Lower Mississippi River MBW Summary

November 21 - 22, 2025...

…MBWeekend #500? Really? After a recent audit of our past 40 years, that’s the grand total of MBWs I came up with as of this MBW. A total of 500 of them. And, save for our special MBW Reunion in Duluth this January, it looks like this will be the End of this Era of MBWs. (Stand by, though – plans are in the works to start a new generation of Minnesota Birding Weekends in April 2026 under new management.)

It’s fitting that last weekend’s survey along the Mississippi River of migrant Tundra Swans and other waterfowl represented the 500th and final MBWeekend, since this trip had also been on the schedule back in our initial year in 1986. (See below for the summary of the 1988 version of this MBW, back in the days before home computers and email.) Now, 40 years later, we had great weather overall, more like mid-October than late November. The usual concentration of thousands of Tundra Swans were in (I’d guess at least 5,000 of them), mostly at Reno Bottoms, though most of the Canvasbacks and Common Mergansers (which can also congregate by the 1000s here along the Mississippi from Lake Pepin to the Iowa border) had yet to arrive.

The numbers of Ring-necked Ducks and Gadwalls were also impressive, as was that Surf Scoter in the river at Winona’s Prairie Island. Unfortunately, it kept diving and moving around a lot, so it seems a few MBWers didn’t really see it. And note that this scoter may have been misidentified as a White-winged earlier that week – either that, or this was a different individual bird and both species were there.)

A late Greater Yellowlegs was also unexpected at the Kellogg sewage ponds, but all our other highlights involved passerines, and all of these were along Hillside Road. The Townsend’s Solitaire was not only unexpected, but it repeatedly called and provided us with close views. Then, a short time later, at the very south end of this road just before Reno, we found Tufted Titmouse (4 of them!), 2 late Hermit Thrushes, an even later Eastern Towhee, plus Golden-crowned Kinglets, and this MBW’s only White-throated Sparrow and Purple Finches.

Bird List – all species found in Houston County except those marked Wi (Winona Co.) or Wa (Wabasha Co.)

Snow Goose Wa

Canada Goose

Trumpeter Swan

Tundra Swan

Wood Duck

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Gadwall

American Wigeon

Mallard

American Black Duck

Northern Pintail

Green-winged Teal

Canvasback

Redhead Wi

Ring-necked Duck

Lesser Scaup

Surf Scoter Wi

Bufflehead

Common Goldeneye

Hooded Merganser

Common Merganser

Ruddy Duck

Pied-billed Grebe

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

American Coot

Sandhill Crane Wa

Greater Yellowlegs Wa

Ring-billed Gull

American Herring Gull Wa

Common Loon Wa

Double-crested Cormorant

American White Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Bald Eagle

Red-tailed Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk

Belted Kingfisher

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Pileated Woodpecker

American Kestrel

Northern Shrike

Blue Jay

American Crow

Black-capped Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

Brown Creeper

European Starling

Eastern Bluebird

Townsend’s Solitaire

Hermit Thrush

American Robin

House Sparrow

Purple Finch

American Goldfinch

American Tree Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

White-throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Eastern Towhee

Red-winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Northern Cardinal

* * *

Since there are no digital copies of any MBW summaries

from these early years, the best I can do is to show a photo

of a hard copy of a summary (this one of the 1988 MBW).

I had decided to resurrect this MBW in 2025 since this is our 40th

and final season – and because this MBW was among those we did

in 1986, the first year of Minnesota Birding Weekends.

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Mariann Cyr photo