[mou] Appleton BBS

[Robert_Russell at fws.gov]

I ran the Appleton BBS route on a near-perfect weather day on 6/25/08 with
light winds.  This route starts about 12 miles south of Benson, runs due
west with one jog to a point a couple of miles east of Appleton, then due
north to an ending on the Pomme de Terre River bridge north of U.S. 12.
It's a very pleasant route with some good CRP land and wet meadows and
small river and stream bridges and a few miles of black earth corn/soybean
desert.  I thought it would be interesting to see what has changed over the
years as this route was first run in 1978 and 24 times since then.  I was
quite surprised to end up with 75 species, exceeding the past high total by
6 species.  A rough spring of extreme weather would not seem to be the year
to set this mark.  The total number of birds of 1186 was a 5th overall high
count, also a bit of a surprise.  Highlites of the count included the first
Bald Eagle ever recorded, 3 Northern Harriers (highest ever), 77 pheasants
(highest ever by one), one Wilson's Snipe (2nd count record), 2
Black-billed Cuckoos, 4 Black Tern, 4 species of woodpecker including
sapsucker and Pileated. 2 Western Kingbirds, 3 Willow Flycatchers (tied all
time high), 8 Baltimore Orioles, and 2 Orchard Orioles.  Low counts were
noted for Yellow Warbler (3), Eastern Bluebird (0), Eastern Kingbird (2),
Yellow-shafted Flicker (0), and Dickcissel (0).  Species above the
long-term average (23 year data set)  included Killdeer, Ring-billed Gull,
Red-tailed Hawk, Great Crested Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, American Crow,
House Wren, Clay-colored Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and American Goldfinch.
Species below the long-term average included Gray Partridge, Mourning Dove,
Red-headed Woodpecker (average 5, 3 in 2008), Horned Lark (average 35, 23
in 2008), Barn Swallow (average 32, 25 in 2008--old barns are disappearing
on the landscape!), Vesper Sparrow (average 33, 28 in 2008), Savannah
Sparrow (average 10, 6 in 2008), Western Meadowlark (average 33, 9 in
2008--lowest count ever, clearly this species is in trouble even in the
heart of its MN range), Yellow-headed Blackbird (average 26, 12 in 2008,
maybe spread out more this year with all the ponded marshes or maybe a real
decline?).  Cliff and Bank Swallows are doing well on this route although
the U.S. Hwy 12 bridge site for Cliff Swallows was abandoned but the bridge
upstream had a healthy 120 birds.  Bob Russell, USFWS, Ft. Snelling, MN
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