When I asked Joel, another birder in our area, about Warbling Vireos, he advised me to learn their song.  He said they stay in the leafy treetops and are hard to see, and the sound is really the only way to track them down this time of year. Joel told me that we shouldn’t have to leave the yard to find one. We took his advice and learned the song – a fast, loud warble with a rising note at the end.  It’s very distinctive. (Listen to the song yourself.) Ever since we learned it, we have been hearing them all over – in the neighborhood and on our Blue Mounds trip.  However, we’ve had a tough time viewing them.  After several attempts of tracking down the sound, I have caught glimpses of the bird but without the aid of binoculars or a camera.  Evan still had never seen one.

The good news is that vireos are persistent singers.  They just don’t quit.  The bad news is that these Warbling Vireos like to change positions a lot.  They don’t sit still and are often hidden in the foliage.  To make it more challenging, they are plain birds that don’t pop among the leaves.

Today we heard one in the neighborhood and went on the hunt.  Several times I saw it for a brief moment before it would flit to another tree where it would just be absorbed into the leaves.  Only when it would fly would we catch sight of it again.  On one of the these flushes, Evan was finally able to see it, securing this life bird for himself.  After a lot of patience, I finally got a picture when one landed in some bare branches in our back yard.  It was fun to get a life bird and new yard bird today, and it was also fun to again be successful at tracking a bird down by sound.

The urgency to try to get some of the last migrating birds heading north was only increased by the weather forecast for the week: rain every day.  It wasn’t supposed to start until 9 AM this morning, so we had a limited window to get out birding.  I woke up early to a light spitting from the sky.  It was good enough to go.  After letting Evan sleep in a little bit, we headed back to Robbins Island.  It was cold, but we were dry.  We were on the hunt for the Blue-headed Vireo and the Black-throated Green Warbler.

There wasn’t much new this morning.  The flycatchers of the Empidonax genus were everywhere.  These “Empids” are practically indistinguishable except by voice.  There are four or five possible species we could get in our area during migration. Even though we were armed with a limited knowledge of their calls, none of them were making a noise which made it impossible for us to make an identification.  Until we can nail one down with certainty, we will refrain from putting it on the life list.

There was one flycatcher that caught my attention as it perched on a branch.  From my studying, I immediately recognized the white stripe running down the center of the breast of this guy.

This unbuttoned-vest look is a classic field mark of the Olive-sided Flycatcher.  This was a life bird for us and a migrating bird at that.  They will not be around in the summer. Shortly after this we found another.  It was fun to watch them fly out, grab an insect, and fly right back to the same perch, over and over again.

After awhile, Evan grew tired of being out, so we headed home.  After lunch and some down time to play, the kids and I headed back to the park to try one more time for our targets of the Blue-headed Vireo and Black-throated Green Warbler.  The forecast had changed to just cloudy for the day, and Melissa needed some peace and quiet to get some papers graded anyway.  Both of my little birders were enthusiastic to go, and they each had their own sense of style for dressing for the field.

Skirts or not, there is no slowing this girl down as we ventured into a marsh where our target, the Blue-headed Vireo, had been seen just yesterday evening.

One thing we had to do was head down to the water again to skip rocks.  Along the way I was pleased to find a male Bay-breasted Warbler and a female Blackburnian Warbler. As the kids played by the water, I was able to study the swallows flying over the lake a little more closely.  One of them was one we needed – the Northern Rough-winged Swallow.  This is a summer resident, but it was still nice to add a life bird.

The kids were great sports as we walked, stopped often, and looked at distant birds.  It was time for them to have some fun, so we made our way to the playground.  However, one of the birds we stopped for was a new bird and a passer-through: the Philadelphia Vireo.

It was finally time to get to the playground.  Three life birds weren’t the only triumph of Evan’s day.  Nope, today he conquered the monkey bars and made it all the way across to the platform!

We ended our day at Robbins Island by finding an unexpected, active warbler – the Yellow-rumped Warbler.  What’s it still doing here?  We haven’t seen one for two weeks now.

We didn’t get either of our targets today.  As much as I want to see the Blue-headed Vireo and the Black-throated Green Warbler, the thrill of the hunt lives on.  Besides, we always find a lot of other good birds (both lifers and familiar ones) that aren’t on our short list. Not only that, but there are two less species that will not pass us by this migration.  That itself is a victory.

With migration drawing to a close, the pace at which we’re adding new birds has dropped off sharply.  Evan added 26 new birds to his life list last weekend.  Until today, we have not added a single new bird since that monumental weekend. It’s to be expected that we won’t add big numbers to our life lists anymore this season since we have seen a lot of the birds and since migration is ending.  It is now time to become much more intentional in our birding by seeking out our summer residents in their habitats.  We have many of these regulars to chase and add to our lists. I enjoy this type of birding.  It is more like hunting and less like winning the birding lottery.  Both are fun, but going after and finding a specific target is very rewarding.

Not only is it the time to find resident birds, but it is also the time to enjoy those that have chosen our yard to make their home for the summer.  We have now had a pair of Indigo Buntings at our house for eight days.  I think they’re here to stay.

Evan’s doves drop by regularly (Eurasian Collared Doves).  We had a record high of three of them in the yard today.

I’ve really come to enjoy this resident House Sparrow who thinks he’s a finch.

Though we are shifting into resident birds, migration is still somewhat alive.  We decided to check out Robbins Island today.  It was a family affair. Melissa wanted to do some running in the park, and the kids and I wanted to check out the birds.

With the trees covered in leaves now, birding has become more challenging than it was a week ago.  The kids and I went down the trails slowly, and Melissa went off running. We saw plenty of birds, but most were high in the trees in bad light.  There were flycatchers all around.  We need to study their sounds so we can identify them correctly.  We still found some warblers.  Like a lot of birders, I really like this family of birds.  They are colorful gems in the woods.  I typically do not keep lists of species I see every time I go out, but I do like to count warbler species.  Today we found lots of Tennessee Warblers, several Yellow Warblers, a couple Blackpoll Warblers, and a few American Redstarts.  We heard the Ovenbird and Chestnut-sided Warbler.  The best warblers that we found, though, were a single Canada Warbler and a single Mourning Warbler.  Eight species of warblers gives me hope for still finding our target, the Black-throated Green Warbler.  Steve and Randy have each had this bird in their yard within the last day.

Birding wasn’t the only thing on the agenda today.  Of course we had to practice skipping rocks.

Evan finally had success with skipping a rock!  He was pretty proud.

These guys had fun playing with rocks or garbage in Marin’s case.  While they played, I looked at all the swallows, warblers, and flycatchers along the water’s edge.  Birds weren’t the only things moving around today.  There were fishermen, frisbee-golfers, and hikers out in the park.  I would say runners, too, as Melissa was running, but she took a wrong turn in the woods and ended up out of the park running all the way around Foot Lake!  It was much farther than she intended to go.  It turns out that she was on her own birding adventure. There were several Canada Geese with goslings along the trail. When Melissa went by some of them, one put its head down, straightened out its neck and hissed at her!  That’s all the motivation she needed to run fast and get back to the park.  These geese around Foot Lake are nasty.  My friend Joe once had to ride his bike through a huge flock on this path (they refused to move) and ended up running over and killing one!  He was too afraid to go back into the mob of geese to check on it.

Once Melissa was out of harm’s way and had rejoined us, we made our way back to the van.  And then a huge new bird fluttered in the tree above.  It was our lifer, the Great Crested Flycatcher!

I couldn’t have asked for a more patient bird.  It would fly a couple feet away, pose, fly a couple more feet, pose, and so on.  Even so, I couldn’t get on it very well with the camera.  Melissa and Evan patiently kept pointing it out for me.  Although at one point Melissa told me I had to be faster with the camera.  At least Evan is fast at using the index to look up and read about his new bird.

We’re hoping to get out and catch a few more migrants before they’ve all headed north. In the meantime, though, we are making plans to hunt down our summer targets.

Today the floodgates opened.  As I sit down to write this post and reflect back on this day, I still can hardly believe all the life birds we saw.  Words can hardly do this day justice.  The pictures will tell the story better than I can.  Some are good and others will just have to do.  As you read our story and see our pictures, I hope you will be in awe of what’s out in creation.

Before I tell the story of today, I want to back up to last night.  While we were at our small group Bible study, Steve had called and texted.  I didn’t see this until we got home. When I did see he’d been trying to get ahold of me, I knew something was going on.  I finally connected with him and got the scoop.  Warblers.  Everywhere.  He spent two hours at the small patch where we’ve been birding, known as Bergquist Wildlife Area.  I could not wait until morning.  The alarm was set for 5:30 so Evan and I could do some birding before we had to come back in to take care of Marin at 8:30 while Melissa had a girls’ event today.  I woke up this morning but not to my alarm.  It was 7:10!  I hustled and got Evan out of bed, and we were at Bergquist within a half hour.  Not much time to bird before we had to head back.

Right away we found a life bird for Evan – the Gray Catbird.  I actually saw this one on the feeder at home this morning, but Evan didn’t hear me call to him.  When I took the picture, I got the message on my camera screen that there was no SD card!  I quickly remembered I had a spare.  Whew.

Shortly after this we found this plain, but pretty bird.  We identified it later as the female Scarlet Tanager – a definite lifer for both of us.  How I wish it had been the male.

The warblers were all around.  We quickly found our lifer, the American Redstart.  These were very abundant this morning.

Then we found the Blackpoll Warbler – another lifer.

There were so many birds in every direction.  We stayed motionless and had new birds coming to us all the time.  Another lifer – a beautiful male Bay-breasted Warbler dropped to a branch 5 feet in front of me, but I wasn’t able to get a picture.  By this time we had to go home, but not before picking up another lifer – the gorgeous Magnolia Warbler!

We went home and decided we’d grab Marin and come right back.  This was an incredible day, and there were more birds to be had.  Steve joined us for round 2.  It was definitely distracting to bird while managing Marin and settling fights between these siblings, but we managed.  It was nice to have Steve along to help point out new birds and ones I was still trying to photograph.  Here is a lifer he found for us – the Wilson’s Warbler.

And then the Golden-winged Warbler.  Excuse the bad photo, but it’s hard to photograph these small, ADD birds!

We found an Eastern Kingbird – another lifer.

Then we found a Flycatcher that remains unidentified.  There are several Flycatchers, and the best way to tell them apart is by voice.  I guess we’ll have to study our sounds before we can add them to the life list.

Steve picked up a life bird today that is one of my favorite birds of all time.  The Blackburnian Warbler.  I was later able to find one that was close, and we got some good looks at this male.  This wasn’t a life bird for Evan and me, but we never tire of seeing them.

I also spotted but was not able to photograph the beautiful Northern Parula.  This sky-blue bird with a yellow underside was a lifer as well.  How I wish I could have photographed it.

Another non-lifer that we saw several times was the bird that hooked me into this sport – the Chestnut-sided Warbler.   His call is the “Pleased to, pleased to, pleased to meetchya!”  We were pleased to meet him again too.

It was absolutely crazy how many birds there were.  Every direction, every level you looked, you’d find birds.  The diversity was mind-boggling.  If you’ve ever seen the movie, The Big Year, today was reminiscent of that scene where the birders go to Texas to experience the fallout of birds from a massive storm.

Here is another lifer we picked up – the Tennessee Warbler.

Here’s an LBB lifer that we got – the House Wren.

After spending two hours at Bergquist, the kids had to go to the bathroom.  Evan – no problem.  Marin – problem. We’re potty-training her, so she has difficulty to begin with. Combine that with trying to have a little girl go in the woods, and you have major problems!  Pee filled her water boots, soaked her pants, and sprayed all over my hand. Birding was over.  We hustled home.

We changed clothes, had a bite to eat, and decided to head back to the patch for trip #3.  There was so much going on there that we couldn’t stop.  Earlier when I asked my little birders who wanted to go back, both shouted, “Meeeeeee!”  Look at them making lists already.  I taught Evan the short code for bird names.  He learned quickly and was marking down everything.

On this third trip we encountered our lifer from Thursday – the Northern Waterthrush.

We also got a chance to photograph another lifer from Thursday – the Broad-winged Hawk.

During this outing, Melissa finished up her girls’ outing and stopped by to pick up Marin. Now it was time to do some serious birding.  Here’s my buddy investigating birds? Nope, turtles again.  See the notebook and pencil, though?

We didn’t see much more after Marin left.  We found another lifer – the Eastern Wood-Pewee.

After this bird, we decided to head home.  Then I remembered a tip from one of our readers and decided to check out the fairgrounds.  Wow, were there birds there too! I was able to photograph a lifer for Evan – the Common Yellowthroat.

We picked up more life birds here that I wasn’t able to photograph – my camera battery died after nearly 8 hours of work today!  Those lifers included the Canada Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo, and Palm Warbler.  We also saw the non-lifer Mourning Warbler.

It was an epic day.  How do you top something like that?  Well, you come home to find the male Scarlet Tanager in your own yard!

It was also fun to see both the front yard and back yard feeders loaded with American Goldfinches.

This was an incredible, exhausting birding day. Here is the re-cap of lifers.  I’m doing this mostly for myself to help me count them:

Gray Catbird (Evan)

American Redstart

Scarlet Tanager

Bay-breasted Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Northern Parula

House Wren

Golden-winged Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

Eastern Kingbird

Common Yellowthroat (Evan)

Northern Waterthrush (Thursday and today)

Broad-winged Hawk (Thursday and today)

Eastern Wood Pewee

Tennessee Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Canada Warbler

Yellow-throated Vireo

Palm Warbler

Evan added 18 life birds today (2 of the 20 above were on Thursday).  I added 16 just today.  We saw a total of 20 warblers today (not mentioned were the Yellow, Ovenbird, Orange-crowned, and Black-and-White).  Amazingly we did not see a Yellow-rumped Warbler, and we missed on the Blue-winged and Black-throated Green which were present last night.

What a day.  I don’t know if we’ll ever have another life bird day like this again.  This was absolutely incredible.

Even when the blog is silent, the birding goes on and the life birds trickle in.  This past week we’ve had the opportunity to explore Willmar’s Bergquist Wildlife Area twice and have found birding success each time.  This wooded park, hardly bigger than a football field, borders a lake and contains a small pond.  It is a lovely sanctuary for birds (and other wildlife) in the midst of the city.  We took a quick walk there on Mother’s Day.  Here are the highlights:

Spotting the Swainson’s Thrush – a life bird.

Seeing the Yellow-rumped Warbler again (one of several) – a common colorful bird that moves constantly.

Watching turtles bask in the sun – big brother is always looking out for his sister.Spending time with Mom who puts up with our birding hobby addiction.

Tonight after school, Evan and I went through Bergquist again because we got the daily update from Steve who hikes it during his lunch.  Several birds on Steve’s list were potential life birds for us.  We found two life-birds tonight.  One was the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.  This time Evan saw it with his own eyes, and I finally got a good look.  Now we could officially count it.  Sorry, but I couldn’t get a photo of that quick little bugger.  I did capture this lifer – the Black and White Warbler.

It was fun to watch warblers in the treetops again.  They bring so much life and color to the woods, but they are so difficult to photograph because of their size, constant movement, and propensity for being in the tops of trees.  Watching through the binoculars is a lot more fun and relaxing than watching through the camera while trying to get a shot.  Here is an attempt at photographing a male Yellow Warbler.  I think he was in the center of my frame but moved just as I took the picture.  We’ll see more of these at my parents’ house this summer and hopefully get a better picture then.

The yard birds have also been fun to watch.  We’ve had Baltimore Orioles coming to eat our oranges and grape jelly for four days now.  We keep hoping an Orchard Oriole will drop by soon. On Mother’s Day we were visited by a life bird for me – the Brown Thrasher.  Evan got his when he went to his Uncle Larry’s a couple weeks ago with my parents.

I also got a chance this week to photograph a bird we’ve seen sporadically and have nick-named Poop-head, our second leucistic Common Grackle to visit us this spring.

With migration underway, the local birding can be pretty exciting.  We have dozens and dozens of birds to see that are back in the state already.  We’ll be looking up.