Spring migration has been long gone.  Summer specialties that put us on the road have dried up.  To make the final push for 200, we knew we’d have to grind it out, bird by bird.  That means one thing – going after LBBs (little brown birds) in our own part of the state that we still have never seen.  It was time to make something happen.  To get a good birding fix we had no choice but to go after our missing LBBs.  And that’s what the kids and I did today while their mother was on a shopping trip to the Cities.

We started by going to a Waterfowl Production Area to look for shorebirds.  We saw some, but nothing was close and we couldn’t make out positive IDs.  So we moved on to the location of an Upland Sandpiper, a bird Evan still needed.  We struck out there, too.  As we traveled down dusty roads, though, I drove slow with the windows open, listening for a new bird.  Things sure are quiet out there now as most birds are no longer singing as they are either taking care of young or beginning to head south already.  Then I heard a song that made me hit the brakes.  It sounded like a wren we still needed, either the Sedge Wren or Marsh Wren.  I played the Sedge Wren song on the iPod – it was a spot-on match for what we were hearing.

Now the trick was to see the bugger.  It was in a short grass meadow between two cattail marshes, exactly the type of habitat the field guide described.  Joel told me that in order to see one, I should walk in the direction of the sound.  He said a bird on territory will get agitated and present itself.  There was a problem, though.  I had two curious farmers watching my every move from down the road.  I wasn’t about to step onto private land. Finally I gave up, and we moved along.  It was frustrating to know a life bird was singing right next to us, but we couldn’t see it.

Since we were near the location where I discovered a Red-headed Woodpecker a couple weeks ago, I decided to swing by to see if we could see it again.  They are incredible birds. Instantly we saw it.  And then another. And another.  There was one, maybe two families of these woodpeckers.  This was great news! These birds are in decline, so it was thrilling to find multiple adults and juveniles with them.

The kids entertained themselves in the car by drawing and coloring.  Here is Evan’s rendition of the woodpecker that he drew while I took pictures.

After getting our fill of the Red-headed Woodpeckers (which is tough to do!), we went back to the Sedge Wren spot.  No farmers watching us this time.  I still didn’t want to trespass, though.  I decided to play the bird’s song on my phone.  Instantly the little brown bird we were after came buzzing up to the road to investigate.  Evan hopped out of the van to get a good look for himself.

Not to be outdone on his own turf, he started singing back to us.
Then he was like, “Wait a minute, something isn’t right.”Then he showed us the “moon.”Back into the short grass.  Can you find him?

As fun as it was to get this life bird, it was time to leave.  The kids were anxious for some promised ice cream in town.  After the ice cream and some errands, we were back at home.  I was sorting through my most recent pictures when I got an email from Randy. He wanted to take us out birding tonight!  You don’t say no when Randy offers.  We already had a good day getting a lifer.  Now we were about to go out with the local expert.  Even Evan knew this was a special outing, so he put on all his birding gear: hat, vest, binoculars, khaki pants, and hiking boots.  Randy asked us what our targets were.  One was the Marsh Wren.  So that’s what we went after first.  We also looked for shorebirds as fall migration has started already if you can believe that.

The Marsh Wren was not showing at any of the large cattail marshes we stopped by.  Randy had said it’s an easy bird to hear and see.  It was dead calm everywhere.  Not a one could be heard.  Nothing came to the playback of the song on my phone.  Bizarre.  Maybe it was too late in the season for them to care about another singing wren and defend their territory.  We maybe saw one flit here or there, but we made no positive ID.

Finally, though, Randy spotted one that wasn’t singing.  It was only chipping in the cattails.

You can see the resemblance to the Sedge Wren, except this bird was much darker.  I thought it was really neat how these birds are built to live in the cattails.  Check out the way it holds itself up.

A two-wren day! A two-lifer day!  Evan now sits at 196 species.  The noose is tightening on 200.  Will they all come in one day, or will it be a drawn-out battle to get them one at a time?

On Tuesday I woke up early to try to see the Bell’s Vireo and get a picture of it.  When Evan and I went on Monday we could only hear it as it was embedded deep inside the shrubs.  With a great deal of patience and a fair amount of wood ticks, I was able to see the Bell’s Vireo several times while out by myself.  The problem, though, was that I’d only see it when it would fly from one shrub to the next.  Once inside a shrub, forget about trying to find it.  I was motivated to get a picture of this one because it is a county record.  By the way, its location is no longer a secret as Randy posted it to MOU-net tonight.

After nearly two hours of chasing the bird, all I could come up with was this butt-shot. Can you find the bird?  If you can believe it, this was a good viewing for me.It was a gorgeous morning even if my pants and feet were soaked from the dew of the tall grass.  I added a life bird, the Willow Flycatcher, by making the identification from its vocalization.  Sound is the best way to tell the five Empid flycatchers apart since they basically all look alike.  His “Fitz-bew!” call was very distinctive and heard often from several different birds. I wasn’t worried about Evan getting this lifer.  There appeared to be many of these birds; it’s just a matter of bringing him out there to get it.

I also couldn’t resist this shot of the Yellow Warbler.  I never tire of seeing them.

I finally gave up on the Bell’s and decided to head home.  A few days prior, Joel had told me about a Red-headed Woodpecker that he saw just a few miles from this location. This woodpecker was a major target bird for our life lists.  It has an absolutely stunning appearance.  To make it even more unique, the bird’s population is declining due to European Starlings taking over their nesting cavities.  Therefore this bird is becoming increasingly hard to find.  When we went to Blue Mounds State Park, this bird was target #2 right behind the Blue Grosbeak.  Although we hit our primary target that trip, we missed on this one.

As I drove down the road to the residence of the sighting, I didn’t think I’d see the bird. After all, that sighting was a few days ago.  But within a minute or two of being on that road, I spotted a woodpecker on a telephone pole.  I quickly pulled over to get out and look.  No bird.  I figured it just slipped to the back side of the pole.  I was right because soon the bird flew across the road and perched on top of a post only 100 feet away.  It was the Red-headed Woodpecker indeed!  To make it even better, the sun was at my back and the early morning light on the bird was incredible.  Camera time.  I hit the power button and saw the message, “Charge the battery.” You’re kidding.  I couldn’t even get one picture of this amazing bird in this perfect set-up.  All I could do was just watch through the binoculars until it disappeared into a grove a minute later.

This was a bitter-sweet sighting.  The thrill of finding this good lifer was quickly replaced by the depressing fact that Evan wasn’t able to see it too.  That stole the joy I first had. Even Melissa winced when I told her that I found the Red-headed Woodpecker. Because this was such a good bird, I decided not to tell Evan.  This was no LBB (little brown bird). He would have been crushed.

This morning I again woke up early and went out to try to photograph the Bell’s.  After nearly an hour-and-a-half, I gave up without a single picture. Plenty of sightings, but no picture.  Once again I left and traveled down the road that held the woodpecker hoping I’d see it and could race home to get Evan.  No luck.

When I got home, I had to hop in the car again to run the kids into daycare for a few hours.  There was no hurry to get there, so on a whim I decided to take a huge detour to travel the woodpecker road again.  I’m so glad I did.  Shortly after turning onto the road, we spotted the Red-headed Woodpecker on a telephone pole!  It flew into the neighboring yard and back to the poles again, so we got plenty of good views.  Though the light wasn’t as good as yesterday, I was able to get some decent pictures. I hope you can forgive all the pictures; I tend to photo-bomb a great bird when we see it for the first time.  

It was such a relief that Evan got the bird.  Now my joy was complete, and it actually felt like I was seeing it for the first time too.

While I was taking pictures, my phone rang.  Coincidentally it was Joel.  He called to say we could go look at a Red-shouldered Hawk that was nesting at his friend’s house. Joel knew from checking our life lists on the blog that we still needed that one.  After photographing the Red-headed Woodpecker some more, we went north to meet Joel.

As we drove I couldn’t believe our luck.  We saw an amazing life bird today, and now we were about to get another!  Once on site, we weren’t able to locate the nest.  Bummer.  I wasn’t worried, though. It will just be a matter of time before Joel finds the nest and calls us back.  We also made a quick stop to look for the Grasshopper Sparrow – another bird that Joel knew we still needed.  That bird wasn’t showing today either.  I’m okay with that.  We had a monumental morning, and these other missed birds just give us something to hunt for in the future.

While en route to Fargo last Saturday, Randy texted me to let me know that he found a Bell’s Vireo. The significance of this sighting goes beyond a “good” bird or a potential lifer for us. Rather, this was the first observation of this bird showing up in our county – ever.  We are beyond its normal range but close enough where one could slip in.  This bird was on Randy’s list of birds he wanted to find for the county records, and he finally found one.

Because Randy works for the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas, a bird conservation project that seeks to document every species that breeds in the state, he needed to establish that the Bell’s Vireo was breeding in our county.  Such a determination would come from multiple observations over a period of days.  Randy did not post this sighting on MOU-Net out of fear that multiple birders would flock to see this rarity.  Birders, in their zest to see such a bird, have been known to play the bird’s song on electronic devices in order to attract it. This could ultimately cause the bird to move away from the area.  Randy’s plan was to post the sighting after five days, but he let a handful of us know about it right away, trusting we’d be mindful of our interaction with the bird.

Today I took a break from working around the house to take Evan out to find the Bell’s Vireo.  Right away when we got on site, we heard it singing.  We tried our hardest to see it, but it moved around often and would sing from new locations.  We never did get our eyes on it.  Evan wants to count it anyway.  Considering the rarity of the bird, I think we just might.

In our search today we did get a new life bird, the Savannah Sparrow.

And then Evan picked up his Clay-colored Sparrow lifer.  I found mine in our yard over a month ago.  Evan gets upset when I find birds he doesn’t, so for the last month he’s claimed multiple times he’s seen one.  He’s been trying awfully hard to turn all kinds of birds into the Clay-colored Sparrow.  He can finally put that bird to rest after this morning.

We’ll count the Bell’s Vireo on our life list because it is a special sighting and we did locate it by sound, but I’ll be heading out tomorrow to try to get that picture.  Bell’s or not, it was really cool that Evan got two bonus lifers out of our brief search today.

It’s that time of the birding year when we are picking off targets one-by-one in a more focused approach.  One life bird that we knew we could get but just haven’t yet is the Purple Martin.  I knew Randy had quite an elaborate Purple Martin house in his yard, so I asked him when we could stop by to check this bird off our list.  He told me anytime would work, but he said we should also check the Purple Martin house he had at the Willmar Pet Hospital because there are a lot more birds at that one.

Finding the Willmar Pet Hospital was more of a challenge than finding the Purple Martin. Once we found our destination, we immediately saw a male right outside one of the cavities of the house.

Randy is very scientific and keeps records of nesting activity, hence the labeled cavities. He reports his records to the Purple Martin Conservation Association. Apparently Purple Martins are on the decline and need these houses to thrive.

It was fun to watch these birds fly out and back in, calling the whole time.  This pair was nice enough to pose for me.
Evan still wanted to see Randy’s Purple Martins in his yard even though we already got this life bird.  We had plenty of time, so I said we could do that.  As we pulled up, Randy was out in his driveway, so we visited a bit about birds.  He saw the kiddos in the back and said that he thought he was due for a nest check on the Purple Martin house.  How could we say no to that?

Randy has these houses on a winch, so he is able to lower them down the pole to check them, clean them, and rid them of pesky sparrows and starlings.  Pretty clever!  He does it right.  Most of the cavities had nesting activity but no eggs.  One cavity, however, had a nice clutch.

After Randy was done recording the nesting activity for each cavity, he let us poke around his wooded lot.  We came across his Wood Duck houses, so he decided to check up on these birds as well.  After seeing that one had a hen sitting inside, he let each kid take a peek.  This hen was sitting tight.

We checked another Wood Duck house that was also occupied.  This time I got to peek in with my camera.

A little bit later we looked at the first bird again – whoops!

Randy took advantage of the hen’s absence to show the kids an egg and let them feel its warmth.

Getting another life bird today was a treat, but this was a pretty special science lesson these kids got on nesting birds.

Grandpa and Grandma were in town again today.  They came to attend my cousin’s daughter’s graduation reception on Saturday, babysit our kids on Sunday, and then pick up my sister and her family at the airport on Monday.  With all that going on, we still managed to squeeze in a little birding on the way home from church today.

Last night I had put out an email request to the die-hard birders in our county to give me any information on a list of certain species.  One of the birds I was after was the Cliff Swallow, and one guy wrote back telling me about a bridge in town where I could find them.

So we pulled off the freeway to look for Cliff Swallows living under the bridge seen below.

It didn’t take long to find the signature mud nests with their small entrance holes.  Cliff Swallows were everywhere.  They were poking their heads out of the nests and flying underneath and beside the bridge. In the photo below you can see two of them in the nest holes.Here’s a close-up shot of this life bird.  They look very similar to the Barn Swallow, but this white forehead patch is field mark of the Cliff Swallow.Another field mark to distinguish them from the Barn Swallows is the tail shape.  Barn Swallows have long, forked tails; the Cliff Swallows’ are more square.And this buffy/white rump patch is another distinguishing mark.  Barn Swallows are all dark blue on the back.

The Cliff Swallow wasn’t the only life bird we’ve gotten recently. Last Thursday we picked up a couple more when the kids and I went birding in the evening while Melissa went running.  This was the same day I did my prairie photo shoot.  In fact, we went back to that same location.  A beautiful day turned into a stunning evening.

We were fortunate enough to find this small flock of Least Sandpipers.  The Least Sandpiper was a new bird for us.

Then I found the Spotted Sandpiper by a small creek.  Just as I went to point it out to Evan, it disappeared.  He still wants to count it for his life list because he was along on the trip.  I’m sure we’ll run into this resident bird on future birding trips anyway.

I didn’t know either of these sandpipers until I looked at the photos afterward and studied them in the bird book.  I made another cool discovery in the process.  The day before I had seen a shorebird walk into the tall prairie grass.  It was strange to see a bird like this not even close to the water.  Shorebirds are usually found on or near a shore.  I dismissed the sighting because it was brief, and I had no idea to tell what the bird was.  However, when I was reading about different sandpipers, I found out that the Upland Sandpiper lives in a prairie habitat and is not found by the water.  It is the only shorebird that lives in this type of habitat.  Cool!  I can positively say that I saw this bird based on its location.  Plus, my quick glimpse appeared to match the photo in the book.  Hopefully we can find another one of these soon for Evan to add to his life list too.