The Lester Park Golf Course Ponds in Duluth are an excellent spot to bird early in the morning during migration. This Horned Grebe checked me well over shortly after sunrise this morning, and then decided I was harmless. I watched it hunt for about ten minutes till I went to check the other four ponds.

In the last two days I have seen:

1. Ruby Crowned Kinglets (major migration numbers)
2. Yellow-Rumped Warblers (major migration numbers)
3. Palm Warblers
4. Phoebes
5. Tree Swallows
6. Buffleheads (courting battles underway each day)
7. Greater Scaup
8. Great Horned Grebes

Do you know where all the small ponds are in your neighborhood? These ponds are songbird food factories and “turn on” long before their deeper water cousins, northern lakes. Every day brings some different birds as the migration continues. While I had seen a few Yellow-Rumped Warblers, today with the south wind and warmer weather migration of our first warblers was in full swing.

Striking a Pose for the Photographer

Scaring a Bug … Yellow-Rumped Warbler

As noted in my Ruby-Crowned Kinglet post, I have been birding / hiking the Lester Park Golf Course the past two days. I plan on being over there again shortly after sunrise tomorrow morning. Each day seems to bring different birds, which is fun after the long winter. The past two days’ selection have been ducks. One nice thing is on ponds the number of ducks is smaller. It is really hard to get close to large flocks of ducks. Once one bird flushes, the next 200 also take off. However with golf course ponds in the early morning I can slowly approach … directly in the sunlight which makes me hard to see. When I get to each pond I then sit down, even on the wet grass. Standing I am a dangerous human. Sitting I am often tolerated. Here is a collection of images I took over the past two mornings.

Greater Scaup (and a Horned Grebe in the final pic)

Buffleheads a Courting

Phoebe (not much of a duck!)

Guess who is interested in the migrating songbirds? A Merlin!