“A steam locomotive!” Melissa hollered when we both heard the old-timey hollow whistle of a train.  It’s a sound we all know well from TV and movies, so I just figured the kids were watching some show on the iPad.  I didn’t realize it was an actual locomotive cruising down the railroad tracks near our house.  “I read about this last night – quick, take Evan outside to see it go by!” she yelled.  Evan and I hustled out the door and looked toward the tracks only to see two big puffs of smoke coming from the west.  The train was headed away.  We missed it.

Just then Melissa burst out the door with Marin in her arms.  “Did you see it?”

“No, we just missed it.”

“Do you have your keys?”

“Yeah, let’s go!”

In a frenzy the four of us piled into the car, and we were off, racing out of the neighborhood and nearly taking corners on two wheels. We got onto the highway that runs parallel to the tracks and were straining to see where it was.  Unfortunately traffic was moving slow because the lead car was running right beside the locomotive giving himself a good view while the rest of us couldn’t see it.  Apparently everyone else knew what was going on today because at every train crossing there were lots of cars with people standing out in the rain, hoping to catch a glimpse of this old train in operation.

We finally got near the locomotive as it slowed down in Willmar where it was stopping at the Old Depot.  There were people everywhere, and most of them were men past the age of 60.  People were driving wrecklessly as they jockeyed to catch a view.  I never would have imagined being cut off by an 80-year-old man.

We were able to find a place to park.  We were a little bummed that neither of us had a cell phone along to take pictures with until I realized that I had my birding camera in the car.  So we were able to get out for some fun pictures.

The locomotive then detached from the old passenger train it was pulling.  We determined (after chasing it) that it decoupled from the train to get on another track, turn around, and attach to the other end to pull the train back east.  

It was an exciting chase. I even told Melissa that it was just as much fun as chasing after a good bird. This was a really fun, unexpected outing on this day.  I’m sure my dad, who is a train buff, would have loved to see it.  He would have been even more excited to learn this locomotive was built in June 1944, two months before he was born.

Since we knew that train was heading back east, we went on ahead of it to an old bridge that goes over the tracks to get a really good view of the train passing under us.  We got tired of waiting and decided to head back home on the country roads. That’s when we started to see some bird action.  There were numerous Vesper Sparrows on the roads.  But then we saw a bigger bird fly up on to a wire.  It was a Western Meadowlark – another reminder of my dad as that’s his favorite bird.  These birds are in decline and are always a delight to see. We were able to get a few pictures of this guy before finally heading home.

So we went after a train on a lark, and we ended up finding a lark too.  It was a memorable adventure.

Hopefully we haven’t lost all our devoted readers to this month-long hiatus from blogging. No, the birding hasn’t stopped, but the uptick in life activity along with the decline in birding activity has provided little opportunity to write. Fall migration has been slow, but we’ve still managed to see some good birds.  Life, on the other hand, has been fast and furious. The start of a new school year is always hectic for Melissa and me as we both teach.  First-grader Evan is also busier as he now has homework, Cub Scouts, and piano lessons. Add in a birthday party sleep-over and a new obsession with playing catch with a football, and there is very little room (or interest) for birds.  Marin is also experiencing her own busy little life as she started a new daycare this fall and is enrolled in a dance class.  And we are all busier with church as small-group Bible study and Sunday school classes have resumed with the fall season.

One thing that’s been keeping me busy in my limited spare time is the development of a a new birding website called Birding Across America. This site is a national platform for birders across the country to connect with each other allowing traveling birders to see more birds when they are in unfamiliar lands.  On the site each state has its own page with a featured photo gallery where registered users can upload photos, share sightings, and read the rare bird alerts of that particular state’s listserv.  It has been time-consuming to say the least, but the site is growing and I have met a lot of friendly birders through the process. It’s my hope that this new website will satisfy my own birding and coding interests and allow me to stick to the integrity of this blog: writing about birding outings with my family and documenting those memories and sharing them with you.

Speaking of that, I’d like to start the birding part of this post by showing you some pictures of one of our regular birding stops in early September – a mudflat near Willmar that was a stopping point for many shorebirds.

 Here are two Wilson’s Snipe. Yes, Jeff, snipe do exist.

A crazed Green Heron flew in and ran about the mudflat.

And this next one is a lifer.  The problem is we don’t know what it is.  It’s either a Baird’s Sandpiper or White-rumped Sandpiper.  Shorebirds are so frustrating. On one of our trips to this mudflat, there was just a trio of yellowlegs – two Greater Yellowlegs and one Lesser Yellowlegs.  They are very similiar in appearance and their size is only discernable when they are next to each other. As we watched these three, we heard a sharp “Ki-ki-ki-ki” and saw a Merlin fly in and try to nab one of the yellowlegs!  It was very cool to see this raptor.  If only I could have gotten a decent shot of it.

Another local haunt that I brought the kids to in September was Robbins Island Park.  I don’t even remember how many times we came out to look for migrating birds.  We saw lots of warblers and vireos.  I even managed to see my nemesis bird, the Blue-headed Vireo, but was unable to relocate it for Evan or for a photograph. On one of my solo outings I did capture this migrating vireo – the Philadelphia Vireo.On these frequent outings to Robbins Island, the kids were more interested in being kids while I scanned the trees for birding activity. Looking down at the ground showed some other activity. Note Marin’s “birding” boots.

One time when I was alone at Robbins Island, I happened upon this very tame Red-tailed Hawk sitting on top of the swings!  I was able to walk within 10 feet of it. It freaked me out a little, and I made sure to put a light pole between myself and the bird while I took these pictures. I didn’t want a face full of talons. I found its perch to be humorous as I wondered if it was waiting for an unsuspecting toddler.

One time that Evan and I went by ourselves to Robbins Island, we caught up with our Cooper’s Hawk again that we wrote about in the last post. Last time we saw the Cooper’s Hawk being dive-bombed by crows. This day, however, the hawk was chasing the crows!

In late September we were able to sneak away for a camping trip to St. Croix State Park with Melissa’s parents and nieces.

It was a gorgeous weekend with perfect weather. The cousins enjoyed their time together as did the adults, and I even managed to take a couple bird photos of some migrating birds. Here is a Yellow-rumped Warbler.

And another late-migrating warbler – the Palm Warbler.

It’s hard to go birding/camping without playing around the water.

Looking up from the water into beautiful blue sky revealed a kettle of Broadwinged Hawks riding the thermals as they migrate.

After our St. Croix trip, the kids and I found ourselves out birding again the following weekend.  I had to find something to write about for my October contribution to Birding is Fun!. So we went out with no real birding plan but happened upon a pair of Trumpeter Swans. This is always a fun bird to see. Evan and I first became enamored with them when we read E.B. White’s The Trumpet of the Swan. Seeing as this bird has a limited range in the United States and that is was once endangered, I figured it would make a good article for Birding is Fun!

The size of the Trumpeter is massive! That’s a Mallard in the foreground if you have any idea how big they are.On this same day, the kids and I went on to check out another favorite birding haunt: the Atwater sewage ponds. Among the hundreds of Canada Geese and Ring-billed Gulls, we were delighted to find seven more Trumpeters!  This was the bird of the day.

On the way home I stopped to take some pictures of sparrows.  Here is a Savannah Sparrow.

Speaking of sparrows, I finally filled our bird feeders at home just in time to see some of the neat migrating sparrows.  This next picture is very bad, but it is also very cool.  In this one shot you will see three migrating sparrows.  From left to right: White-crowned Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and Harris’s Sparrow.

Here’s a better shot of the Harris’s Sparrow.  

In addition to these fine three, we had a new yard bird – the Lincoln’s Sparrow! I didn’t get a picture, and Evan didn’t see it (he’s seen a Lincoln’s before), but he was really excited when I told him the news.  And just today we saw our first returning Fox Sparrow – also not pictured.

The best yard bird, though, and arguably one of my favorite birds, has also been showing up regularly – the Eurasian Collared Dove.  Evan first discovered this bird in our yard over a year ago and proved himself an observant birder as he argued with me (correctly) that he saw this bird I had never even heard of at that time.  You can read more of the story at More Than Just a Name. Moreover, during the past year I’ve learned that this is a good bird in Minnesota that people get excited to see.  Almost every day I get to see it and remember how this whole journey of birding began.  I don’t know what kind of birding adventures we have in store for the fall, but we are eager for winter to come so we can chase after northern owls and other migrants from the north.

One thing that’s cool about migration is that huge flocks of small birds actually show up on radar.  Sites like www.woodcreeper.com show radar maps of recent migration activity.  Last night a birder posted to the Minnesota Birding Facebook page that this morning would be good for finding birds. I asked Evan if he wanted to go out in the morning.  He sometimes declines my offers to go out birding, but he said he wanted to go this morning.

I woke up early and decided to let him sleep in, even if it meant missing the prime time for seeing birds.  In fact, I was considering not going at all, but he woke up early on his own and said, “Dad, I thought we were going birding.” So off we went.

We got to Robbins Island Park right at peak time around 7:30.  We didn’t get too far from the car before we started seeing all kinds of bird activity.  Standing in one spot we saw a good number of warblers and vireos.  The most notable vireo was a Yellow-throated Vireo.  I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of it, but I did manage to photograph a Blackburnian Warbler and a Wilson’s Warbler.

The warbler activity was intense for about 15 minutes, but then it was as if someone flipped a switch.  We could hardly find anything.  So we left our stationary birding spot to go walk through the park.

We were walking down a large, grassy hill and noticed about a dozen crows on the ground downhill from us.  Just then my sandal slipped on the dewey grass sending me to the ground.  I managed to keep my binoculars, camera, and body from injury, but now I was concentrating on not slipping again instead of watching those crows.  I did notice that they flushed, and then I heard Evan holler, “That was a hawk!” I then saw that the crows were indeed mobbing and chasing a hawk.  I’ve heard other birders describe how seeing this behavior had led them to finding hawks and owls, but we’d never witnessed it ourselves. The chase was on!

The hawk tried to take refuge in a tree as the crows kept pestering it.  I was able to get a glimpse and see that it was a Broad-winged Hawk!

The crows kept after this hawk, chasing him out of this tree and through the park.  We weren’t far behind as we were now running along trying to get another glimpse of the action through the canopy of the trees.

As we followed this circus, Evan claimed to have seen a second hawk being chased by the crows.  We eventually caught up to the flock of crows at the end of a long skinny peninsula on Foot Lake.  We watched from a distance and were able to see that a hawk was still with the crows.  Shortly afterward, the crows chased the hawk back toward us, and I was able to get this flight shot.Though the light in the picture was bad, I saw that this hawk belonged to the Accipiter family – hawks with long tails.  The Broad-winged hawk is a Buteo – a hawk with a wide fan tail.  Evan was right – there were two hawks!  Now we were dealing with either a Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s Hawk.  We eventually lost track of this hawk without making a positive ID.

We made our way back to the other end of the park and caught up with the flock of crows again.  Once more they were dive-bombing a hawk!  Back to jogging we went. Finally we caught up to the hawk, but what was it?

The crows helped me out by continuing to pester the bird until it was in a good view. And we saw that it was a Cooper’s Hawk.

So a relaxed morning of looking at warblers turned into a hot pursuit of hawks.  It was exciting to see not one, but two different hawk species.  It was also fun for us to witness a mob of crows dive-bombing raptors and be a part of a thrilling chase.

June 2012. I was driving a four-wheeler on my dad’s property when I heard a loud and beautiful bird song over the engine noise.  I had to find out what that bird was.  It didn’t take long to find the mystery bird singing its heart out on a low branch. I was awestruck with its beauty – a bright yellow cap and rusty sides on a white body.  I raced back to the house and searched through my dad’s tattered 1960s Peterson field guide.  The bird was easy to find – it was a Chestnut-sided Warbler.  At that moment a birder was born, and I went on to discover that over four dozen species of these beautiful birds known as warblers can be found in the United States.

Warblers are by far my favorite group of birds to pursue, so I was thrilled to be able to do a review of The Warbler Guide – a new, extensive field guide by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle devoted just to this family of birds.  It goes where no other field guide has gone before in terms of its coverage and revolutionary approaches for warbler identification. To give you a sense of just how comprehensive this book is, look at the photo below.  The warbler section of the Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America is paper-clipped below.  As you can see, The Warbler Guide is a significant expansion of information on these birds.

Don’t let the size of this book intimidate you.  While you may not cart it along on a birding walk, I think you’ll find it to be an invaluable resource to supplement your favorite field guide(s).  There is something in here for everyone, whether you are a complete newbie or an expert birder. As such, I will review this book as it relates to three levels of birders: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Beginning Birders

I use the term “beginning” to describe someone who can at least tell that a bird is a warbler when they see a small, hyper-active, colorful bird with a narrow, pointed beak. One of the most stunning features in this book that can help a beginner identify a warbler are the Quick Finders.  These full page photographs lay out pictures of all the warbler species next to each other from many different vantage points including: side view, 45° view, and under view.  One does not need to page through multiple pages back and forth to find the right bird because they can all be viewed at once.

Side View Quick Finder – The Warbler Guide

I showed this to a seasoned birder, and his response was, “Huh, I’ve never seen them all laid out together like that.”  This feature alone is priceless as it allows a beginning birder to quickly scan these images to find one that matches whatever bird was seen. Here is the Face Quick Finder – another quick tool for figuring out which warbler you’ve seen.

Face Quick Finder – The Warbler Guide

Princeton University Press has offered these Quick Finders as free downloadable files so that you can print them off and laminate them to take along when you go birding. I printed the side-view Quick Finder as a 16″ by 20″ poster for Evan’s bedroom wall. Here is the link for these files: The Warbler Guide Quick Finders.

In addition to the Quick Finders, each species has its own section in the book which are laid out in alphabetical order and not taxonomical order.  This intuitive approach is inviting to the beginner.  Additionally, each species section has a clean design that communicates key information visually.  There are loads of photos from different angles along with descriptions of key behavior. The reading is light but still gives the essential information.  Here is a sample.

Northern Parula Section – The Warbler Guide

What is particularly helpful is the silhouette section. It is mostly self-explanatory, but one graphic in particular deserves a lot of praise.  Note the green/black tree and bush.  This indicates the vertical level of where this particular warbler is found.  Until I went on a birding walk with a naturalist, I didn’t know that some species of warblers are found on the ground, others in the understory of the forest, and still others in the canopy.  You need to know where to look to find a certain bird, and this graphic quickly shows you. You have to carefully read other field guides to get this same information.

Another feature I like for beginners is the check mark that you notice above.  If you see that particular feature on a mystery bird, you can safely use that alone to correctly identify the bird.

Intermediate Birders

I would classify myself in this group.  I know all my male warblers by sight and some females.  I know several songs and have many more to go.  So here are some features that might be beneficial to other birders at this same level.

I really like the Quick Finders that focus on the underside of the bird.  Most of the time you see warblers from underneath as they flit about in the trees through the leaves.  Often you will just see a butt shot for a couple seconds at most.  I have found that I take lots of photographs and identify birds later.  Until The Warbler Guide came along, I had no idea that the underside of the tail is unique to each species of warbler.  It is now possible to make a positive ID just with a view of the underside of the tail.

Under View Quick Finder – The Warbler Guide

Undertail Visual Finders – The Warbler Guide

I put these visual finders to the test the other day when I was out birding.  Fall migration is underway, and the warblers are on the move.  In the picture below, I thought I might have seen a Northern Parula.

I compared the tail patterns, and my photo of the tail did not match that of the Northern Parula.  However, I did find this tail pattern to be that of a female American Redstart. I went to the American Redstart section to find more photos of the females, and I saw that the details were lining up with those on my photo.

Here is a fleeting shot of some warbler I saw that same morning.  I know there are many warblers that are yellow underneath, so I couldn’t safely identify it.

From the Quick Finders, there was only one bird that had a tail like this – the Yellow Warbler.  In fact, the picture of the tail had the signature check mark which indicates this feature alone is enough to make a safe identification.

In this next photo, I thought for sure I had the Pine Warbler.  But checking against the under tail pictures, I saw that a Pine Warbler’s tail is white underneath.  So what was it? Fortunately, the under tail visual finders also show pictures of non-warblers.  This helped me determine that this bird was the Yellow-throated Vireo.

In addition to the Under View Quick Finders, I also loved the migration and range maps.  You can see a separate map for spring migration routes and fall migration routes.  Additionally, you are given a time reference chart to know about when during migration you will see these birds: early, middle, late.

Expert Birders

Sonograms of American Redstart Songs

I am far from being a member of this class, but still I can recognize what they might appreciate in this book.  One of the incredible features of this book is the emphasis placed on the auditory component of bird identification.  The book introduces a system to differentiate songs, flight calls, and chip notes by their elements.  This is enhanced visually by sonograms of every possible sound a warbler could make.  To hear these sounds, you can buy The Warbler Guide Song and Call Companion and play any of the 1,000 audio files that are described in the book. Not being an auditory learner, this system is currently beyond my ability.  I foresee using this for when I really want to learn a target warbler’s song well in order to find the bird.  For example, the Hooded Warbler is my top-priority warbler for next summer, so I will be sure to learn all its vocalizations before I go out.

Something else that advanced birders will appreciate is that this guide helps to age and sex warblers and provides key photos in order to do that.

Summary

Connecticut Warbler – The Warbler Guide

This book is a must-have for a birder at any level.  It is ground-breaking in its visual and auditory approaches to warbler identification. Though the book is big, it has a very simplistic, inviting feel on each of its pages.  There is a nugget of knowledge for any birder, and everyone will appreciate the more than 1,000 incredible photos.

The only thing that could make this book even better would be photos and descriptions of typical habitat during the breeding season.  Most birders in the U.S. only see these birds during migration, so it is understandable why this information is not included.  But some of us like to go on the hunt for these birds during the summer months when they are on territory, and that information would be helpful.  Another feature that could have enhanced the book would be a state-by-state cheat sheet of where one could find certain species with relative ease.  For instance, Oberg Mountain in Minnesota has been a reliable place for decades to find the rare-regular Black-throated Blue Warbler.  I’m afraid, though, that the inclusion of that information would make this book even bigger. Perhaps, though, there will someday be companion book containing that information that will be just as awesome as this one.

Disclaimer: This review expresses the honest opinions of Josh Wallestad at A Boy Who Cried Heron.  The Warbler Guide was provided at no cost in exchange for this review.  A Boy Who Cried Heron received no monetary compensation from Princeton University Press or the authors.

For you birders that read this blog and live at our same latitude in west central Minnesota or further south, I have some great news: the warblers are in the midst of fall migration. I have been out birding in the early morning hours the last couple days while my family has been camping at Sibley State Park, and each morning has been action-packed.  I birded for nearly an hour the other morning just staying in one spot, and there was no shortage of warblers to look at.  I was brought back to that magical day in late May when the trees were dripping with warbler migrants on their way north.  Those of us who do not live in the nothern reaches of this country only get to see most of these birds when they pass through during spring or fall migration, so right now is a real special time!

I fully realize that many readers of this blog may not be birders and may not know a warbler from a vireo. For that reason, I thought I’d do a photo post of warblers from a spring and summer of finding them and chasing them.  I hope these pictures will open your eyes to this amazing family of birds that do not come to bird feeders as they are insect eaters.  The beauty is astonishing to say the least.  I am also doing this post as a preface to the review I’ll be writing on a new, exhaustive field guide I was given by Princeton University Press called The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle.

Yellow-throated Warbler

Cerulean Warbler

Ovenbird

Northern Parula

Blackburnian Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

American Redstart

Yellow Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Northern Waterthrush

Blackpoll Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler (my spark bird)

Golden-winged Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Canada Warbler

Black-and-White Warbler

If you’re a birder, I hope these photos get you excited for migration.  If you’re not a birder, maybe these gems of the forest will spark an interest.  Whether you’re a serious birder or not, we’d love you to comment below on what you’re favorite warbler is and/or which one you’d most like to see!  Stay tuned for my upcoming review of The Warbler Guide.

Today was one of those days where the kids were driving us crazy, and we had to do something.  Plugging into our individual technologies all day was not an option.  So we decided to take a little day trip down to Lyon County’s Garvin Park.  Evan and I discovered this park when we chased the Cerulean Warbler in July.  On the way to Garvin is the town of Cottonwood which has surrounding marshes, lakes, and poop ponds that are known for its shorebirds.  The Cottonwood wastewater treatment ponds were also the location of a reported Western Kingbird – one that I’ve had my eye on for some time.

Driving around the poop ponds was a lot of fun.  Unlike other wastewater treatment facilities I’ve visited, the gate for this one was open.  Most have “No Trespassing” signs and have their perimeters secured with a fence.  This place was very inviting.  There were several of these large, perfectly rectangular ponds.  We were able to drive around them on the dikes that separated them.  Here’s a shot of Evan riding and checking out the rocks below – the perfect hiding spot for many of these shorebirds.

These tiny birds hide in plain sight as many are seen only when we flush them with the vehicle.  Here is a Least Sandpiper.

This next one was a new bird for us – the Semipalmated Sandpiper.

I really like this next shot because it captures three species: (top to bottom) Killdeer, Pectoral Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper.

Here is another shot of the Semipalmated Sandpiper.

And another of a Least Sandpiper.

I really enjoyed the beauty of the water at the poop ponds.  The blues and greens were amazing, and it didn’t stink!  Well, that is until we drove by one of the ponds which was very nasty.  We struck out on the Western Kingbird, but we did get another lifer when we stopped by a different marsh – the Solitary Sandpiper.  He was all by himself.  Go figure.

We finally went down to Garvin where the kids could enjoy this:

The kids had a great time playing on the equipment and running around, and we all enjoyed grilling out and eating a picnic supper at a quiet park.

We left and stopped by Cottonwood one last time to look for the Western Kingbirds.  Right when we got there I spotted two larger birds on a wire.  As I was reaching for the binoculars, one flew away and Evan calmly said that it looked like a Blue Grosbeak!  I got the binoculars on the second one before it was gone and confirmed his sighting by viewing the female of the pair!    I had seen a report that a pair was seen down here last week, so it wasn’t a complete surprise. It is still a very, very good bird to see in Minnesota.  We saw the Blue Grosbeak in June, but it was no less thrilling to see tonight.