A Spring Week in the Midwest II: IOU Spring Meeting

I got to Carroll in the late afternoon, checked in to my motel, and headed north and east a few miles to the very aptly named Treasure Road Ponds, a series of small abandoned gravel pits on the bank of the Raccoon River. It was here that a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck had appeared the day before, and while that bird–which I missed–was the reason for my choice of destination, I was prepared to be happy with anything I saw.

And I saw a lot. The woods were crawling with Yellow-rumped Warblers, bright Myrtle Warblers bringing back decades-old memories of a time when any parulid could get the heart beating faster. There were a couple of Orange-crowned Warblers in the lot, too, more somber in plumage but just as exciting–particularly when one showed me, ever so briefly, its eponymous cap. The abundance of Ruby-crowned Kinglets confirmed that it was still early for most late-season migrants, but that didn’t bother me at all: the Blue-winged Teal on the ponds, a Marsh Wren rattling on the edges, and Tree Swallows overhead made it a midwestern evening such as I hadn’t seen for a long time.

The next morning started at the civilized hour of 6:00–civilized, that is, for those from the Central Time Zone, a bit harder on those of us from two hours back. But as always, the excitement of a birding day helped wipe the sleep from my eyes, and we were off. On Steve’s advice, I joined Matt and Mike for a trip to Dunbar Slough, and it turned out to be a good choice.

We were late for waterfowl, of course, but still turned up a good tally of species, including Hooded Merganser at a nestbox (!) and a couple of Ross’s Geese among the lingering Snows and Greater White-fronteds. Blue-winged Teal were on every pond and slough, and the muddy edges of those where the water wasn’t too terribly high had a few shorebirds, too.

Pectoral Sandpipers, a bird I generally see only in fall now that I live in the southwest, were arriving in good numbers, and there were a few Baird’s Sandpipers still around, while the vanguard of the White-rumped Sandpipers was just arriving (there’s one in the photo above). We encountered Least Sandpipers at a few sites, with the odd Semipalmated Sandpiper, too–another bird I don’t get to see often enough in spring any more. I’m fairly certain that we had both Long-billed and hendersoni Short-billed Dowitchers, though group birding isn’t my favorite way to puzzle those two out.

Plovers were scarce, only Killdeer really common. Blackhawk Wildlife Area on Sunday had a dozen Semipalmated Plover and a single Piping Plover, while one of our last stops at Dunbar Slough on Saturday produced 13 American Golden-Plover overhead, two of them in black plumage, the others still the dingy brown of spring.

Wilson’s Phalaropes were scattered here and there, too, and on Sunday, driving from Blackhawk back to our concluding lunch, Steve and I picked up an Upland Sandpiper, the only one I saw all weekend, on a roadside fencepost.

The most exciting aspect of the two days was visible migration.

American White Pelicans and other big birds are easy enough to see on their passage north, but passerines are sneakier (and more nocturnal), so  it was a real treat to find flocks of Myrtle Warblers sweeping across the farm fields, and gangs of 10-25 Blue Jays were overhead most of the time.

Hard as we tried, other migrant passerines were thin on the ground. My tally of two warbler species at Treasure Road was not surpassed on either of the two formal field trips I went on–Black-and-white Warbler substituted for Orange-crowned–but sparrow watching was good at sites with scattered trees and grass. White-throated Sparrow is always a delight, and though it was commonplace enough for the others, I enjoyed watching Clay-colored Sparrows sing as much as anything else all weekend.

Would I live in the midwest again? I don’t think so. But I’m resolved to spend more time there in Mays to come, reliving the early days of my birding “career” and hanging out with some of the nicest birders–and the nicest birds–I know.