Duluth RBA
Duluth RBA
Duluth RBA
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-RBA *Minnesota *Duluth/North Shore *August 24, 2000 *MNDU0008.24 -Birds mentioned
Hotline: Minnesota, Duluth/North Shore
Date: August 24, 2000
Sponsor: Minnesota Ornithologists' Union (MOU)
Reports: (218) 525-5952
Compiler: Kim Eckert (kreckert@cp.duluth.mn.us)
Transcriber: Kim Eckert (kreckert@cp.duluth.mn.us)
Re-transcriber: David Cahlander (dac@skypoint.com)
This is the Duluth Birding Report for Thursday, Aug 24, sponsored by the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union.
Due to a lack of significant bird sightings in Duluth and vicinity last week, there was no update of this report last Thursday, and -- with a couple of isolated exceptions -- early fall migration has been relatively uneventful here during the last two weeks.
One exception was the juvenal LITTLE GULL found by Peder Svingen at Hearding I on Park Point around noon on Aug 21; unfortunately Peder was unable to relocate this gull later that day or on the 22nd. Also out of the ordinary -- though "non-countable" -- was the RINGED TURTLE-DOVE which was hit by a train yesterday in the railroad yards along Garfield Ave in Duluth; the tail feathers of the dove were salvaged and their diagnostic pattern precludes the possibility of the bird being a Eurasian Collared-Dove, a wild vagrant with several S Minn records in the last couple years.
The most significant migration so far in Duluth involves the COMMON NIGHTHAWK flight reported by various observers on the past two evenings. A few thousand were estimated over the Morgan Park neighborhood yesterday starting about 5:30 pm; there was an actual count of 3,120 at the Lakewood Pumping Station from 6:30 to 7:45 pm on the 22nd, with hundreds -- if not thousands -- more flying before and after that 45-minute period which were not counted; and about the same time on Aug 22 just a couple miles SW of Lakewood at Brighton Beach there was a count of 900 nighthawks. The lower count at Brighton Beach was probably due to the flight at Lakewood being reported as mostly inland, away from the lake shore, with many birds therefore not being visible from Brighton Beach.
Only a few modest waves of migrant warblers and other passerines have been reported at various places in Duluth and up the North Shore so far, although Dave Grossheusch has been banding some good numbers of both species and individuals of warblers this week at Hawk Ridge. Otherwise, the counting and banding of raptors at the Ridge, which started last week, has been uneventful.
Mostly uneventful so far as well has been the shorebird migration. A RUDDY TURNSTONE was seen with some SANDERLINGS on Aug 20 at the beach at the Park Point Recreation Area -- a WHIMBREL was also seen here for one day only back on Aug 11; lone STILT SANDPIPERS were seen recently at both Grand Marais and Two Harbors; BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS were at the Beaver Bay sewage ponds in Lake Co Aug 21; and LESSER YELLOWLEGS and SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS have been noted at various locations. While there is water again in the main pool at the 40th Ave West Erie Pier area, which had been mostly dry for several months, unfortunately the water levels are too high at present for there to be much in the way of shorebird habitat.
Finally, a reminder that the annual Hawk Weekend activities will take place on Sept 15-16-17, and there will be more information on the programs, field trips and other activities on the next few updates of this birding report. In the meantime, if you're planning to attend, be sure you make lodging reservations ASAP since available motel rooms in Duluth will be scarce to non-existent that weekend.
Unless something unusual is seen in the meantime which needs to be reported immediately, this report is normally updated once a week on Thursdays, so that the next scheduled update will be on Aug 31. The phone number for the tape-recorded Duluth Birding Report is (218) 525-5952, and callers can report bird sightings if they wish after the tone at the end of each tape. Callers can also leave messages without having to wait for the taped report to end: to do this, after the tape starts playing push 5 on a touch-tone phone, the tape will stop, the tone will sound, and you can then leave your message.
The Duluth Birding Report is sponsored and funded by the Minnesota
Ornithologists' Union (MOU) as a service to its members. For more
information on the MOU, either write us c/o the Bell Museum of Natural
History,10 Church Street SE, Minneapolis MN 55455; or send an e-mail to
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