It has been mostly windy and cloudy this week, but I've gone out a few times to spot more spring migrants trickling through town. The pictures below are the result of another walk through the park and some muddy little trips down to the BDS Adventure Area.
After the unusually nice weather of January, February and March (save for a cold-snap here or there), this April has felt much more normal. There has been a handful of really nice days but plenty on the 'cool' side and, lately, a lot on the 'windy' side. Still, I have been trying to bird around town at least a couple of times a week, mostly down at the park.
But just this morning, I made my first dedicated birding trip of the year. Two years ago, I had one of the coldest times of my life, sitting in the Minnesota DNR's blind at the Rothsay WMA to see my first ever Greater Prairie-Chickens. This year, hoping to get some better shots on my new camera (and just wanting to observe the goofy-sounding birds again), I reached out to Marnie of the DNR to reserve a morning for the blind. I was hoping for the first weekend in May, but those dates were taken, so I ended up on the 20th of April. But with how warm the latter part of winter had been, I wasn't too worried. I set aside plenty of layers of clothing, bought a few handwarmers and made a note to myself not to leave my cappuccino in the car.
The alarm on my phone went off a little after 4 o'clock, and I got on the road after warming up my drink. The drive went smooth, and I pulled into the parking area right on time. Not so smooth was my search for the blind in the dark. In 2022, I had gone to the WMA before my date with the blind to check where it was in daylight, but having already used the blind and having a general idea of where it was, I wasn't too worried this year. Well, I must have misremembered the blind location, because I got off on the wrong track. I somehow managed not to pick up any of the reflectors leading towards the blind with my flashlight and walked well past the blind. By the time I had doubled back and found it, I was running with all my gear just to make sure I got inside before the Greater Prairie-Chickens arrived to the lek. I got in with just a few minutes to spare.
The chickens quickly swooped down on the lek as the sun was starting to creep up over the horizon. Unfortunately, unlike my previous visit to the blind where the birds were active within a hundred feet directly in front of the blind, the prairie chickens touched down a slight way up the field where they would do all of their dancing that morning. Because of this, I wasn't able to get nearly as good of pictures as I was hoping for. But there were still several interesting moments, such as:
This striped skunk came bounding right through the lek, scattering the birds which had gathered there, and ran right past the blind. It was the first live skunk I've ever seen. A few minutes after it went by, the chickens returned to the lek and resumed their dancing but again kept their distance from the blind.
Slowly, the sun rose, and while the prairie chickens danced the morning away, some other birds flew around, over and (in the case of a Western Meadowlark or two) onto the blind.
The prairie chickens danced for about three hours, and even though it was about ten degrees warmer than my first time in the blind, it was pretty windy, and the chills (and urge to go to the bathroom) started getting to me. The prairie chickens all laid down in the field at about 8:30 and sat there, and as happy as I had been to see them, I was ready for them to move so that I could leave the blind. I was still holding out hope that they would fly past the blind and give me a chance for some good shots. About twenty minutes went by, and I was getting really uncomfortable. I closed my eyes for maybe thirty seconds. When I opened my eyes, the prairie chickens were, of course, flying past the blind, and by the time I got my lens up, most of the birds were out of view. Welp. I wasn't too upset, considering I hadn't even been sure I would get into the blind to see the prairie chickens a few hours earlier, and I quickly closed up the blind and headed for my car.
Birding in a blind isn't something I would care to do often, but it is an interesting change of pace, and I'm sure I will end up at the Rothsay blind again so long as the DNR and the blind's sponsors continue to offer it. Maybe next time I'll get a mild, calm morning. So long as there are prairie chickens, I should county myself lucky.
Knowing that geese would be on the move, I drove down to White Rock dam yesterday to see some Canada and Cackling Geese hanging around Mud Lake with a few species of duck (Mallard, Ring-necked, Redhead, Green-winged Teal and Hooded Merganser) mixed in. It wasn't long before a few large flocks of Greater White-fronted Geese passed over. I checked the other side of the dam where a noisy congregation of male Red-winged Blackbirds filled a tree and a few robins perched and sang, then made a couple stops on SD-127 before turning back.
Today I went down to the park for the ten thousandth time (probably not far off). I didn't see any kinglets like I was hoping to, but I did get to watch several goose species fly over in massive flocks.
Back home, I laid down in the grass to get some shots of the juncos and chickadees.
