Edward
Umimmak
Minnesota and North Dakota 27 May – 4 June 2008
Part one
Introduction
In late May I went on a short birding trip to Minnesota and North Dakota with my good friend Sigmundur Ásgeirsson (Simmi). Our original plan had been a short spring trip in Europe, either to Finland or Poland, but when a non-birding friend told me that he was going to spend his summer holiday in Minnesota and Manitoba, I begin to check out trip reports to see what the potential was for birding in late spring in this area. Although I couldn't find many trip reports, the ones available were excellent (and inspirational), and it was quickly decided that Poland and Finland would have to wait for another year. The attraction of Minnesota and North Dakota for us was that a) Icelandair flies directly to Minneapolis and flights were not much longer nor more expensive than to eastern Europe, and b) there were lots of new species on offer for us. Simmi and I had each been to the US once before: Simmi to Florida in January 2008 and I had visited New York City in May 2006. While we had an excellent introduction to American birding on those trips, they were both family holidays and not birding trips (as evidenced by our first, rather embarrassing, lifers on this trip, Song Sparrow for Simmi, Black-capped Chickadee for me!).
Minnesota and North Dakota aren't perhaps the first places in the US that spring to mind for visiting birders, with the likes of Arizona, Texas, Florida and California far more likely to attract visitors. However, the region we visited offers a range of excellent habitats, including the deciduous woods around Minneapolis, the tamarack bogs and the southern limits of the boreal forest around Duluth, and the extensive prairie potholes and grasslands of North Dakota, and then a hint of western birding in the impressive badlands along the Montana border. The fact that it is a bit off the beaten track was also very appealing. We had one of North America’s best birding spots, Lostwood NWR, virtually to ourselves at the height of the birding season. The region holds several species which are not easy to see in many other parts of the US, such as Baird's Sparrow, Sprague's Pipit, breeding Chestnut-collared and McCown's Longspur, Connecticut Warbler etc. and there were plenty of more common American birds to entertain us as well. The trip was a great success, with 183 species recorded, including 20 warblers and 19 sparrows and 85 lifers for me and 77 for Simmi.
Itinerary
We flew into and out of Minneapolis from Keflavík, Iceland, with Icelandair, a flight of around six hours. The only firm plans were to bird the Sax-Zim Bog north of Duluth on 29 May and have plenty of time to reach the Lostwood NWR in western North Dakota and then the prairie area south of Rhame and Marmarth in the extreme south-west of the state. Everything else was just improvised. We drove around 2,600 miles, without us feeling that we were spending too long in the car (except on the long drive from Marmarth to West Fargo).
27 May – Arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul at 1800, birded until dark at nearby Wood Lake Nature Center.
28 May – a.m. at Murphy-Hanrehan Regional Park, p.m. drove to Duluth, found motel and then spent evening at Rice Lake NWR, near McGregor.
29 May – all day at Sax-Zim Bog with Sparky Stensaas.
30 May – a.m. Palisade/Pietz's Rd area and then Rice Lake NWR again, p.m. leisurely drive across Minnesota on back roads, evening Rothsay Prairie.
31 May – a.m. Rothsay Prairie and Felton Prairie, p.m. long drive to Kenmare ND, evening Des Lacs NWR around Kenmare.
1 June – a.m. Lostwood NWR, p.m. Theodore Roosevelt NP - North Unit.
2 June – a.m. Theodore Roosevelt NP - South Unit, evening Bowman-Haley Dam and side roads south of Bowman.
3 June – a.m. area around Marmarth and Rhame Prairie, p.m. long drive east, with a stop at Long Lake near Bismarck.
4 June – a.m. Lindenwood Park, Fargo, St. John's University, MN, and finally Wood Lake Nature Center.
Accommodation
Motels were plentiful and reasonably priced. Only the first night in Minneapolis was pre-booked.
27 May – Motel 6, Minneapolis, MN ($55)
28 May – Motel 6, Duluth, MN ($55)
29 May – Motel 6, Duluth, MN ($55)
30 May – Pelican Motel, Pelican Rapids, MN ($45)
31 May – San Way Ve Motel, Kenmare, ND ($50)
1 June – Trapper's Kettle Motel, Belfield, ND ($80)
2 June – Downtown Motel, Bowman, ND ($30)
3 June – Some nameless motel, West Fargo, ND ($60)
Car hire and getting around
Car hire was from Budget Car Rental. We had to change the car on the second day as it wouldn't recharge the GPS. It was the first time I'd ever used GPS in a car and it was a godsend, not just for getting us out of Minneapolis with ease, but also for giving us an idea of how long it would take to drive to distant destinations. I can't imagine doing without one on future trips. But otherwise, getting around in Minnesota and North Dakota was a breeze, everything is very well signposted and traffic is very light, especially in western North Dakota, where the traffic density is almost like in Iceland. The roads are unbelievably wide too in most places and American drivers generally use their turning lights when turning, a concept virtually unknown in Iceland.
Weather
The weather in Minnesota and North Dakota was generally very pleasant for us Icelanders, typically around 10-16°C, and occasionally topping 20°C in the middle of the day. Mornings were sometimes Iceland-cool. It rained on a couple of occasions, torrentially with lightning and thunder in both units of Theodore Roosevelt NP, which robbed us of about an hour's birding time but it was thick fog at the Greater Prairie-Chicken lek at Rothsay which caused the most difficulties.
Insects and nasty beasts
We had heard horror stories about the mosquitoes in Minnesota and North Dakota but we hardly had any trouble at all with them, only at St John's University in MN on the last day did they force us out of the forest. Perhaps we were too early in the year. Ticks were noted in grassy areas in ND, but we managed to remove them before they bit. The farmer near Rhame warned us that the prairie-dog town had plenty of rattlesnakes in it, but sadly we didn't see any.
References
David A Sibley – The Sibley Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America
Fiona Reid – Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America 4th edition
Kim R. Eckert, A Birder's Guide to Minnesota, 4th edition, Gavian Guides 2002. An enormously detailed site guide to the site, and very entertainingly written.
Kevin J. Zimmer, A Birder's Guide to North Dakota – Good but written thirty years ago.
Birding Guide for north-western North Dakota (PDF) –
http://www.fws.gov/jclarksalyer/deslacs/nwND_bird_guide.pdf
This PDF has excellent information on the top sites in that corner of the state.
Donald and Lilian Stokes – Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs - Eastern Region – 3-CD set to the birds of Eastern North America. Obviously learning bird songs before you go is a good idea, especially for Ammodramus sparrows and warblers. Learning 200 species before you set off just isn't practical so I concentrated on selected species. It doesn't have certain western species which just extend into the area we visited, such as Brewer's Sparrow, Western Wood-Pewee or McCown's Longspur.
It was only after I came back that I got hold of a publication called Birding North Dakota by Dan Svingen and Ron Martin which details 63 birding sites in North Dakota. Although it can’t be compared with the detail in Eckert’s Minnesota guide, it’s certainly well worth getting hold of, and can be obtained for free from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck.
Thanks to Corey Ellingsen for kindly sending me information on North Dakotan birding sites, Sparky Stensaas for his expertise in the Sax-Zim Bog and to Jan Hein van Steenis for suggesting a rough itinerary.
Daily log
Tuesday 27 May
Our flight left Keflavík on time at 1635. Unfortunately, Greenland remained cloaked in clouds, except for one nunatak peeking through the clouds. The mosaic of lakes and tundra on the vast Ungava Peninsula and the ice-covered Hudson Bay were seen well, however, as were Lake Nipigon and Lake Superior. After what seemed like an age at the car rental, we were on our way, our GPS quickly finding Motel 6 for us and then on to the nearby Wood Lake Nature Center, where we had about an hour's daylight. The bird list started at the airport, with European Starling, House Sparrow and Feral Pigeon! The first true American birds were seen whilst getting our things into the motel: Common Grackle, American Robin and Mourning Dove, all three of which were common and omnipresent throughout the trip. Wood Lake is a nice area of woodland, lake and reedbed in suburban Minneapolis. We visited it due to its convenient location and the fact that it is cited by Eckert as one of the most reliable sites in Minnesota for Least Bittern. This smallest of herons sadly didn’t oblige but birds here included plentiful Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows, a few Chimney Swifts, the ubiquitous Red-winged Blackbird, several Northern Cardinals, stunning Baltimore Orioles, Yellow Warbler and Common Yellowthroat (these two warblers seen daily), two Red-bellied Woodpeckers, two Green Herons, and then our first lifers, Song Sparrow (Simmi) and Black-capped Chickadee (both of us), which revealed that we weren’t exactly hardened ABA birders. Just as we were leaving I looked up and saw a long-tailed bird hawking over the tree tops, the first of many Common Nighthawks, a new bird for both of us.
A few pics, all photos by Sigmundur Ásgeirsson
1. Song Sparrow
2. Tree Swallow
3. Barn Swallow
4. Red-winged Blackbird, the most ubiquitous bird I've ever seen.
5. Green Heron
Part one
Introduction
In late May I went on a short birding trip to Minnesota and North Dakota with my good friend Sigmundur Ásgeirsson (Simmi). Our original plan had been a short spring trip in Europe, either to Finland or Poland, but when a non-birding friend told me that he was going to spend his summer holiday in Minnesota and Manitoba, I begin to check out trip reports to see what the potential was for birding in late spring in this area. Although I couldn't find many trip reports, the ones available were excellent (and inspirational), and it was quickly decided that Poland and Finland would have to wait for another year. The attraction of Minnesota and North Dakota for us was that a) Icelandair flies directly to Minneapolis and flights were not much longer nor more expensive than to eastern Europe, and b) there were lots of new species on offer for us. Simmi and I had each been to the US once before: Simmi to Florida in January 2008 and I had visited New York City in May 2006. While we had an excellent introduction to American birding on those trips, they were both family holidays and not birding trips (as evidenced by our first, rather embarrassing, lifers on this trip, Song Sparrow for Simmi, Black-capped Chickadee for me!).
Minnesota and North Dakota aren't perhaps the first places in the US that spring to mind for visiting birders, with the likes of Arizona, Texas, Florida and California far more likely to attract visitors. However, the region we visited offers a range of excellent habitats, including the deciduous woods around Minneapolis, the tamarack bogs and the southern limits of the boreal forest around Duluth, and the extensive prairie potholes and grasslands of North Dakota, and then a hint of western birding in the impressive badlands along the Montana border. The fact that it is a bit off the beaten track was also very appealing. We had one of North America’s best birding spots, Lostwood NWR, virtually to ourselves at the height of the birding season. The region holds several species which are not easy to see in many other parts of the US, such as Baird's Sparrow, Sprague's Pipit, breeding Chestnut-collared and McCown's Longspur, Connecticut Warbler etc. and there were plenty of more common American birds to entertain us as well. The trip was a great success, with 183 species recorded, including 20 warblers and 19 sparrows and 85 lifers for me and 77 for Simmi.
Itinerary
We flew into and out of Minneapolis from Keflavík, Iceland, with Icelandair, a flight of around six hours. The only firm plans were to bird the Sax-Zim Bog north of Duluth on 29 May and have plenty of time to reach the Lostwood NWR in western North Dakota and then the prairie area south of Rhame and Marmarth in the extreme south-west of the state. Everything else was just improvised. We drove around 2,600 miles, without us feeling that we were spending too long in the car (except on the long drive from Marmarth to West Fargo).
27 May – Arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul at 1800, birded until dark at nearby Wood Lake Nature Center.
28 May – a.m. at Murphy-Hanrehan Regional Park, p.m. drove to Duluth, found motel and then spent evening at Rice Lake NWR, near McGregor.
29 May – all day at Sax-Zim Bog with Sparky Stensaas.
30 May – a.m. Palisade/Pietz's Rd area and then Rice Lake NWR again, p.m. leisurely drive across Minnesota on back roads, evening Rothsay Prairie.
31 May – a.m. Rothsay Prairie and Felton Prairie, p.m. long drive to Kenmare ND, evening Des Lacs NWR around Kenmare.
1 June – a.m. Lostwood NWR, p.m. Theodore Roosevelt NP - North Unit.
2 June – a.m. Theodore Roosevelt NP - South Unit, evening Bowman-Haley Dam and side roads south of Bowman.
3 June – a.m. area around Marmarth and Rhame Prairie, p.m. long drive east, with a stop at Long Lake near Bismarck.
4 June – a.m. Lindenwood Park, Fargo, St. John's University, MN, and finally Wood Lake Nature Center.
Accommodation
Motels were plentiful and reasonably priced. Only the first night in Minneapolis was pre-booked.
27 May – Motel 6, Minneapolis, MN ($55)
28 May – Motel 6, Duluth, MN ($55)
29 May – Motel 6, Duluth, MN ($55)
30 May – Pelican Motel, Pelican Rapids, MN ($45)
31 May – San Way Ve Motel, Kenmare, ND ($50)
1 June – Trapper's Kettle Motel, Belfield, ND ($80)
2 June – Downtown Motel, Bowman, ND ($30)
3 June – Some nameless motel, West Fargo, ND ($60)
Car hire and getting around
Car hire was from Budget Car Rental. We had to change the car on the second day as it wouldn't recharge the GPS. It was the first time I'd ever used GPS in a car and it was a godsend, not just for getting us out of Minneapolis with ease, but also for giving us an idea of how long it would take to drive to distant destinations. I can't imagine doing without one on future trips. But otherwise, getting around in Minnesota and North Dakota was a breeze, everything is very well signposted and traffic is very light, especially in western North Dakota, where the traffic density is almost like in Iceland. The roads are unbelievably wide too in most places and American drivers generally use their turning lights when turning, a concept virtually unknown in Iceland.
Weather
The weather in Minnesota and North Dakota was generally very pleasant for us Icelanders, typically around 10-16°C, and occasionally topping 20°C in the middle of the day. Mornings were sometimes Iceland-cool. It rained on a couple of occasions, torrentially with lightning and thunder in both units of Theodore Roosevelt NP, which robbed us of about an hour's birding time but it was thick fog at the Greater Prairie-Chicken lek at Rothsay which caused the most difficulties.
Insects and nasty beasts
We had heard horror stories about the mosquitoes in Minnesota and North Dakota but we hardly had any trouble at all with them, only at St John's University in MN on the last day did they force us out of the forest. Perhaps we were too early in the year. Ticks were noted in grassy areas in ND, but we managed to remove them before they bit. The farmer near Rhame warned us that the prairie-dog town had plenty of rattlesnakes in it, but sadly we didn't see any.
References
David A Sibley – The Sibley Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern North America
Fiona Reid – Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America 4th edition
Kim R. Eckert, A Birder's Guide to Minnesota, 4th edition, Gavian Guides 2002. An enormously detailed site guide to the site, and very entertainingly written.
Kevin J. Zimmer, A Birder's Guide to North Dakota – Good but written thirty years ago.
Birding Guide for north-western North Dakota (PDF) –
http://www.fws.gov/jclarksalyer/deslacs/nwND_bird_guide.pdf
This PDF has excellent information on the top sites in that corner of the state.
Donald and Lilian Stokes – Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs - Eastern Region – 3-CD set to the birds of Eastern North America. Obviously learning bird songs before you go is a good idea, especially for Ammodramus sparrows and warblers. Learning 200 species before you set off just isn't practical so I concentrated on selected species. It doesn't have certain western species which just extend into the area we visited, such as Brewer's Sparrow, Western Wood-Pewee or McCown's Longspur.
It was only after I came back that I got hold of a publication called Birding North Dakota by Dan Svingen and Ron Martin which details 63 birding sites in North Dakota. Although it can’t be compared with the detail in Eckert’s Minnesota guide, it’s certainly well worth getting hold of, and can be obtained for free from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck.
Thanks to Corey Ellingsen for kindly sending me information on North Dakotan birding sites, Sparky Stensaas for his expertise in the Sax-Zim Bog and to Jan Hein van Steenis for suggesting a rough itinerary.
Daily log
Tuesday 27 May
Our flight left Keflavík on time at 1635. Unfortunately, Greenland remained cloaked in clouds, except for one nunatak peeking through the clouds. The mosaic of lakes and tundra on the vast Ungava Peninsula and the ice-covered Hudson Bay were seen well, however, as were Lake Nipigon and Lake Superior. After what seemed like an age at the car rental, we were on our way, our GPS quickly finding Motel 6 for us and then on to the nearby Wood Lake Nature Center, where we had about an hour's daylight. The bird list started at the airport, with European Starling, House Sparrow and Feral Pigeon! The first true American birds were seen whilst getting our things into the motel: Common Grackle, American Robin and Mourning Dove, all three of which were common and omnipresent throughout the trip. Wood Lake is a nice area of woodland, lake and reedbed in suburban Minneapolis. We visited it due to its convenient location and the fact that it is cited by Eckert as one of the most reliable sites in Minnesota for Least Bittern. This smallest of herons sadly didn’t oblige but birds here included plentiful Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows, a few Chimney Swifts, the ubiquitous Red-winged Blackbird, several Northern Cardinals, stunning Baltimore Orioles, Yellow Warbler and Common Yellowthroat (these two warblers seen daily), two Red-bellied Woodpeckers, two Green Herons, and then our first lifers, Song Sparrow (Simmi) and Black-capped Chickadee (both of us), which revealed that we weren’t exactly hardened ABA birders. Just as we were leaving I looked up and saw a long-tailed bird hawking over the tree tops, the first of many Common Nighthawks, a new bird for both of us.
A few pics, all photos by Sigmundur Ásgeirsson
1. Song Sparrow
2. Tree Swallow
3. Barn Swallow
4. Red-winged Blackbird, the most ubiquitous bird I've ever seen.
5. Green Heron