A Brant in St. Louis provided Minnesota with its 18th state record and first for the fall since 1989. Several very early Cackling Geese reminded us that we're still trying to fully understand the timing of migration for this species through the state. Please continue to provide identification details with reports of this species. Waterfowl high counts were unremarkable, but sea ducks made a nice showing. At least five Harlequin Ducks were located along Lake Superior — the most since Winter 2010. While all three scoters were each found in Cook, Lake, and St. Louis counties, each was also well-represented away from Lake Superior, including three new county records for Surf Scoter and five for Black Scoter. Even Long-tailed Duck produced a first county record, this one for Pine. For the first fall since 2006, no Barrow's Goldeneye could be found.

Red-throated Loons were reported sporadically along the Duluth shoreline, from Superior Entry to the Lester River; one additional bird was found in Lake. At least two Pacific Loons were also found at Duluth. A Clark's Grebe successfully bred on Lake Osakis, though it was unclear whether the second parent was another Clark's or a Western. Another two Clark's were found on St. Mary's Lake in Traverse.

Ash and Mud Lakes in Grant were productive in the fall, due in part to the drought and Ash Lake being in draw down. Birders found four Snowy Egrets and a Little Blue Heron there. While fall numbers of Cattle Egret never rival spring counts, a paltry two in Grant and a lone bird in Houston was disappointing. A juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in Hennepin left observers wondering where the more-striking parents might have been roosting.

In September, two Mississippi Kites at Hawk Ridge in St. Louis got the annual raptor count off to an excellent start. Though the total raptor count for the season was about 30% below average, counts of Bald and Golden eagles were over 50% above the norm, and 18 Swainson's Hawks compared very nicely to the average of 7. November 12th was an excellent day at the Ridge, when counters had their peak numbers of Bald Eagle, Rough-legged Hawk and Golden Eagle (a record high 57).

Reports of Common Gallinules in six south and one north counties were the most since Spring 2008, which, coincidentally, was the last season when this species was found north.

The only Piping Plover was at Minnesota Point in St. Louis. American Avocets and Willets were also scarce, with only 5 and 3 individuals reported, respectively. There have been no fall reports of Whimbrel since 2008, and of Red Knot since 2009; this year continued those trends. Hudsonian Godwit, Marbled Godwit, and Ruddy Turnstone are also much more widely reported in spring than in fall, so it was not surprising to see that each was found in only a few counties. Pectoral and Semipalmated sandpipers were tallied in impressive numbers, however.

Prior to 2012, there had been approximately 37 Black-legged Kittiwakes documented in the state — all first-cycle birds. In early November, yet another first-cycle kittiwake was discovered, but near the end of the month, the state's first adult was finally found at Canal Park in Duluth. A juvenile Sabine's Gull in Hennepin extended the streak of fall occurrences for this species to ten years! Iceland Gulls were seen at traditional locations in Duluth, the Twin Cities, and along the lower Mississippi River. Lesser Black-backed Gulls were also in Duluth and the Twin Cities, while a second county record for Lyon was unexpected. Great Black-backed Gulls were located only in Duluth. The sole jaeger of the season was a Parasitic seen in mid-August.

With reports from spring and summer 2012, the currently Casual White-winged Dove has now been seen in each of the last ten years; one this fall in Cook, however, marked the fifth county record for this species over this same ten-year span! Only St. Louis, with seven reports, has had more individuals.

Among the winter owls, there were no indications of an unusual influx. In August, two Prairie Falcons were documented in Big Stone, which is a typical fall count and location for this species.

A Say's Phoebe stayed in St. Louis for a few days, producing the third record for that county. Also in the Northeast was the state's first Cassin's Kingbird; it found Grand Marais inviting enough to linger there for two weeks, providing many an opportunity to see the 439th addition to the Minnesota State Checklist (see pages 51–56 in this issue). Cottonwood County's first Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was the tenth for the state in the last five years.

It had been 35 years since multiple Clark's Nutcrackers showed up in a single season. This fall, three birds were well-documented within the state. Interestingly, all were found in the eastern side of the state, and (per eBird) only Minnesota in the Upper Midwest seems to have enjoyed wandering nutcrackers this season.

Tufted Titmice were more widespread than usual, with reports as far north as Atikin and as far west as Stevens. A Rock Wren in Blue Earth was the first in the state since 2008 and the first ever for that county. Carolina Wrens made a very impressive showing; 21 individuals found in 13 counties is the most ever in a single season.

Three Mountain Bluebirds were detected along the North Shore, and another was found in the Twin Cities. A very early Townsend's Solitaire was seen in Hennepin in late September; the other seven of the season showed up beginning in late October. Four Varied Thrushes were typical for the fall. So were the four Northern Mockingbirds, though it was interesting that three of the four were discovered far north in counties bordering Canada.

Bohemian Waxwings were plentiful in the north, and a few even made it to the southern half of the state. The Hawk Ridge/Lester River Census tallied near-record numbers of Cedar Waxwings in August and September. A few Smith's Longspurs were found outside their typical migration corridor through the West-central and Southwest regions, producing first county records for Pine and Faribault.

Among the warblers, the season's highlight was a record-late Yellow-breasted Chat discovered in Duluth in November. Nelson's Sparrows are often difficult to discover during migration, but this season was notable for the number of locations where multiple individuals could be found over periods of a week or more. Summer Tanagers were in Aitkin in August and McLeod in October.

Winter finches put on an excellent showing this season. Pine Grosbeaks made their most impressive incursion south since winter 1989–90. Reports of both crossbill species were also up, with Reds reported from 41 counties and White-wingeds from 34. The Hawk Ridge/Lester River Census tallied Reds moving down the North Shore on 56 days this season, and White-wingeds were almost a daily sighting after mid-October. Numbers for both redpolls, Pine Siskin, and Evening Grosbeak were also up, exceeding totals from any of the five prior autumns.

Finally, many of the passerine high counts for the season were tallied as part of the Hawk Ridge/Lester River Census. These included record high counts for Eastern Kingbird, American Pipit, Bobolink, Red Crossbill, White-winged Crossbill, and American Goldfinch.

Weather: Precipitation levels in much of the state were well below normal throughout the season, especially in August and September. In contrast, the Northwest region received an early season snow storm on 4 October, and many locations in the northern third of the state had snowfall totals between 10 and 20 inches during November.

Monthly mean temperatures for August and September were very close to historical average. October temperatures were actually below average — marking the first time Twin Cities monthly average temperatures were below normal since May 2011. In November, above average warmth returned as temperatures ranged from normal to five degrees (F) above normal, especially in the south. On 10 November temperatures actually hit 69^o at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport; the same warm, humid weather brought four tornadoes to Twin Cities suburbs.
Undocumented or insufficiently documented records of Regular species: Snow Goose 8/16 Mower (early date); Tundra Swan 8/11 Todd (early date); White-winged Scoter 11/6 Goodhue (lack of details); Spruce Grouse 9/7 Mille Lacs (out of range); Pacific Loon 11/20–22 Carver (Casual away from Lake Superior); Clark's Grebe 11/9 Big Stone (record late by five weeks); Sharp-shinned Hawk 8/1 Washington, 8/3 Hennepin (early dates); Glaucous Gull 10/27 Sherburne (2) (early date); Northern Shrike 9/5 Polk (record early first-year bird); Common Raven Scott 10/18 (out of range); Northern Rough-winged Swallow 8/7 Lyon (200), 8/12 Lyon (100) (record high counts); Blackpoll Warbler 8/9 Martin (extremely early); Wilson's Warbler 8/2 Lac qui Parle (early date); Le Conte's Sparrow 9/9 Dakota (record early); Rusty Blackbird 8/18 Cass (out of range/early); Orchard Oriole 9/29 Dakota (record late by three weeks); White-winged Crossbill 8/13 Crow Wing (20) (out of range).

Acknowledgments: We thank Anthony Hertzel, Jeanie Joppru, and Jim Lind for compiling and providing transcripts of Minnesota's three weekly birding reports. Special thanks to Dave Cahlander for building and maintaining the seasonal reports submission and production web pages through which most of this data is collected and organized. In addition to the data collected through this MOU website, we are grateful for the data provided for the creation of this report by eBird (http://www.ebird.org, accessed December 2012) and the Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas Project. Bruce Fall has been extremely helpful by providing additional information on eBird records. Medians of recent arrivals and departures are based on published and unpublished seasonal report data from 1985 through 2011. Finally and most importantly, our appreciation goes out to all our contributors. We are especially grateful to those who respond to our requests for details and who submit observations online.