In 2024 I
decided my trip would be to the great plains of western North Dakota and southern
Saskatchewan. Why those 2
jurisdictions? In ND, although I already
had a pretty good list with 206 species, I had recently dropped below my goal
of seeing at least half of the species on the official state list. With the official ND state list recently
increasing to 417, I needed at least 209 to exceed that threshold. In fact, ND was now my only state in the
Lower 48 below that threshold, so there was an additional incentive to adding birds
to my ND list. As for adjacent SK, my
province list was just 48 based on just 1 hour of birding time in 2018. So I had huge potential for additional “ticks”
in that province.
Given that SK is actually only adjacent to the western
portion of ND, I decided that Minot in northwestern ND would be a good starting
off point for the trip. (Even though I
had more state bird potential in the eastern part of the state.) I came up with an itinerary of 3 days in
western ND, 9 days across the southern tier of SK, then a final day for late
migrants in western ND. Based on the
potential timing of migrants and arrivals of breeding birds in the region I
decided to fly into Minot on May 23rd, and fly out on June 4th. With the general outline of the trip
completed, I reached out to my good friend David Donsker who goes with me on
many of these trips, and he agreed to join me.
Now came the hard work of the detailed planning of the
trip. For ND, my research was focused on
those specific target species that I still needed for my list, with data mostly
coming from the eBird database. And in
the last couple weeks before the trip, I especially relied on eBird Needs
Alerts though I still had to separate sightings in the western ND counties from
those in the rest of the state. With all
that research I came up with a list of more than 35 new ND species that I had a
realistic chance of finding, but my chances of seeing almost all of them were quite
low. As a result, I expected to find
just 7 additions to my ND list, though I hoped for perhaps 9 or 10.
My research for SK was quite different. There I focused on the best hotspots to bird,
trying to find those spots with the greatest birding potential over the widest
range of habitats. But SK is a huge
province (nearly the size of Texas), so I had to limit my birding to the
southern portion of the province. Again,
the eBird database was my key resource. Plus,
as my trip neared, I reached out to Stan Shadick who runs a SK birding tour
company who gave me great advice to help fine-tune my itinerary. That final itinerary included visits to Chaplin
and Reed Lakes for shorebirds, Grasslands National Park for a diverse set of
grasslands species, 2 days at Cypress Hills Provincial Park for woodland birds
including several species more likely seen farther west, 2 days at Duck Mountain
Provincial Park for boreal species, and a day in the southeast corner of the
state for more southern species. I wasn’t
sure how many new species to expect, but conservatively hoped for at least 100 additions
to my SK list.
To quote John Denver – “My bags are packed; I’m ready to
go…”
This blog post summarizes the ND portion of our trip. See my other blog posts for summaries of the
SK portion.
May 23 – Arrival in Minot, Birding East of Minot
With a mid-afternoon arrival into Minot there would only be
time for some brief birding that afternoon.
And given that it just started raining, we figured we’d focus on some
shorebird spots. Recent eBird reports
included a nice location with 4 of my targets in Towner east of Minot, so
that’s where we headed. Along the way we
stopped at one of the many prairie potholes in the area that had a few
shorebirds and found several Spotted Sands and 1 Solitary Sandpiper (ND – new
state bird #1). Interestingly the
Solitary, one of our first shorebirds of the trip, would also be our only one
for the trip. My state bird map for Solitary
Sandpiper is inserted below. The blue
shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range. The 6 cross-hatched states are those in its
normal range where I’ve yet to see it.
And the brown states are those where I’ve seen it as a rarity.
A few minutes later we arrived at the Towner spot where the
targets had been reported and found what looked like good habitat, but only
found a couple White-rumps and Semi Sands – and none of my targets. That was a bit disappointing, but I still
added one new bird to my list in that first partial day.
May 24 – Minot and Northern ND
The original plan for the 24th was to spend the early
morning hours at the Minot Oak Park hoping for migrant passerines. Then we would head to the Minot Sewage
Lagoons for shorebirds, and then head west and south making several stops in
route to Bismarck. But we awoke to a
driving rain storm (sometimes mixed with snow), strong winds, and only 40
degrees. So we changed our plans to first
bird the Minot Sewage Lagoons, hoping to be able to stay at least a little
dry. Here’s a picture of one of the 6
lagoons, each reported to be 160 acres in size.
I wasn’t sure of the strategy to bird the lagoons, but soon
realized that we could drive along the northern edge of the complex overlooking
the water to the south. And with those
strong northerly winds, we could bird from the car with the window on the lee
(south) side of the car open giving us good views of the water.
There wasn’t a lot of shorebird habitat, but the best was in
the corners of the enormous impoundments.
The first corner we came to had several Sanderlings in nice breeding
plumage (ND #2), the first of 8 we had at the lagoons. We looked out into the vast expanse of the
lagoons and saw hundreds of Red-necked Phalaropes swimming about (we estimated 1,500
for the eBird checklist, likely a huge underestimate). We then turned our attention to the gravel
road in front of us and noticed flocks of swallows sitting on the road and the
low fencing trying to get out of the weather.
There were a number of Eastern Kingbirds there as well, and an Empidonax
that cooperatively stayed in the open long enough for us to ID it as an Alder
Flycatcher (ND #3). The only other
target shorebird we came upon was a group of 3 Greater Yellowlegs, which turned
out to be the only ones of the trip for this lingering early migrant (ND
#4). ND was the last of the continental
49 states where I still needed Greater Yellowlegs.
Although I didn’t need any of the regular waterfowl for my
list, we couldn’t help but scan the impoundments and marvel at the numbers of
ducks there. Most every expected dabbler
and diver was there, dominated by an estimated 750 Shovelers.
We felt like we had birded the lagoons pretty well just as
the rain began to abate. Instead of
heading to Minot Oak Park we started our drive to the west to hit the other
shorebird spots I had lined up. In
retrospect perhaps we should have headed to Oak Park since there was a
considerable fallout of passerines reported nearby that day.
Our first stop was at an apparent Ferruginous Hawk nest
right along Highway 2 to the west. But
before we got there we spotted a small Accipter flying along the road, which
ducked into the brush perhaps in search of a meal – it was a Sharp-shinned (ND
#5) – that was lucky. A few minutes
later we arrived at the coordinates for the nest and there it was – an enormous
mound of sticks in a tree just off the highway.
But there were no obvious birds on the nest – had the young already
fledged? And just then an adult
Ferruginous flew in and landed just a short distance away (ND #6). While watching the hawk a Gray Partridge
flew by – not new for my list but always good to see. ND was my last state for Ferruginous Hawk in
its regular range.
Our next 2 stops were lakes with good recent shorebird
reports. However, with all the rain that
morning we couldn’t access Wassaic Lake due to impassable muddy roads. Luckily roads were better into Causeway Lake,
and we pulled in instantly seeing good numbers of shorebirds and
waterfowl. Just then the ducks took off
as a Golden Eagle passed by (ND #7). I
wasn’t expecting that one! We were just
one full day into the ND portion of the trip and already had as many new ND
birds as I had expected for the entire trip.
This was looking good!
Now back to the shorebirds - we had good numbers of Stilt
Sandpipers and Semi Sands and the only Dunlins of the trip, and then finally
spotted a lone Ruddy Turnstone on a nearby island (ND #8). It’s great to see
this species as an inland migrant, though like many of the Arctic-nesting shorebirds I still need it in a number of
central US states.
We were then on to one of my most anticipated stops of the
trip – Little Knife Cabins in New Town. In
route we spotted yet another gigantic Ferruginous Hawk nest, this time with one
of the birds on the nest. The attraction
in Little Knife Cabins was the home of Peder Stenslie with nesting Saw-whet
Owls, and feeders with Pine Siskins and Red Crossbills. With a bit of research, I found Peder’s contact
information, and he invited us to his yard to see his birds. After just a short wait Pine Siskins came
into his feeder (ND #9) right on cue. But
the Crossbills hadn’t been around for a while and were a no show. Then he took us on a short walk to visit the
nest box, and there was an owlet at the opening of the box (ND #10) – too cute! That was the first juvenile Saw-whet I’ve
ever seen.
Our last stops of the day were near the Garrison Dam on the
Missouri River. We first headed to the tailrace
area where birds often gather to feed on the fish that come down the
spillway. There we had an estimated 75
Forster’s Terns, 75 Ring-bills, 150 Cormorants, and 25 Pelicans. But our targets here were the rarer Caspian
Tern and Herring Gull. But despite our
best efforts the only Terns were Forster’s.
As for Herring Gull, I was principally looking for a larger, darker
immature bird, but again with no luck.
But then I noticed a larger adult gull amongst the Ring-bills. Luckily it kept circling among the gull flock
and we both picked it up several times – it was a Herring Gull, surprisingly an
adult (ND #11). Only 5 more states to go
to complete my statebird map for this species.
Next we were onto the boat ramp, where we had more of the
regular species, including a large resting flock of birds on a distant island. And our last stop was at the Downstream Marsh
Trail with its recent Yellowlegs report.
But we only found Spotted Sand and Snipe, though the adjacent woodlands
were full of Least Flycatchers and Yellow Warblers.
Although we came up empty on our last 2 stops, we were happy
to have added 10 new ND birds in our first full day of birding. Especially since we were challenged by the
rainy and windy conditions to start the day.
May 25 – Bismarck and Southern ND
Our plan for the 25th was to start the day in 1 or more Bismarck
town parks hoping for migrant passerines, then visit several wetlands for
waterbirds as we made our way back north to Minot. Our first stop was at General Sibley Park,
where several of my passerine targets had been reported recently. But the migrants that day were sparse – we
found just 8 Swainson’s Thrushes, 1 Tennessee, and 2 Blackpolls. Perhaps the passerine highlight was listening
to Black-headed and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks singing nearly side by side. It was a great opportunity to compare and contrast
their very similar songs.
We eventually made our way to the boat ramp where you could
launch your boat into the backwaters and expansive marshes of the Missouri
River.
I scanned the marsh hoping to find my target Kingfisher, and
noticed a hovering bird far in the distance.
At first I thought it was going to be a Kingfisher, but then I realized it
was too small- it was a Least Tern! (ND #12).
It was later joined by a second bird which eventually flew right by
us. I sure didn’t expect that one. Although Least Terns nest on the Missouri River
in small numbers, there had only been one report in the area so far this year,
and that was some 4 miles upriver. ND
was my 13th inland state where I’ve seen this species as a breeder.
Since there were few migrants in the park, we decided to
pass on other passerine sites and instead switch gears to start visiting
wetlands spots. Our first stop was
McKenzie Slough where several shorebird targets had been reported. As we headed east on US 10 in route to
McKenzie David and I both simultaneously spotted a large wader in the corn
field right next to the road. Although
we only saw it for a couple seconds while driving by, we instantly knew we had
a Sandhill Crane (ND #13). In fact,
David thought there might have been 3 birds.
Yet another unexpected bird with only a couple sightings in the area
that month and none in the last 3 weeks.
A few minutes later we made it to McKenzie Slough, featuring
extensive cattail marshes and large impoundments.
We had a nice collection of marsh birds including Virginia
Rail and 3 Soras, and numerous Marsh Wrens.
Waders featured a flock of White-faced Ibis and a Black-crowned
Night-heron. And in addition to the
regular dabblers and divers, we spotted a flock of 5 lingering Snow Geese. Though we spotted no shorebirds so nothing
new for my list.
Our next stop was Horsehead Lake which is home to an
isolated colony of Snowy Egrets. We
headed east on I-94 from McKenzie, and then started north on 30th Avenue to
make our way toward Horsehead. We hadn’t
gone a half mile on the gravel road when a mid-sized white wader flew across
the road right in front of us. The
yellow slippers on the black legs were the clincher that we had our target
Snowy Egret (ND #14). It was surprising
to see one so far south as we were still more than 7 miles south of the closest
earlier Snowy sightings. I still need
this species in a number of other inland states near the northern edge of its
range.
As we continued north on 30th Avenue we passed by a
homestead surrounded by a large number of mature trees. We heard several Least Flycatchers calling so
we decided to stop. We had hardly gotten
out of the car when we noticed a Common Nighthawk pass low overhead, joined by
at least 7 others feeding in the area (ND #15).
We also had Eastern Pewee, Willow Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo and
Swainson’s Thrush at this brief stop.
Eventually we made our way to the southern end of Horsehead Lake
and found a spot full of waders, including 2 Snowy’s, 6 Great Egrets, and 5
Black-crowned Night-herons. As we
continued north along the western edge of the lake we made several stops
looking for a Trumpeter Swan that had been reported there recently. But all the large white birds were White
Pelicans. Interestingly there were
literally hundreds of Eastern Kingbirds along the way, with lesser numbers of
Western Kingbirds mixed in, mostly perched low along the barbed wire fencing. An amazing site!
We arrived at the eBird hotspot at the northwest corner of
the lake (aptly named Horsehead Lake – Northwest), with a smaller body of water
to the west, and the main body of the lake to the east. The smaller lake was full of Terns, with an
estimated 150 Blacks and 100 Forster’s.
I scanned a small sand bar that was full of roosting terns and spotted a
darker-winged Common Tern in the group that really stood out amongst the
extremely pale Forster’s.
Then I turned my attention to this small unassuming island next
to the road to the east that was perhaps a couple hundred feet long and 50 feet wide.
I started a quick binocular scan and spotted a flock of 8
striking breeding plumage Black-bellied Plovers (ND #16).
Then seconds later another flock of 20 Plovers
flew in.
But as they turned I could see
one had a dark rump – an American Golden-Plover was mixed in.
Here’s a phone-scoped shot of a couple of the
Black-bellies with a Black Tern.
Then I started scanning the far side of the island and picked
out a Ruddy Turnstone.
With scope views
I found a flock of 9 Turnstones in total.
A bit later a flock of 20 more flew in to join them.
I turned back to where the Black-bellies were
and only found a couple left.
But there
were now good numbers of mid-sized peeps on the mud.
With longer wings and streaks on the flanks
these turned out to be 20 White-rumped Sandpipers.
While I was watching that flock they took off
and joined a group of similar sized peeps with dark rumps which turned out to
be 42 Baird’s Sandpipers.
Then the
entire flock took off leaving the island nearly devoid of shorebirds.
And then we noticed a small group of white geese at the
north end of the island. They were
mostly hidden in the vegetation so it took some time to get good looks at
them. I wondered in jest whether there
might be any Ross’s mixed in. And then
the second goose I looked at raised its head to show its small blue-based bill
with no grin patch – it was indeed a Ross’s.
Finally, I got good views at all the birds and counted 9 Snows and 2
Ross’s. Amazing!
But it wasn’t over yet.
I turned back to the island where the Common Tern was roosting
initially, and found a Hudsonian Godwit.
Then just a couple feet away we spotted a basic-plumaged Dowitcher that cooperated
long enough to allow us to ID it as a Short-billed (ND #17). I just need it in 4 more states in its regular
range.
What a stop! We ended
up with 13 species of shorebirds during our 90-minute stop, though none of them
stayed long. And what a way to end our
day. With a good collection of both
woodland birds and wetlands species we had a nice tally of 114 species for the
day – 6 of which were additions to my ND state list.
May 26 – Minot, Buffalo Pound PP SK
The plan for the morning was to make stops for woodland
birds in Minot and then one last stop near the border. Then we would cross over into SK in the
afternoon to begin the SK portion of the trip.
Our first stop was at Minot Oak Park, which is a wooded downtown
park that often had reports of migrant passerines and also Kingfishers. In past years this has also been the best spot
in the area for breeding Yellow-throated Vireos, but there had been no reports
yet this year. We had planned to visit
this spot 2 days earlier but got rained out.
So we were anxious to finally get to bird this local hotspot.
We pulled into the parking lot just after dawn and had the
park to ourselves. And just minutes
after we got out of the car we heard a nearby Belted Kingfisher (ND #18). That was easy! I’ve now seen this species in each of the 49
continental states and DC.
What a great start!
Now we just needed to find those Vireos.
But despite a slow 90-minute walk through the park we had just 3 species
of migrants – Swainson’s Thrush, and Tennessee and Blackpoll Warblers. And no Yellow-throated Vireos. But just as we got back to our car, I heard a
Mourning Warbler singing from low in the nearby brush (ND #19). Although it sang off and on for at least 10
minutes we got just brief fleeting glimpses of this skulking bird. I still need this species in many states
where it is an elusive migrant.
Here’s a picture of the river in the background where we had
the Kingfisher, and the brush in the foreground where we had the Mourning
Warbler. We should have just stayed at
the car…
Although we missed our Vireo target at Oak Park we still had
hope, because just the day before there was a sighting of a Yellow-throated
Vireo at the nearby Minot Woodland Trail.
After a short drive we arrived at this second location and started to
walk the trails, especially focused on riparian woodlands.
And within a few minutes we heard a singing
Yellow-throated Vireo not too far from us (ND #20).
And as we walked back to the car we had a
second singing bird.
But again, we had
few migrants – just Tennessee and Blackpoll Warblers.
ND was my last state to see Yellow-throated
Vireo in its regular range.
Our last ND stop of the day was at Wildwood Park in the
northwest corner of ND near the Canadian border. I didn’t know much about this site, and in
had only a few checklists in eBird, but the spring checklists included a fair
number of passerine migrants. Sure
doesn’t look like much based on the entrance sign. (BTW – that’s a Vesper Sparrow singing on top
of the smaller white sign.)
But once we drove in past the sign the road left the
cultivated farmland and descended into a small river valley that was heavily
wooded and had thick underbrush. It was
actually quite good landbird habitat. Our
best bird during our 90-minute stay was a cooperative Gray-cheeked Thrush (ND
#21) mixed in with a group of 6 Swainson’s Thrushes foraging on the
ground. We also had a singing Eastern
Wood-Pewee and a singing Yellow-throated Vireo – both being a bit west of their
regular range. Our only migrant warblers
were 2 Tennessee’s. Unfortunately, we
never did have any decent spring migrant fallouts on our trip.
As we packed up and headed toward the Canadian border I continued
to be amazed that I was able to add 21 new birds to my ND state list. Especially after only expecting perhaps 7 new
ones. And we still had about a half day
of birding in ND on June 4th after we returned from SK to try to add a few more.
May 26 PM through June 3 – Southern SK
See my SK posts on my blog for summaries of our 9 days of
birding in southern SK.
June 4 – Minot and PM Departure
With a 3 PM flight out of Minot, my original plan was to
focus our June 4th birding on late arriving nesters to western ND, namely
Indigo Bunting, Dickcissel, and Nelson’s Sparrow. A review of eBird reports on the morning of
the 4th showed that Dickcissels hadn’t yet arrived in the area. And there was just one report of Indigo
Buntings, but at Oak Park so they were likely migrants and not local
nesters. Though I’d have to keep my eyes
(and ears) open in case we ran into a migrant bird. But on a more positive note, there were 3
reports of Nelson’s Sparrows on the 3rd, just 30 minutes east of Minot. And the best report was of a Yellow Rail an
hour east of Minot. There was also a
Red-bellied Woodpecker on the 3rd at the Bison Plant Nature Trail in Minot. That’s a species typically only seen in the
southeastern corner of the state. That
gave me plenty of targets for a morning of birding.
My first stop was to try for the Yellow Rail. Unfortunately, it had gotten quite windy overnight,
and the winds were sustained at 15-25 mph when I arrived early morning at the
marsh. Although that made it tough to
hear the soft call of the Yellow Rail, the habitat sure looked great.
I never came up with a Yellow Rail, though I heard Marsh Wrens
and a Sora in the wetter sections of the marsh, Sedge Wrens in drier sections, and
a pair of Wilson’s Snipe apparently in courtship.
But the best highlights weren’t from the marsh at all, but
instead from a narrow strip of woodlands along the southern edge of the
marsh. Here I heard 2 Veery’s, 2
Northern Waterthrushes, and a Black-billed Cuckoo that called off-and on the
whole time I was there (ND #22). A nice
consolation.
Then I was onto the 59th Street Wetlands where 3
Nelson’s Sparrow had been reported the day before. I pulled up to the drier eastern edge of the
marsh and almost instantly heard a Nelson’s calling (ND #23). I ended up hearing 3 birds at this end and a
4th at the other drier end of the marsh.
Those were the first inland (nelsoni) Nelson’s Sparrows I’ve
found on their breeding grounds in the US, though I’ve seen inland Nelson’s in
migration and on their wintering grounds in several states.
But the best was yet to come. While looking over the marsh I was shocked to
see a Mockingbird flying by low over the vegetation. I watched it for nearly 30 seconds, clearly
seeing the large white wing patches and white outer tail feathers. It had a slow wingbeat unlike the whirr of
wings of a flying Shrike, and it lacked the black mask of a Shrike (ND #24). Ironically the rarest bird of the trip turned
out to be a common year-round resident back home. ND is the 6th state where I’ve seen
Mockingbird as a rarity.
My last stop was at Bison Plant Nature Trail where the Red-bellied
Woodpecker was reported the previous day.
There I ran into Ron Martin, co-author of the “Birding North Dakota” field
guide. They were his reports of Yellow
Rail and Nelson’s Sparrows from the day before that I was chasing. He mentioned that earlier in the morning he
had had the Red-bellied near the trailhead. I went back to that area and wandered around
for a while finding a nice singing Lazuli Bunting. Its song is very similar to an Indigo, so it
got me excited for a bit until I spotted it.
Then I ran into a small foraging flock and thought maybe the Red-bellied
might join them. Sure enough, within a
few minutes I heard the Red-bellied Woodpecker calling a short distance away
(ND #25).
Summary
What a great way to end my trip, with the last 2 additions
being rarities. I expected 7 new birds
for my ND list, hoped for 9, and added a whopping 25! I guess I shouldn’t have been so pessimistic
about my chances. I had a total of 159
species on my ND checklists. My eBird
trip report for the ND portion of the trip can be found at - ebird.org/tripreport/250883
That brings my ND state list to 230, a respectable total for
just 3 short trips to ND over the years.
That should keep me safely above my goal of half of the official ND state
list for quite a while. And once again
my state lists for all the Lower 48 are higher than half of each state’s
official list.
Here is a link for my eBird trip report for the 222 species
we found on the entire trip - ebird.org/tripreport/246436 The Canadian portion of the trip is
summarized in other posts on my blog.
