All the ugly weather we had recently seems to have had some benefits. Once the last big part of the migration started, it has been HUGE! Two days ago I went down to the Park Point Recreation Fields on Minnesota Point. The fields were flooded, and the shorebirds and gulls were happily eating drowned bugs. While the shorebirds don’t stick around as long during the spring migration compared to the fall, I get to enjoy seeing their breeding plumage! There is no reason for this birder to take a trip up to the Arctic tundra to see this bonanza, but I do need to stay “in tune” with what is happening locally. The window of viewing as noted is generally short in the spring.

Count the shorebird species in this one photo!

• Black-Bellied Plover
• Dunlins
• Ruddy Turnstones
• White-Rumped Sandpiper

Caspian Terns having an animated discussion

Ruddy Turnstones (and a Dunlin)

Dunlin

Black-Bellied Plover (and Ruddy Turnstones)

And two more images … an assortment

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on birding safety and Google Location Sharing. Molly is out kayaking on Northstar Lake right now. I know exactly where she is located.

It’s was ugly outside early this morning … the temperature hovered around 40F, NE winds were steady at 25 mph with occasional gusts to 40 mph, and rain … thus the fearful 40’s. Now some folks would think these are horrible birding conditions, but those people would be wrong. Instead given the northern migration which is in progress, I knew there were good probabilities to see birds I would not normally find. The ugly conditions would convince birds to hide from the wind and pause their migration. Just like when bicycling, who wants to expend all the energy to fight a fierce headwind.

The key to successful birding on days of this nature is to understand the weather, the current date in the migration and your local habitat. Thus, I dressed for the weather and went out to the Park Point Recreation Area (big sand spit / dune which forms the Duluth harbor). The playing fields were under lots of water, and in addition to all the ring-billed gulls, I found some gulls and terms migrating up to the Arctic / northern Canada. Enjoy.

Courting Bonapart’s Gulls

Caspian Terns

The two types of birds jointly in one image

We know! We know!

Find the fish which are spawning and you will find hungry birds. At sunrise (5:30 am) there were an amazing number of loons, cormorants, mergansers and gulls at the mouth of the Lester River on Lake Superior. By 6:00 am the show was over, but I just shifted my location and hiked out to the Superior Entry. In the distance via my binoculars I had spied hundred of terns feeding. I said to my self: “Self … more smelt!”

It took a three mile hike but once out to the Superior Entry these rather “uncommon” Common Mergansers put on quite the show for me. This couple was much more concerned about catching fish than worrying about a human. Please note I advanced on the mergansers from out of the sun, and then sat down on the sand. Eventually the birds made their way over to me. One needs to have patience to get photographs like these images, and also not be standing up. Birds immediately recognize you as “a human” when you are standing tall. I was less than ten yards from the mergansers.

Common Mergansers Fishing for Smelt

Permission to Surface, Captain?

Captain Merganser

Dive, Captain, Dive!