Birding around Cass County recently has begged the question - Where are the spring migrants? While meteorologicaly you might not expect to see the birds of spring - what with snow, ice and freezing daytime temps, but phenologicaly the early spring migrants are a bit late. I wasn't sure if this was just a "feeling" I had or if actual data backed it up, so I checked the
Minnesota Ornithological Union (MOU) website and found my suspicions were correct. Below is the data from the Arrival / Departures page on the MOU website - filtered for northern spring arrivals expected by today. From this list I have seen only two of these species - Horned Lark and Northern Harrier
Horned Lark | 2-Feb |
Common Merganser | 4-Mar |
Sharp-shinned Hawk | 7-Mar |
American Kestrel | 7-Mar |
Common Grackle | 9-Mar |
Northern Harrier | 10-Mar |
Red-winged Blackbird | 10-Mar |
Ring-billed Gull | 12-Mar | | |
Here are photos taken last year of a couple of those early migrants I am so longing to see!
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American Kestrel - Cass County 2010 |
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Red-winged Blackbird - noticeably absent from my list this year. |
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