I was awoken this morning by a bird song about 30 minutes before my
alarm, which was set for 4 a.m. At first I thought it was a caged
bird singing from the room next to me that was occupied by a Mexican
family. Now fully awake, I got up and poked my head outside. It
turned out to be a Western Kingbird calling from a large cottonwood
near a street light on the outskirts of Breckinridge, MN. I needed
more sleep but then figured it would be really tough to wake up in
another 30 minutes so I stayed up.
As I drove south to my starting point, I could see some lightning to
the south, and in about 10 minutes it was raining. As I turned off
onto the gravel road that would be my constant companion for the next
4.5 hours, it was sprinkling lightly. I've never counted on so many
consecutive stops when it was raining. It never completely stopped
until stop 22, but it was never hard enough for me to sit it out in
the car, and the birds didn't seem to mind. Winds were light, but I
did have 3 layers of clothes on for the first time during the Quad 30
since the temperature was in the mid-50s.
I ended up with 61 species, which is very close to the average for
the last 3 years the route was run in 1994-96. Sparrow counts were
down considerably - Song, Savannah, and Vesper, but Bobolinks were
up. I only found Black Tern at 1 wetland and the count was 7,
whereas the 3 previous counts averaged 26. I couldn't find a pigeon
and crow numbers were lower than expected, which has generally been
the case on the MN routes.
The small scattered woodlots were more productive than in the past
with higher numbers of Great Crested Flycatcher and Red-eyed Vireo
and I had a single downy, Ovenbird and Scarlet Tanager, all 3 new for
the route.
At a cafe outside Fergus Falls, I ordered my standard 2 pancakes and
coffee, and the waitress asked if I really wanted 2 since they were
plate-sized. The price for 1 was about what I normally pay for 2 so
I said ok, let's go with 1. It came and it was huge, and on top were
2 eyes (2"-diameter pancakes), a smiling mouth pancake, and even a
tongue pancake hanging out of the mouth. The skinny, wrinkled
waitress and I had a good chuckle over the cook's handiwork. And the
good blueberry syrup was a bonus.
