At the obligatory Perkins parking lot in Ferg (Kathrynne Baumtrog photo)
…Plus we strayed a bit into Clay Co. on Thursday to do lunch in Barnesville, and to see a bittern on Saturday seeking shelter from the wind on the Roberts Co., SD side of the White Rock dam. And if you’ll forgive these transgressions, we come up with 119 species in all. (And I wonder how John Quinn, our semi-official MBW scribe, would have described these departures from county-listing etiquette in his curious ramblings and rabbit-hole tangents of The JTL Report. But he wasn’t with us and in no position to write anything this time, opting instead for a trip to Portugal. Such dereliction of duty may have amounted to a serious step backwards in his quixotic quest to become an official MBW Junior Tour Leader. And there isn’t much time left for him to reverse course.)
So without John, it falls to me to provide a more pedestrian summary of our efforts on this four-county MBW. But that’s not hard to do this time, since to sum things up all you really need to know is how windy it was. Wind speeds in the 20-25 mph range prevailed on three of the four days and made it hard to keep ourselves and scopes from blowing over. You can’t help but wonder if we could have had 130 species or more with more reasonable conditions – plus better looks at the 119 we did find. At least it was relatively calm and even pleasant on Friday, unlike the other days, the few rain showers we had mostly fell during non-birding times, and with the mild-for-October temperatures those winds didn't produce much of a wild-chill factor.
Despite the weather, we did find some sheltered places along with several species of note. As is typical for this spot, the North Ottawa impoundment on Sunday provided lots to see, even though the conditions were still scope-shaking. Hundreds of ducks representing a dozen species were there, with a rare-on-the-prairie American Black Duck among them. Ten shorebird species were present as well (the MBW had 11 in all, including 20+ golden-plovers the previous day in Traverse), and these included a Stilt Sandpiper which had escaped detection until Dana noticed its image later in her camera 9see photo below). Another of Dana’s images also showed there were at least 57 individual Long-billed Dowitchers in the flock at North Ottawa. And an early Snow Bunting cooperatively accompanied our car caravan down the road for all to see as we left the area.
Elsewhere, there were a few Cackling Geese in Wilkin on Thursday, a lone Western Grebe on Saturday in Traverse, an American Bittern that refused to fly from the SD side of the river to make it onto our Traverse county lists, and a pair of unexpected ravens vocalizing in southwest Otter Tail Co. But at the same time, and in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit some disappointment in the showing made by the quintessential species for which this region is known. There were just a handful of Sandhill Cranes at Rothsay and elsewhere; only a few prairie-chickens briefly flew by twice, so that I’d guess more than half our group never saw any; no Short-eared Owls were spotted anywhere; hardly any Lapland Longspurs were migrating (leaving us no chance of finding a Smith’s); and our attempts to coax any LeConte’s or Nelson’s sparrows out of the grass and up into the wind were futile.
But keep in mind this was still a Minnesota Birding Weekend, after all, where our successes have far outnumbered the disappointments for nearly 40 years. So thanks to all for coming – both in recent years and over the decades – and for making this unique program of MBWs possible for so long. As Rose put it earlier this week, despite the weather and some uncooperative birds at times, it was “another brilliant birding adventure.” Or, as Molly Henke (no relation to Nancy) put it back in 1996 as we adjourned a Rock Cpunty MBW at the Hardwick sewage ponds and headed for home: “It was great sport!” –KRE
Bird List
- THU: primarily Wilkin (plus briefly in Otter Tail & Clay)
- FRI: primarily Otter Tail (plus briefly in Wilkin at dusk)
- SAT: primarily Traverse (plus briefly in Otter Tail & Grant en route to Traverse)
- SUN: primarily in Grant (plus briefly on Traverse side of N Orttawa)
- species not annotated were found on all 4 days
Cackling Goose THU (Breckenridge sewage ponds)
Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Wood Duck FRI, SAT, SUN
Blue-winged Teal FRI, SAT, SUN
Northern Shoveler THU, SAT, SUN
Gadwall THU, SAT, SUN
American Wigeon SAT, SUN
Mallard
American Black Duck SUN (North Ottawa impoundment)
Northern Pintail THU, SAT, SUN
Green-winged Teal SUN
Redhead THU, SAT, SUN
Ring-necked Duck THU, SAT, SUN
Lesser Scaup THU, SAT
Bufflehead THU, SAT
Common Goldeneye THU
Hooded Merganser THU
Common Merganser SAT
Ruddy Duck THU, SAT
Wild Turkey FRI, SAT, SUN
Greater Prairie-Chicken THU (brief fly-bys at Rothsay spotted by Rick), FRI
(briefly at Otter Tail Prairie)
Ring-necked Pheasant
Pied-billed Grebe
Western Grebe SAT (Hwy 117 dam)
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove (especially numerous in Wendall, Grant Co)
Mourning Dove
Sora SAT
American Coot THU, SAT, SUN
Sandhill Crane THU
American Golden-Plover SAT (~20 just east of Miller Prairie)
Killdeer THU, SAT, SUN
Semipalmated Plover SUN (this and other shorebirds at North Ottawa)
Stilt Sandpiper SUN (identified post-MBW via Dana’s camera!)
Least Sandpiper SUN
Pectoral Sandpiper SUN
Semipalmated Sandpiper SUN
Long-billed Dowitcher SUN (57+ counted in Dana’s photo!)
Wilson’s Snipe THU, FRI, SAT
Lesser Yellowlegs SUN
Greater Yellowlegs THU, SUN
Bonaparte’s Gull THU, FRI, SUN
Franklin’s Gull FRI, SAT
Ring-billed Gull
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
American Bittern SAT (only on SD side of White Rock dam)
Great Egret FRI, SAT, SUN
Great Blue Heron FRI, SAT, SUN
Turkey Vulture THU, FRI, SUN
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk THU, FRI, SAT
Cooper’s Hawk THU, FRI
Bald Eagle THU, FRI, SAT
Red-tailed Hawk
Great Horned Owl FRI (heard-only in Wilkin)
Belted Kingfisher THU, FRI, SAT
Red-headed Woodpecker FRI
Red-bellied Woodpecker FRI, SAT, SUN
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker FRI
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker FRI, SUN
American Kestrel THU, FRI, SAT
Merlin FRI, SAT
Eastern Phoebe THU, FRI, SAT
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven FRI (pair at Otter Tail Prairie)
Black-capped Chickadee
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow SAT
Barn Swallow SAT, SUN
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Cedar Waxwing FRI, SAT
Red-breasted Nuthatch FRI, SAT
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper FRI, SAT, SUN
Northern House Wren FRI
Winter Wren SUN
Sedge Wren FRI
Marsh Wren THU, SAT
European Starling
Eastern Bluebird FRI
Hermit Thrush THU, FRI, SAT
American Robin
House Sparrow
American Pipit
House Finch THU, FRI, SAT
Purple Finch FRI, SAT
Pine Siskin THU, FRI, SAT
American Goldfinch THU, FRI, SAT
Lapland Longspur THU, SAT
Snow Bunting SUN (on both sides of county line at North Ottawa)
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow FRI
Fox Sparrow THU, FRI
Dark-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrow THU, SAT (why so few?!)
Harris’s Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow FRI, SAT, SUN
Savannah Sparrow (why so many?!)
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow FRI
Swamp Sparrow
Western Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird THU
Rusty Blackbird THU, SUN
Brewer’s Blackbird THU, FRI
Common Grackle
Orange-crowned Warbler FRI, SAT, SUN
Palm Warbler THU, FRI
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal FRI
A FERG-BASED MBWEEKEND
( WilkIn - Otter Tail - Traverse - Grant Counties )
October 9 - 10 - 11 - 12, 2025
Dana Sterner photo: Stilt Sandpiper (left) with 3 Pectoral Sandpipers and a Killdeer. Either none of us noticed this bird when we were studying this somewhat distant group of shorebirds, or we were unable to get a decent look at it and passed it off as probably another Pectoral, or perhaps it flew in after our attention turned towards other things? But while studying her photos later, Dana noticed its different appearance and thought it looked more like a Stilt Sandpiper. Good eye, Dana!