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Evan Obercian on his just-concluded tour, Minnesota and North Dakota: North Woods to Prairies



June 19: Evan Obercian on his just-concluded tour, Minnesota and North Dakota: North Woods to Prairies

This year’s Minnesota and North Dakota tour was a delight, with lovely summery weather and a great abundance of breeding birds in full form.  In a little over a week’s time we covered a wide range of habitats, from eastern broad-leaf forest, to boreal bogs and fens, to short-grass prairies and cattail-filled pothole lakes.  Among the many highlights were stunning views of singing Connecticut Warbler, a daytime singing Northern Saw-whet Owl, multiple Ferruginous Hawks, close scope views of Baird’s and Henslow’s Sparrows, a Chestnut-collared Longspur nest with eggs, and a fledgling Sprague’s Pipit flushed from the grass while an adult sang overhead.  We also had a great encounter with a wolf!

We thank Peter Schneekloth for providing the following images from the tour.

 

A few pairs of Great Gray Owls nest in the bogs north and west of Duluth.  We were particularly lucky this year to locate a family group on our first evening in Sax-Zim Bog, even witnessing two fledglings being fed by an adult. 

Among the more sought-after boreal zone species, this Yellow-bellied Flycatcher provided a wonderful study.

It’s not always easy to find Sharp-tailed Grouse in June, but this one seemed reluctant to enter the wet grass one morning, remaining in the road for prolonged views

Of the 23 species of breeding warblers encountered on our tour, it’s difficult to say which is the most remarkable, but the Cape May, being a bird of true boreal spruce forest, is always among the most exciting.  We find them on only one day of our tour, in the spectacular forests of Lake County, Minnesota, where they are quite numerous. 

Upland Sandpiper is an increasingly scarce bird of America’s grasslands.  It wasn’t until our final day of birding that we managed to locate several in a well-managed prairie in western Minnesota.  

Posted: June 19, 2017