Iowa – Reportable Plus 15, May, 2017

On rather short notice it started to look like I needed to be in Minneapolis in mid-May for a business trip.  That’s not a part of the country I get to very often, so there was likely to be a fair amount of statebird potential out there.  Although my MN list was pretty good at 17 over the old ABA reportable threshold, I was still 3 shy of reportable in IA.  On a similar Minneapolis trip in July 2016 I added a couple birding days in IA, so doing the same on this trip was certainly a possibility.  Looking at my IA list I needed many reasonably regular migrants, so an extension to IA in mid-May, near the peak of migration, was likely to be quite productive.  In 2016 I birded with some excellent IA birders in the northwestern part of the state, so I figured I would head back to the same general area and try to re-connect with them.

And just as I was starting to put my plans together I looked at the map and realized that northwestern IA was pretty close to the SD stateline.  I was 13 below the ABA threshold in SD so a trip there could be fruitful as well.  It turned out that my SD statelist was also missing many regular eastern migrants.  It was now starting to look like making this into a big MN/IA/SD/MN loop could be most productive.  Based on my potential targets it felt like I should plan on 2 solid birding days each in IA and SD, so I planned my flights accordingly.

As I do on most of my trips I like to set statebirding goals for each state.  Formerly I wanted to at least reach the ABA reporting threshold in each state, defined as half of the overall state total.  But the ABA last published thresholds in 2011, and since state lists typically creep up over time, newly calculated thresholds would as well.  With a little on-line research, I found that the IA statelist now stands at 428 – 6 higher than 2011 total.  And dividing 428 by 2, the present threshold would be 214.  Similarly, the latest SD statelist is 439, 7 more than in 2011, giving a new threshold of 219.5.  Because of these inevitable increases in the statelists over time, I revised my goal to be at least 15 over the old ABA threshold in each state, or “Reportable Plus 15” as I call it.  As a result my goal for IA was 226, and my SD goal was 231.  That meant I needed 18 new birds in IA – certainly feasible on this trip.  And I needed a larger tally of 28 in SD – although possible it would be a long shot.

This blog post summarizes the IA portion of my trip.  The next post summarizes the SD portion.

One of my first steps in planning the IA leg of the trip was to contact local birders Lee Schoenewe and Joe Jungers who had been so instrumental in helping me find my targets in northwestern IA during my July 2016 trip.  Lee could join me the evening of my first day once I had finally arrived in town, and both were available to bird with me for a full day the next day.  Then on Day 3 I planned to head west and bird some spots close to the SD border to pick up a couple local targets.  With Lee’s and Joe’s help, plus some good fortune, I was hopeful I could meet my Reportable Plus 15 goal in IA.

Day 1 – Late PM

After a nearly full day of work in Minneapolis I made the long 3+ hour drive south to IA, keeping my eyes on the threatening skies the whole way.  Luckily 2 confirmed tornadoes were at least a county away when I passed by them.  I finally arrived in Spencer in the early evening just after the rain had stopped there, and met Lee who took me to the Thunderbridge area nearby.  Lee had had a number of migrants there earlier in the day including several of my targets.  The woods were full of migrants, most notably numerous Tennessee Warblers.  That species turned out to be our most common migrant at virtually every one of our IA stops.  And although the light was fading, the trees were full of migrants, and we were able to get 6 of my targets there - Blackpoll Warbler, Northern Parula, Blackburnian Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Lincoln’s Sparrow, and Wilson’s Warbler.  The Blackburnian was #211 for me in IA – the old ABA threshold – that was easy. 

Shading in IA in my statebird map below for Northern Parula fills the last gap in the regular range of this species – though I have also seen it as a rarity in NM and AZ.

Day 2

Joe and Lee met me at dawn at my hotel and we went right back to the Thunderbridge area to see what we might have missed the evening before.  But the woods were much quieter that day, and we didn’t spend too much time there not finding anything new.

A couple stops later and we were in the town of Spencer where we noticed a Catharus thrush fly up from the ground.  After a brief search we relocated it and it was a Gray-cheeked Thrush (statebird #7).  That’s one we had expected in the woods at Thunderbridge but we’ll take it in town too.

Soon we were driving out through nice prairie habitat and farm fields and several times we saw small flocks of Black Terns moving north over the fields.  Then we noticed a flock of about 50 shorebirds flying by.  They were plovers with dark breasts, and after comparing notes we decided they must have been American Golden Plovers (#8).  My statebird map is pretty spotty for this species that is a widespread though uncommon migrant.

A couple stops later brought us to the small Kindlespire County Park principally to look for shorebirds around the lake.  Though we came up empty on new shorebirds I did spot an Empidonax in a small nearby bush.  Luckily it gave us some good looks and we confirmed it as an Alder Flycatcher (#9).

A later stop brought us to the edge of Pickerel Lake in Laurens where a Northern Waterthrush was singing from the swampy edge (#10).  On the other side of the road in the adjacent wetlands we found a secretive Solitary Sandpiper (#11).  I’m still missing this species in a couple states in the eastern 2/3 of the country where it is a regular migrant.

But the most notable birds at this spot were a flock of 15 Cattle Egrets in with cattle (appropriately) in an adjacent field.  Pretty rare, though not a new statebird for me.  Not to mention an amazing flock of over 800 Black Terns foraging low over the lake. 

Next while passing through Ruthven we made a quick stop at the sewage treatment plant and located a distant perched Common Tern (#12) among several more expected Forster’s. 

We were slowly accumulating a nice list of my target birds, but we had not yet found many passerine migrants.  We hoped that would change at our next stop at the Lost Island Lake County Park.  This park consists of an excellent patch of woodlands on the east side of the lake.  Being in the middle of the prairie and farm fields, this spot can be an excellent migrant magnet.  And in our first stop at the entrance to the park that certainly was the case as there was an impressive flock of 50 (or more) Eastern Kingbirds.  Joe picked out an Olive-sided Flycatcher in the flock, and luckily it eventually cooperated enough for Lee and me to see it as well (#13).  My statebird map has lots of gaps in the eastern part of the country where Olive-sided is less common, but is pretty well complete throughout much of the west where it is more regular.

Then we headed farther into the park and began to walk some of the trails through the woodland habitat.  In addition to the many singing Tennessee Warblers, we slowly started to pick off quite a number of my targets – a singing Bay-breasted Warbler (#14) was followed by a singing Black-throated Green Warbler in the distance (#15).  And a calling Cooper’s Hawk nearby eventually came into view (#16).  Nice to be able to check that one off but needless to say it was having a negative impact on us finding passerines.  IA was my next to last state for Cooper’s – now I just need to find it in MT.

We then chose a trail that left the deeper woods and soon led us into a more open habitat with thick underbrush and more scattered trees.  At that point I heard a faint song that I recognized as a Mourning Warbler (#17) coming from the brush nearby.  It took us a while to get looks at this skulker, but eventually we all got passable views through the underbrush.  In fact there were likely 2 birds together.  Although this species is a regular migrant throughout most of the east, and a breeder in the north, I’ve only seen it in 17 states – a testament to how difficult it can be to find especially in migration.

The trail then led to the main north-south road through the park, giving some excellent edge views of the woodlands along our way back to the car.  And soon after we started birding along the road we heard a faint song of a Magnolia Warbler – this beautiful warbler soon popped into the open to give us nice views.  That was my 18th new statebird for IA – my target Reportable Plus 15!   And we still had lots of birding time ahead of us.  

We didn’t dare take too much time to celebrate because there were a fair number of other migrants in the area.  Lee then picked out a Black-and-white Warbler which frustratingly took a long time to reveal itself to me (#19).  Unlike my statebird map for the uncommon Mourning Warbler, IA was my last state in the regular range for the much more common Black-and-white (plus I’ve seen it as a rarity in spring fallouts in CA, NV, and NM).

Unlike the shy Black-and-white, Lee’s Philadelphia Vireo was much more cooperative (#20).  And then perhaps as an exclamation point to this stop a Broad-winged Hawk flew by us along the road (#21).  That gave me 9 new birds for this little park.  Although we didn’t have too many passerine migrants, the diversity was quite good.  Plus of course our list was supplemented by a couple raptor species.

Now we were on to Dewey's Pasture WMA and Trumbull Lake.  Among our targets here were Avocets and White-faced Ibis that had been mentioned in recent eBird posts.  Our first stop was at a small wetlands along one of the access roads into the area.  And while scanning through the swimming waterfowl we picked out one Avocet feeding in surprisingly deep water (#22).  I’ve seen this species throughout the west as well as quite a number of southeast states where it is regular, as well as a number of northeastern states as a rare but increasing vagrant. 

Lee then took us to a marshy area around the lake where he predicted we would find the Ibis.  And right on cue, there were 4 White-faced Ibis feeding among the numerous waterfowl and occasional shorebird (#23).  Would have been nice to turn one of them into a Glossy but it wasn’t to be.  Also at this marsh was one of the many flocks of migrant Franklin's Gulls that we encountered during the day - many with rosy breasts.

Throughout our many stops we struggled to find many shorebirds, that is besides the regular Killdeer, Wilson’s Phalaropes, Spotted Sands, and Yellowlegs.  But then at one of our last stops of the day at Goose Pond near Spirit Lake there was a small group of nice breeding plumaged Stilt Sands.  And mixed in was a single breeding plumaged Dunlin (#24).  A nice way to end the day – our 138^th species. 

As Lee and Joe dropped me off at my car I couldn’t thank them enough for all their excellent help and guidance that day.  And speaking of guidance, just before we parted ways Joe gave me some advice for Spotted Towhee in IA and Blue-winged Warblers in SD.

As I was driving west I started to rethink my plans for the rest of the trip since I was way over my goal by the end of the day, and a full day ahead of schedule.  I still had at least 3 reasonably reliable IA targets ahead of me in the western part of the state – Whip-poor-will, Ovenbird, and Spotted Towhee.  Plus of course I could always run into other migrants I still needed at any of my stops.  But I knew I had a tall task in front of me to try to reach my Reportable Plus 15 goal in SD.  Plus the forecast was for rain and wind pretty much the entire rest of my trip, making finding those SD targets even more challenging. 

I weighed my options and decided to call it quits for IA and spend Day 3 in SD instead of IA.  I hated to pass up on a few more possible IA statebirds, but it seemed that spending more time in SD would be necessary if I were to meet my goal there.

IA by the Numbers

I ended the IA portion of my trip with 24 new IA statebirds, compared to a goal of 18, and a total of 143 species.  My new IA statelist is now at 232 – 21 over the old reportable threshold and 18 over a newly calculated threshold.  That makes IA my 46th state over the old ABA threshold and my 40th state over my Reportable Plus 15 goal.