-RBA
*Minnesota
*Duluth/North Shore
*October 29, 1998
*MNDU9810.29

-Birds mentioned

• Harlequin Duck
• Oldsquaw
• Black Scoter
• Surf Scoter
• White-winged Scoter
• Long-billed Dowitcher
• Caspian Tern
• SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER
• Northern Mockingbird
• American Redstart
• Rose-breasted Grosbeak
• BRAMBLING

Hotline: Minnesota, Duluth/North Shore
Date: October 29, 1998
Sponsor: Minnesota Ornithologists' Union (MOU)
Compiled and written by: Kim Eckert
Transcriber: Catherine Severin
Re-transcriber: David Cahlander (dac@skypoint.com)

Overall, the birding in Duluth and up the North Shore of Lake Superior has been very slow recently with most observers reporting both relatively few species and low numbers of individual birds. However, with a cold front moving in starting tomorrow, the birding will hopefully improve; and there were were some isolated rarities seen recently, although the best of these were present for only a short time: these included a fourth-state-record BRAMBLING, SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER, HARLEQUIN DUCK and NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD.

The BRAMBLING was present at Audrey Evers' feeder in Hoyt Lakes in St. Louis County on October 22 and 23, but unfortunately by the time arrangements could be made for visiting birders to go to her yard starting on Saturday, the 24th, the bird was gone and it has not reappeared. If by any chance the bird should reappear, this tape would be updated as soon as possible with that information.

Terry Brashear and Steve Roman of the Twin Cities found a SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER at the Grand Marais harbor in Cook County on October 24, but it was only seen for a short time before disappearing.

Also briefly in Grand Marais were two HARLEQUIN DUCKS on the 25th seen by Tony Hertzel of the Twin Cities, but unfortunately the birds were not relocated later by others.

And Tony also found a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD the same day at Taconite Harbor, Cook County, but again no one was successful in relocating it.

Other birds of interest reported recently were: two HARLEQUIN DUCKS seen again October 26 at the Superior Entry breakwaters at the south end of Park Point in Duluth, which have been present for several days; late migrating AMERICAN REDSTART and ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK, both reported by Jim and Sharon Lind in Two Harbors, Lake County, on the 24th; a late and apparenly injured LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER seen October 27 along Superior Street just west of Lakewood Road in Duluth; and WHITE-WINGED SCOTER, BLACK SCOTER, SURF SCOTER, and OLDSQUAWS were still being seen at various locations in Duluth and up the North Shore as of at least this past weekend.

Finally, although the weekly loon survey on Mille Lacs Lake October 27 failed to turn up as many loons as the previous week, SURF SCOTERS were seen along Mille Lacs County Road 35 on the west side of the lake, and at the Wealthwood public access on the north side; and two very late CASPIAN TERNS were still present on the north end of County Road 35.

Unless something unusual is seen in the meantime that needs to be reported on immediately, this tape is normally updated once a week each Thursday, so that the next scheduled update will be on November 5. And, as always, if you have birds to report you may leave a message after the tone. Callers should also note that they can leave a message if they wish to without having to wait for the birding report to end. To do this, after the tape starts playing, push 5 on your touch tone phone, the tape will then stop, the tone will sound, and you can then leave your message.

[Send your rare and unusual Minnesota sightings to our electronic hotline: Mn RBA. To learn more about it, send a message ( the message being these two words: info end) to mnrba-request@linux.winona.msus.edu]

From mnrba-owner@linux.winona.msus.edu Fri Nov 6 10:42:54 1998 Received: from linux.winona.msus.edu (LINUX.WINONA.MSUS.EDU [199.17.128.157]) by abby.skypoint.net (8.8.7/jl 1.3) with ESMTP id KAA26028; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 10:42:49 -0600 (CST) Received: (from majordom@localhost) by linux.winona.msus.edu (8.8.7/8.8.7) id KAA31614 for mnrba-outgoing; Fri, 6 Nov 1998 10:45:03 -0600 X-Authentication-Warning: linux.winona.msus.edu: majordom set sender to owner-mnrba@linux.winona.msus.edu using -f Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1998 10:37:57 -0600 (CST)
Message-Id: <199811061637.KAA07177@superior.computerpro.com> X-Sender: kreckert@cp.duluth.mn.us (Unverified) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

November 5 Duluth Birding Report

Hotline: Minnesota Duluth/North Shore
Date: November 5, 1998
Sponsor: Minnesota Ornithologists' Union (MOU)
Reports: (218) 525-5952
Compiled and written by Kim Eckert

This is the Duluth Birding Report for Thursday, November 5, sponsored by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union.

Unfortunately, the generally dull birding situation in Duluth and along the North Shore of Lake Superior reported on last week's tape has continued into this week, as the variety of species and numbers of individual birds in the area are still quite low. However, there were a few isolated reports of rarities recently, including a POSSIBLE RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD, an AUDUBON'S-type YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, 2 PACIFIC LOONS, THAYER'S GULL, GREAT GRAY OWL, and both RED-BELLIED and BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKERS.

Yesterday morning, November 4, an unidentified HUMMINGBIRD appeared in a yard on the 2300 block of East 3rd Street in Duluth. From the description it sounds like it might have been a Rufous Hummingbird, of which there are several previous Minnesota records. However, the bird was apparently not seen yesterday afternoon or today, so its identity will probably not be determined.

Esther Gesick and Bill Marengo of the Twin Cities found an "AUDUBON'S" YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER on October 31 in Grand Marais in Cook County, but it could not be relocated the next day. This western form, which had once been considered a separate species (and may be again), has been sighted several times previously in Minnesota.

Also on October 31 a PACIFIC LOON was seen by many observers on the Burlington Bay side -- or east side -- of Two Harbors in Lake County. This bird was apparently still present on November 2.

On the 2nd another PACIFIC LOON was seen on Mille Lacs Lake at Garrison in Crow Wing County. This bird had previously been found there in mid-October.

On November 1 a first winter THAYER'S GULL was found in the Grand Marais Harbor.

On the same day Warren Nelson of Aitkin saw a GREAT GRAY OWL along Aitkin County Road 18 just east of Pietz's Road, 4 miles east of U.S. Highway 169, which is a traditional site for this species. Warren also reports that SHARP-TAILED GROUSE are being seen consistently in Aitkin County just west of Gun Lake. To reach this location, go north from MN Highway 210 on Co. Rd. 5 for 4.5 miles, turn west on Township Road 380 for 3 miles, then turn south for 0.5 miles and look for the grouse along the driveway on the east side of the road.

At Hawk Ridge a RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER has been seen a few times recently down the hill from the Main Overlook, and BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKERS were also seen at Hawk Ridge November 1, both migrating past the Main Overlook and in the pine plantation along Skyline Parkway 0.7 miles beyond the Main Overlook.

Other birds of note seen recently in Duluth include a late unidentified SWALLOW on November 2, the first BOREAL CHICKADEE of the season November 4 at Hawk Ridge, a NORTHERN CARDINAL seen yesterday at Stony Point, and BLACK SCOTERS October 30 at the Park Point Recreation Area.

Other birds seen last weekend up the North Shore of Lake Superior include a BLACK SCOTER at Grand Marais, good numbers of migrating RED CROSSBILLS at several locations with just a few WHITE-WINGEDS in Grand Marais, a few NORTHERN SHRIKES, a couple of BOHEMIAN WAXWING flocks, and a lone COMMON REDPOLL -- but, again, the number of birds seen overall was disappointing.

Finally, the hawk totals for the month of October at the Hawk Ridge Main Overlook have been added up, and they include:569 T. Vultures 5 Ospreys 1391 Bald Eagles (peak of 317 on Oct. 19) 170 N. Harriers 6696 Sharp-shinneds 55 Cooper's 143 N. Goshawks (peak of 23 on Oct. 20) 27 Broad-wingeds 7557 Red-taileds (peak of 1537 on Oct. 20) 39 Rough-leggeds (a lower number than usual) 33 Golden Eagles 169 Am. Kestrels 161 Merlins (peak of at 32 on Oct.18) 6 Peregrines 4 Red-shouldereds;

for a monthly total of 17,027, with a season total since mid-August of 43,196.

The next scheduled update of this tape will be two days earlier than usual, on Tuesday, November 20.

[Send your rare and unusual Minnesota sightings to our electronic hotline: MnRBA. To learn more, send a message (the message being these two words: info end) to mnrba-request@linux.winona.msus.edu

Sightings can be called in directly to the tape, (218) 525-5952, by leaving a message after the tone at the end of the tape.]

Return to Home Page