Megan's Nature Nook
Nature Notes, Phenology, Photography, Fun Facts, Trips, Maybe Even a Bad Joke or Two... and More!
April wasn’t quite as crazy as March, but still plenty of birds to go around! And more on the horizon with spring migration starting to heat up! I started the month off in Minnesota, did some birding in Nebraska mid April, and rounded out the month back in Minnesota. I added 30 birds for the month, with 14 new Lifer birds. It was another fun month of birding with more on the way for May! Here are a few Birding Journal excerpts: Sunday, April 18, 2021 Today Tony and I were in search of a Burrowing Owl – we found some prairie dog towns but no owls. We did however add 3 birds to my year list and two were lifers! We saw Northern Pintail, American Widgeon, and the most surprising – a Cinnamon Teal! We saw tons of other waterfowl like teal, Northern Shovelers, and Coots along with a Northern Harrier that was flying above the prairie. We didn’t get our “target bird” but had a successful day of birding at Houltine WMA! So far the three times I have gone out in search of a specific species have not been successful. I’ve always found a new bird, just not the one I had gone out looking for! Saturday, April 24, 2021 Today was a grebe day! Out on Lake Superior there was an Eared Grebe and Red-necked Grebe among some other divers and a Common Loon. Thursday, April 29, 2021 After work we went out to the Kalmar Reservoir to look for shorebirds. We brought the spotting scope since they’re tricky to ID! Right away we saw and heard an Eastern Meadowlark. We saw some shorebirds we already had, but got 3 new ones today! American Golden Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, and Least Sandpiper. We observed and deliberated a lot but were able to ID those new ones Another successful day of birding! With pictures, we later ID’d a Long-billed Dowitcher adding to our count. April Birds: (The first number represents the number of species for the year, the number in parenthesis represents the number of species for the month) April 1 – Pine Island, NE 101. (1) American Kestrel April 2 – Sand Point Trail, Frontenac State Park, Frontenac, MN 102. (2) Eastern Phoebe 103. (3) Wood Duck 104. (4) Canvasback* 105. (5) Redhead* 106. (6) Lesser Scaup 107. (7) Golden-crowned Kinglet April 3 – Lake Koronis, Paynesville, MN 108. (8) Hooded Merganser 109. (9) Red-breasted Merganser* 110. (10) Common Loon April 4 – Lake Koronis, Paynesville, MN 111. (11) Greater White Fronted Goose* 112. (12) Gadwall 113. (13) Common Redpoll April 18 – Hultine WMA, Eldorado, NE 114. (14) Northern Pintail* 115. (15) American Wigeon* 116. (16) Cinnamon Teal* April 24 – Lake Superior, Lutsen, MN 117. (17) Eared Grebe* 118. (18) Red-throated Grebe* April 25 – Red Wing, MN 119. (19) Purple Finch 120. (20) Ruby-crowned Kinglet April 26 – Red Wing, MN 121. (21) Brown Creeper 122. (22) White-throated Sparrow April 27 – Oxbow Park, Byron, MN 123. (23) Broad-winged Hawk April 28 Oxbow Park, Byron, MN 124. (24) Rose-breasted Grosbeak 125. (25) White-crowned Sparrow April 29 – Kalmar Reservoir, Byron, MN 126. (26) American Golden Plover* 127. (27) Eastern Meadowlark* 128. (28) Semipalmated Sandpiper* 129. (29) Least Sandpiper* 130. (30) Long-billed Dowitcher* The Stats: Bird Species this Year: 130 Species for April: 30 Days Birded this Year: 43 Days Birded in April: 13 Lifers in April: 14 (Birds with an (*) are Lifer Birds) Read my other Big Year related posts by clicking the button below.
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With warmer weather and spring bird migration underway, it’s a great time to get out and birdwatch! BirdCast is a great tool to help you know when the birds are migrating, and when to expect to see more birds in your area. Spring migration is always exciting because it seems like new bird species are arriving all the time! Many passerine (songbird) species migrate at night and in large enough flocks that they are often picked up on weather radars. In 2018 the BirdCast website launched and started forecasting bird migrations and predicting the number of birds that would be migrating at night. They also have a live migration map that reports how many birds actually were in flight. With these maps they’re able to gather information about when birds migrate, where they migrate, and how far they’ll fly on their migration journey. Over the years this information will be able to help us understand more about migration timing and pathways and how migration behaviors respond to climate changes, population changes, and much more. BirdCast is a website (birdcast.info) that is run by The Cornell Lab, Colorado State University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. It is only live for a few months in the spring and fall during migration season. The two main things on their website are the 3-day Migration Forecast Map and Live Bird Migration Maps. The 3-day forecast shows you the predicted migration intensity across the continental United States and the live map shows you real-time analysis of actual nocturnal bird migration that is picked up on weather radar. Another neat tool on their website is the Local Bird Migration Alert. Just type in your city and you can see if there will be any birds passing overhead tonight. It will even estimate the number of brids/km/night. There is a lot of great info about migration and their different migration forecasting tools. I encourage you to check it out and look around the website!
I think it is fun to check BirdCast and see where birds are migrating and moving around. It’s interesting to see how weather can affect their migration and timing. And it is always exciting when there is high intensity of migration in your area, meaning you have a good chance of seeing some new species! Head over to the BirdCast website and see if there are any birds migrating in your area tonight! |
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