Labor Day weekend wrap up

Ruby-throated Hummingbird - I keep wondering when the last day I'll see them will be.

It was a nice Labor Day weekend here. Saturday and Sunday I didn't get on the bike at all, just giving my legs a rest after the long ride to and from work on Friday. The weather was really comfortable though, so I made sure to spend time birding in the backyard every morning. Saturday morning was fairly quiet - a couple of warblers but nothing new. Flycatchers were very active. Every tree seemed to have one. Red-breasted Nuthatches also seem to be everywhere, which is cool. But I didn't really have much to get excited about. Sunday morning, however, was a different story. 

The prairie mound doesn't have the color it used to, but this goldenrod is pretty.

I stepped outside after breakfast on Sunday and immediately noticed activity. The flycatchers were very busy, chickadees were calling, and there were Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos in the yard, still singing, as vireos always do. A Merlin shot overhead. Three Caspian Terns were flying over the lake. This was going to be fun. A loud chip note caught my attention from the willows along the marsh edge - it sounded like a Northern Waterthrush. I happened to be testing the "Merlin" sound ID app (appropriate given an actual Merlin had just flown by). It's usually pretty good and was calling the species pretty accurately. Then it called the loud chip note a Blue Grosbeak. When it first showed that I dismissed it right away. Baloney. Then it called it a Blue Grosbeak again. And again. And then I saw a grosbeak-shaped thing in the willow for a fleeting glimpse. Holy crap! I saved the recording, still not fully believing it. 

Blue Grosbeaks are tough to find around the Twin Cities. There are a few breeding pairs here and there but they are local and by no means common. Whatever the bird was, it had moved on. I went back to covering other parts of the yard. Merlin flagged a Cape May Warbler chip note. On cue, a hatch year (born this summer) female Cape May Warbler came into view. Nice! That was a new warbler - and my 29th green warbler species. Please let me find a Black-throated Green, I thought. 30 green warblers would be awesome and an accomplishment to hang my hat on in of itself - especially since warblers are my favorites. Sadly, not much else showed up. 

American White Pelicans at a distance (pardon the bad photography...which I think you're used to? Ha!)

I spent the better part of the next few nights listening to the recording and looking at spectrogram over and over. It sure did fit a Blue Grosbeak. But...Northern Waterthrush call notes are very similar, and good old Merlin is known for some howlers amongst the accurate calls. Just this weekend it called a dog nail clacking on the deck a Red-winged Blackbird, and a distant dog barking a Canada Goose. Nope. I remained troubled but kept the Blue Grosbeak on my list for the time being. 

Labor Day Monday rolled around and I got back on the bike to hit Louisville Swamp. I was hoping for a Black-throated Green Warbler, and maybe even some mudflats and shorebirds (?). It was warmer that day, and I didn't get over as early as I'd thought I would. Breakfast and coffee kept me lingering at home. I ended up getting there just before 900AM. The birds were pretty active which raised my hopes. An Ovenbird was perched in the top of a dead tree (odd for that species). A good omen? 

Water for hot dogs. Birch is ready for below zero temps already. A dog of the great white north, for certain.

Unfortunately the water was not down enough for mudflats, but it had dropped several feet. I'm hopeful that by the middle of next week, I'll have something to work with. Better late than never, I hope. As I started back towards the other side, I ran into a VERY nice flock of warblers. The trees were dripping. Best flock of the fall so far. I started ticking off the species. Blackburnian. Chestnut-sided. Canada. Nashville. Bay-breasted. No Black-throated Green! Ugh. Still, it was really fun, and after about 10-15 minutes or so, the flock moved further back where I couldn't follow them. I ended up with 14 warbler species there overall. A solid total.

The rest of the morning was slowish, although I saw a total of four Olive-sided Flycatchers there that day which is a good number in once place for that solitary species. I found a Mourning Warbler and Northern Waterthrush towards the end - which was loudly chipping - and again drew my thoughts back to my "grosbeak". 

Lower - but not low enough! 

After getting home I went back to the spot where the alleged grosbeak was. Pretty quickly, there was a Northern Waterthrush, chipping away, close by to the original spot. Too much coincidence, and that is what I thought it was at first after all. After sleeping on it for one more night, I decided to not count the grosbeak obviously. Darn. Knew it was too good to be true. But I like Northern Waterthrushes, so it's all good. 

I'm up to 219 "green" species now. Priorities over the next few weeks will be Black-throated Green Warbler, any shorebirds that I can find, and maybe Gray-cheeked Thrush, which are challenging in the fall (and spring too). I'm thinking about getting up very early and listening for flight calls for the Gray-cheeked - their flight call is pretty distinctive, and maybe I'll get lucky and hear one overhead. Or maybe I'm just hopelessly optimistic. 

First signs of autumn - BRING IT ON! Thanks for reading!