[mou] Birding around the metro

[Laura Erickson]

I fairly regularly get Northern Waterthrushes in my yard during migration.
 Warblers are nocturnal migrants, and when they descend at first light are
often tired and hungry.  If a waterthrush doesn't see suitable water near,
it still must come down.  Imagine all the inappropriate habitat that birds
migrating from the boreal forest to the tropics must cross.  Each one must
even cross, somewhere, Interstate 80 and Interstate 70.  Fortunately,
warblers are fairly adaptable and intelligent in the sense that they can
often figure out survival strategies in unfamiliar habitats. 
Unfortunately, the best habitat for not just waterthrushes but many
songbirds is often along waterways, exactly where we have built so many of
our cities.

This is why it's so important to support habitat acquisition for birds. 
Even if you never in your life go to a National Wildlife Refuge, many of
the birds you see DO spend time in them--luscious green islands of habitat
in an increasingly developed world.  That's why Duck Stamps are so
important--98 cents of every dollar spent on them goes directly to habitat
acquisition.


Laura Erickson
Duluth, MN

Staff Ornithologist
Binoculars.com
www.birderblog.com

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds. 
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of
nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the
winter.

			--Rachel Carson


> Today I had a Nashville Warbler and a Swainson's Thrush in my yard. The
> strangest thing I saw was a N. Waterthrush in my yard--and we live a block
> away from one! Has anyone seen a Waterthrush away from the water??
>
> Alyssa DeRubeis
> Golden Valley
>
> -------------- Original message --------------
> From: "Steve Weston" <sweston2@comcast.net>
>
>> On Saturday I found the first flock of White-throated Sparrows of the
>> fall.
>>
>> On Labor Day, I had a male Coopers Hawk pursuing a female as they flew
>> into
>> my yard. Interesting was the Leopard Frogs were calling in the back
>> yard.
>> While this spring we had great choruses of Copes Gray Treefrogs and
>> American
>> Toads, I heard no Leopard Frogs. But the Leopard Frogs are along the
>> shore
>> in large numbers. I don't know why I missed hearing them.
>>
>> I stopped by 140th Street marsh in Rosemount today at dusk. The water
>> level
>> is very low, and quite choked with algae. There were several Lesser
>> Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpipers.
>>
>> The best bird of the day was the Osprey flying twenty of thirty feet
>> high
>> near Snelling and CR C in Roseville.
>>
>> Steve Weston on Quiggley Lake in Eagan, MN
>> sweston2@comcast.net
>>
>>
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