Andy's "Green Birding" Big Year

  Wild Turkey watching me as a rode by Yesterday was my 15th anniversary at my job! In honor of that occasion and with hopes of getting a few new birds for my list, I decided to bike into work. Unfortunately, the floodwaters are still too high at the river crossing for my usual route, but there's an alternative one that is more hilly and a little longer that is just fine - and that has a nice spot to stop along the way. I hit the road early with high hopes and cool-ish temperatures.  Check this place out if you're in the Twin Cities - good trails, good birds The ride into work was pleasant and mostly uneventful, although some of those hills felt steeper than I remembered them being, and I definitely broke a sweat biking up them. It's a good thing there's a shower at my office! A less than average night of sleep may have had something to do with the additional challenge, perhaps. The good news is that warblers were everywhere - there seemed to be a flock of chipping bird...

With the continued high water, I wonder if swimming is authorized, too?  As I suspected/feared, my little soybean field "fluddle" dried up this week, and the shorebirds that were there have moved on. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. With that, I decided to head back to Louisville Swamp and see if the floodwaters had receded more. I should have checked the river levels...more on that in a bit. There were other more pleasant surprises waiting for me there though! As I was riding out of my neighborhood, I heard chip notes from the treetops along the road- warbler chip notes! Not what I was really after today, but I was ready to look for them when I arrived. I wasn't disappointed there. A small flock of warblers flitting about in an oak tree was waiting for me shortly after I got on the trail.  Tennessee Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, and American Redstarts were present. A Red-eyed Vireo foraged with the flock and occasionally sang. It was really ...

I've been trying to keep momentum going here over the last week or so since my last post. You may recall from last time that I was lamenting that my main shorebird spot still had high water. Well, I've been watching a low flooded area in a soybean field that is close by on my way to work for some time, and kept thinking I was seeing shorebirds mixed in with the usual Canada Geese. Finally, while going to the gym on Saturday, I decided to bring my binoculars. I'm really glad that I did - a flock of at least 50 shorebirds were there! I burned through my workout and rushed back home, then hopped on my bike to ride back.  Thankfully, there is a decent spot to get off the road a bit there for safety's sake, which is good. There were a pretty good variety of shorebirds there. Small flocks of Least and Pectoral Sandpipers, plus a few Lesser Yellowlegs, Semipalmated Plovers, and of course Killdeer. None of these were new species, but I decided to keep a close eye on this spot a...

  Rain, rain, go away As July came to a close, a large part of me was happy to see it go. It was a hot, rainy, smoky month and the birding was less than stellar. Needless to say, air quality alerts and temperatures in the high 90s don't make for exciting birding, so I didn't get out on my bike at all the entire month. While it was fun to watch bird families around the yard, the end of the month found me excitedly watching swallows flock up, and hints of "zugenruhe" amongst the summer breeding species (look that word up for some fun).  Round after round of storms have brought lots of damage and flooding I've had Friday, August 1 circled on my mental calendar for some time as a good day to take some leave and get back on the bike. A decent forecast for milder temperatures sealed the deal and I decided to make a run over to my favorite green birding location, Louisville Swamp. I was hoping the flooding wouldn't be too bad, and maybe there would be some mudflats w...