farm place. You can see an east-bound semi on I-90.
We watched. The car never came out. Interesting. Then, all of the sudden, two different cars were driving out of this long driveway, and two cars full of birders were driving in! Quickly we headed down this driveway and stopped to talk to one of the outgoing drivers. He confirmed what we suspected; the bird was there!
And so were the birders.
It was quite a party. Everyone was pretty excited. Marin picked up on the palpable excitement as she asked, “What are all these guys so excited about?”
This is what they were excited about, Marin.
Wood Stork in Faribault County, Minnesota
You would have swore the Vikings finally won a Super Bowl with how jolly these guys were. It was pretty fun. Even the kids wanted to see for themselves what the big deal was.
While I photographed the bird, Melissa and the kids went with Randy to check out some of the farmyard animals. Apparently I missed Marin nearly get attacked by this giant rooster when it was chasing her while she ran, unbeknownst to Marin. The ensuing screams would have likely scared away the stork, and I would have been banished from the birding circles of which I participate. Thankfully Melissa thwarted the attack by getting Marin to stop running which then stopped the rooster from chasing her. By doing so, she was able to keep the screams and stork at bay, keeping Minnesota birders happy and my reputation intact.
The kids love any chance they get to pet a cat since we can’t have one due to my allergies.
With enough stork and enough cat, it was time to leave. We had a fun sighting just a half mile from the farm – an Upland Sandpiper at the top of a tall utility pole. With almost zero habitat around I was surprised to see it.
Upland Sandpiper in Faribault County
It was finally time to head home on the 3-hour return trip. The visiting continued, but this time it was Marin who was talking everyone’s ear off and thoroughly thriving on the attention of a new person in the car. By the time we got home our bodies and ears were tired. It had been a whirlwind 7-hour adventure. But it was a lot of fun to do something spur of the moment and witness something unique as a family. I told Melissa that it’s probably the closest thing she’ll get to experiencing a flash mob like she’s always wanted to see.
Our Very Own Cerulean Warbler at Sibley State Park
Late at night on June 12th I got a text from Randy asking if I wanted to go hunt for Cerulean Warblers in the county the next morning. Most definitely the answer was yes. A Cerulean is not a life bird for Evan or me; in fact I had seen one just a couple days prior at Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve in Savage. However, they are one of the coolest warblers out there because A) they are blue warblers that are beautiful and B) they are quite scarce and hard to find. I was eager to tag along with someone who’s been birding the county for 25 years and check his old haunts and hiding places.
We didn’t have any luck at our first stop, and honestly I wasn’t expecting to find a Cerulean this day – that’s how tough they are. Randy mentioned stopping by Sibley State Park to check some old spots, and then I mentioned to him that I had seen an eBird report of a Cerulean Warbler at Sibley a couple weeks ago on my Birding Across America website. But there was no specific information on its location. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Actually that would be easier than looking for a Cerulean in Sibley. Anyhow, Randy was encouraged by this news.
Randy first stopped at the park office to buy a vehicle pass, and he had the presence of mind to ask if they had received any reports of a Cerulean Warbler. As a matter of fact, they had! And they knew where to point us! A short, slow drive later with the windows down revealed the unmistakble rapid buzzy song of our target bird! And what a bird it is.
Cerulean Warbler at Sibley State Park
It was so much fun to watch this male sing on territory. Refinding a warbler during migration is a crapshoot, but a warbler on territory in the summer is pretty much a guarantee. I knew that we would be able to stop out and see it again and that Steve could finally get his lifer.
The very next day was Father’s Day and we went out for a drive in the northwestern part of the county just to do some sightseeing. Since Sibley was in the vicinity, we stopped out at the park so Evan could see the bird. Again, not a lifer for him, just a cool bird. It turns out Steve was there too trying to get his first look at this bird. I’m not sure how many more Ceruleans I’ll see in my lifetime as this declining species is losing habitat in both it’s summer and winter homes, so I’ll be sure to appreciate this one and check up on it next time we’re at Sibley for swimming or camping.
Tufted Titmouse
Hooded Warbler
Savage Birding – Hooded Warblers at Murphy-Hanrehan and Tufted Titmouse at Hidden Valley Park
On June 10th I went on a solo birding mission to the Twin Cities metro area, specifically to a couple of key parks in Savage. With Melissa still at work I had splurged to get a babysitter to watch Marin so Evan and I could bird these parks like a couple of savages and go after such wonders as Hooded Warblers, Cerulean Warblers, and a pair of vagrant Tufted Titmice. The two of us can cover a lot of ground when it’s just us. However, Evan found out that the kids’ favorite babysitter was coming, and he turned me down and opted to stay home. When Randy heard of Evan’s choice, his comment was that it will serve Evan well later in life to choose girls over birds. True enough.
Regardless of Evan dropping out, I was set to go. Since it was a solo venture, I’ll keep the words short and let the pictures do the talking. Suffice it to say I had some awesome birding.
I birded Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve in search of Hooded Warblers – a rare, regular species that nests in a couple locations in the Cities. I found 3 males at Murphy-Hanrehan. All were first found by voice – setting my phone’s ringtone as the HOWA song several months ago really paid off in helping me learn the song and thus be able to find the bird. The Hooded Warbler was a spectacular life bird that I’ve been wanting to see since last summer.
Hooded Warbler at Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve in Savage, MN
Another fun sighting was a Cerulean Warbler. This was my best look which is not an uncommon look at this tree-top dweller.
Cerulean Warbler at Murphy-Hanrehan Park in Savage, MN
I also got good looks but terrible photos of a Blue-winged Warbler.
Blue-winged Warbler – no-winged sub-species
After Murphy-Hanrehan I stopped by Hidden Valley Park in Savage for the fourth time in a week hoping to see at least one of the two Tufted Titmice that had been reported. This time I was successful. It made for a two-lifer day which is getting harder and harder to come by.
Tufted Titmouse at Hidden Valley Park in Savage, MN
It was fun to see a pair of Broad-winged Hawks doing some aerial courtship.
Broad-winged Hawk over Hidden Valley Park in Savage, MN
So I went, I saw, I conquered. Should Evan ever want to go after those Hoodeds, I now know the lay of the land and would be thrilled to go back with him.
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Meet me in St. Louis? Nah! Well, maybe.
Fair warning: you will not see a single bird photo in this post. Yet, a great bird was involved. No, a phenomenal bird was involved. Even still, the story is not even that riveting; it is filled with angst, confusion and regret. However, it is a story that needs to be documented since a life bird(s) was had. Well, sort of. For you bird lovers, I promise to make up the lack of bird photos to you in the next post which will be very easy on the eyes as they say.
But regarding the current post, I have a love/hate relationship with county listers, those birders who strive to tally as many species as they can in all 87 Minnesota counties. Love ’em because in their quest to find some ordinary bird in some remote county, they explore the nooks, crannies, and nether regions of that county and end up finding dynamo birds that rock the larger birding community. Hate ’em because they find those dynamo birds forcing me to make a decision to chase those birds.
Last Saturday, on June 7th, one of these county listers was driving on a remote minimum maintenance road in Yellow Medicine County going over a one-lane bridge when he spotted a Eurasian Tree Sparrow sitting on the railing of the bridge. Now this may not sound exciting, but you have to understand that Eurasian Tree Sparrows are typically only found in St. Louis and its suburbs. Their range has not expanded from there, and they rarely stray anywhere else. It was a big deal. This location was only an hour-and-a-half away, so we simply had to check it out. It was better than taking a long drive to St. Louis for this bird. And it was certainly better than taking a chance at missing a turn to see the Gateway Arch and ending up in East St. Louis like Melissa and I did a decade ago.
Steve joined Evan and I for the trip. We had an uneventful ride down other than sighting a gorgeous Red-headed Woodpecker on a telephone pole. It’s just one of those birds you can’t not take a photo of even if you have 500 pictures of it in your archives already. Well, when I pulled over to get some shots, it flew into a grove never to be seen again. It was a precursor of things to come.
We found the bridge no problem and began to make sense of the report we had: the Eurasian Tree Sparrow had been associating with two male House Sparrows, and the trio had been known to be on the bridge and fly underneath the bridge. So we got out and we looked and waited. And looked. And paced.
And played in the dirt.
For the better part of an hour Steve and I were both trying to turn every House Sparrow we saw into our target bird. But we failed. The highlight was maybe seeing an Alder Flycatcher, a life bird. I say ‘maybe’ because it’s a bird that can only be safely identified by voice, and Steve and I were convinced it was giving the Alder’s call of, “Free beer!” This bird, too, flew off before we could analyze it further.
As exciting as free beer and a new life bird would be, we really wanted to see that Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Several times I went down the steep embankment to look underneath the bridge. My hopes were buoyed by finding a couple House Sparrows hanging out and chirping in the girders. But my excitement was limited to some Cliff Swallows flying at my face. On one of these trips down the embankment Evan decided to join me. I think he was attracted to the little river and the mysteries associated with the undersides of bridges. After all, that’s where trolls live. Then Evan had a strange request: he asked for my huge, clunky binoculars that I bought at my own Grandma’s garage sale about 25 years ago. You read that right. I loved my Grandma and may she rest in peace, but she was a frugal lady who couldn’t let something go for nothing. She was also very fair – if I got free binoculars, then all the grandkids would have to get free binoculars. But I digress. Evan’s request was strange considering he has trouble making small binoculars work, let alone ones the size of his head. Still, he put the strap around his neck and was trying to look at this or that.
Then it happened. “I’ve got it,” Steve said from up on the road. In an instant, in what could be considered justified or stupid, I grabbed the behemoth binoculars and lifted them off Evan’s head. I reasoned that he couldn’t see anything with them anyway, but the selfish move was exacerbated when in the process of removing them I bonked him in the forehead causing him to say, “Ouch!” Right then I should have turned in my dad card.
But I didn’t and instead srambled to get up the near-vertical embankment. Evan was right on my heels. Steve pointed to a fallen tree leaning against the bridge. I saw the bird and caught a glimpse of the brown-capped sparrow through the reposessed binoculars. Evan was asking where the bird was. I tried to redeem my previous actions by trying to point out the bird before I whipped out my camera. Evan could not locate the bird that was hopping in the branches not that far away. And then the bird vanished never to make a second appearance for the duration of our visit.
As much as Steve and I would have liked to wait it out for a chance to get some good, solid looks and photos of this bird, I was on a time crunch. Evan had gotten a free ticket to the Stingers baseball game, and it was free jersey night for the first 250 kids. This was a big deal. Not only could we not be late, but we had to be there plenty early to ensure getting a jersey. So, in an effort to earn back my dad status, we left this remote, country site on time in order to get back for the game.
Maybe I’ll have to go to St. Louis after all to really see this bird well and for Evan to see it for the first time if he wants to. And with some planning and good luck, we might be able to do that AND avoid a misadventure in East St. Louis.
Back to Cottonwood for some Blue Grosbeak Action
This story pre-dates the Afton State Park post. Because Evan’s teacher likes to show the class the blog on the SmartBoard, especially after one of Evan’s birding trips, I was under pressure to get that Afton story written the night we got home so Evan could have it ready for his class to see the next day. Furthernmore, there has been a lot of birding action lately and the posts are getting backlogged. So this post was delayed and occurred back on June 3rd.
Since Evan and Melissa were still in school and I’d been hanging out with Marin, I thought it would be a good opportunity to go to the Cottonwood sewage ponds to try to photograph some of the Blue Grosbeaks that my young birder friend, Garrett, had found down there. Since it was not a life bird, I knew Evan wouldn’t care if I did this kind of trip without him. Blue Grosbeaks are a significant bird in Minnesota. They breed in the very, very southwestern corner of the state. Blue Mounds State Park near Luverne is the most reliable place to see them, which is where we got our lifer last year. Occasionally Blue Grosbeaks are found further north and east like these Cottonwood birds. They are almost always found in gravel pits or other equivalent brushy areas. Their rarity and their beauty make this bird a fun find.
As I become familiar with all kinds of birding haunts, Marin is becoming familiar with a plethora of city parks. If it’s just me and her, I try to make sure there’s something fun for her to do. So on the way to Cottonwood we stopped in Maynard, and I couldn’t find a city park! Since MACCRAY school was already done for the year, we stopped at the elementary school where she was able to get a playground fix before Cottonwood.
Cottonwood was pretty straightforward; the Blue Grosbeaks were isolated on a lone, brushy hill next to the path into the ponds. This hill is maybe one hundred yards long and a hundred feet wide. Garrett told me the Grosbeaks like to hang out in the small trees on the back side of the hill. It was pretty muddy, so I was going to let her stay in the van while I hopped out to check out the hill. Then Marin remembered that her mud boots were in the van, part of the cache of random things we brought home from daycare at the end of the year. So she was eager to put them on and join me for a little walk. That is, until she spotted a bug. Marin has an uncontrollable, irrational fear of bugs that causes her to scream even if they are not bothering her. It makes any outdoor activity very challenging. So she went to the car while I continued my search. But then I heard screams from inside the car. There was a lone fly that she just could not tolerate. Despite all the insect drama, I was able to find one male Blue Grosbeak and get some photos. Garrett had seen two males and a female the week prior.
Blue Grosbeak
Such a fun bird to see! As I photographed the bird on the sewage pond fence, the city worker who was mowing drove right up to where the bird was and scared it away. Nuts. Then he shut off his mower, and I thought ‘Oh, great. Here we go again. I wonder what he’s going to accuse me of.’ Instead of a suspicious inquiry, though, he asked if we were birdwatchers and then told me I should go ahead and drive on the dikes around the sewage ponds to show my daughter the baby Canada Geese. You gotta love the Cottonwood sewage ponds where not only are there no gates keeping you out, but the city worker encourages you to come check see all that their ponds have to offer. The geese are another story; I actually have a very strong dislike for the species. Undoubtedly it originates from my younger years of shoveling loads of goose poop off our beach, lawn, and docks whenever they would visit the resort. It’s kind of funny how when people see us out birding they ask us if we are looking at geese or want to know where geese are. I always appreciate the friendliness and offer to help, but there is no way I can quash their enthusiasm and tell them how I feel about this ubiquitous bird. So I thank them and tell them I’m just checking out all the birds.
As far as the stunning Blue Grosbeak was concerned, though, I would have loved to spend more time looking for it and photographing it, but we had another date with a park in Cottonwood. The date was shortlived, however, because of a screaming fit that resulted from a fly on the slide.
After the short park visit we were off to check out Lone Tree Lake just a couple miles northwest of Cottonwood. Garrett suggested it as a spot for seeing nesting Upland Sandpipers. For a young man, Garrett sure knows his birds and more importantly, he knows what birds are good. I’m glad I discovered him on eBird as he isn’t really connected and known in the other big birding circles – a problem that I’m helping to rectify, especially since he seems to be a lone birder reporting from this dynamic outpost where all kinds of amazing birds show up.
As we drove along looking for Upland Sandpipers, we saw a couple Bobolinks and other prairie birds.
Bobolink
Eventually I found one of the Upland Sandpipers acting uplandy way up in a hayfield and far from the lake and the road for that matter.
Upland Sandpiper
Not a bad morning of prairie birding and park hopping. It was time to meander home and make it to Evan’s school on time to pick him up. Marin fell dead asleep on the way, so I had a quiet drive through the scenic Minnesota River Valley in Renville County. After her two hour nap was over we stopped at the DQ in Olivia for a late lunch and then got to Evan’s school just in time to get him. It was a fun, successful day.
