A Birder's Guide to Minnesota: A County-by-County Guide to Over 1,400 Birding Locations - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kim Richard Eckert’s interest in birding was sparked in the Chicago area during a 10th-grade biology class—the only biology course he would ever take. Kim became an English major at St. John’s University in Minnesota and then taught English (with some first-year French on the side) during the 1970s. But he turned to a career in birding after moving to Duluth, Minnesota, in 1977, where he served as Naturalist at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve (for a total of 20 years), taught bird identification classes for a decade, and started leading birding tours (including 30 years with Victor Emanuel Nature Tours). In 1986, he created the Minnesota Birding Weekends & Weeks program of tours throughout Minnesota and elsewhere in the US and Canada.

Kim has written numerous articles for The Loon and other publications; plus Birding by Hindsight, a compilation of The Loon’s series of 70 bird ID articles; and four previous editions of A Birder’s Guide to Minnesota.

After 45 years, he still lives in Duluth, where he muses about the Great Plains, prefers not to take anything too seriously, finds joy in not knowing where he is going, reminisces about the times with Bob and Panda... and thinks about things.

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The southwestern quarter of the county has the best birding locations, with Pipestone National Monument the most renowned of these, and one of the most pleasant spots in any county this side of the Minne­sota River. It features a wooded stream with a modest but picturesque waterfall, about a half square-mile of native grasslands, some beautiful outcroppings of Sioux Quartzite lined with trees, a well-marked nature trail that loops by it all, and a visitor center with interpre­tive information, pipestone-carving demonstrations, and an obligatory gift shop. Sioux Quartzite bedrock has been used in the construction of some of the build­ings in Pipestone and other cities, and the softer layers of rock within the quartzite (i.e., pipestone) have long been fashioned into pipes and other ceremonial items by Native Americans.

Among other species, American Woodcock, Western Kingbird, Sedge Wren, Clay-colored and Field sparrows, Orchard Oriole, Blue Grosbeak, and Dickcissel nest here. This can be a great place during warbler migration: I once saw an unequivocal male MacGillivray’s Warbler in May years ago, but I left my notebook and camera at home, failed to document it, and it’s still missing from my MN list. Rarities such as Bell’s Vireo, Rock Wren, Brewer’s Sparrow (well, this one I documented), Spotted Towhee (used to occur annually), Eastern Meadowlark, and Lazuli Bunting have been found over the years.

The monument is well-signed from US 75 on the north side of Pipestone. Before heading directly to the visitor center and trailhead, it’s always worth checking the trees on both sides of the pond behind the Three Maidens rock formation by the park entrance gate. At some point, you should also turn north just outside the gate on Hiawatha Ave., and after 1 mi. turn west on 121st St. / CR 67 through a unit of the Northern Tallgrass Prairie NWR region. This road goes along the north and west sides of the national monument property and passes by a mix of fields, thickets, woodlands, a small marshy lake, a residential feeder or two, and a cemetery with conifers. Recent rarities have been Townsend’s Sol­itaire in winter and Lazuli Bunting in May.

If you’re following this scenic route, you’ll want to zigzag south and west to MN 30 and the main gate of the Pipestone sewage ponds, which is 2.5 mi. west of US 75. By virtue of their size alone, these rank along with Morris and Sleepy Eye as the best ponds in southern Minnesota, and birders have been able to gain vehicle access by contacting Pipestone’s Water & Wastewater Department in advance.

Birders are asked not to enter without advance permis­sion so this hospitality can be maintained. Besides, you’ll need to make contact to have the gate opened—the 6 cells extend east-west for a mile, they’re mostly not vis­ible from any of the roads outside the gate, and it would take a long time to walk in and see them all. You can see the east cell from 60th Ave. (turn south from MN 30, 1/2 mi. east of the main gate), but that’s about it for roadside viewing. Some of its significant records have been Surf Scoter, 24 shorebird species (including Piping Plover and Red Phalarope), and Cattle Egret.

Farther south is Split Rock Creek State Park and its lake of the same name. Though modest in size, it’s the only actual lake in the county and the only non-sewage pond for miles around to harbor any water birds. Some “big lake” water birds such as Greater Scaup, Red-breasted Merganser, Horned Grebe, Herring Gull, and Common Loon have dropped in, and this was the site of the state’s first California Gull record. Other rarities on the park checklist of 200+ species are Willet, Snowy Egret, Prairie Falcon, Chestnut-collared Longspur, Connecticut and Black-throated Blue warblers, which all illustrate that the park is more than just the lake.

The park entrance is south of Ihlen on CR 20 / 50th Ave. (follow the signs off MN 23), and the best woods birding is just south of the campground and at the picnic grounds on the west side of the lake. But an equally interesting area with edges and thickets is along the trail south of the dam, along the creek, and south of the lake. Across the road from this trail, the entire section west over to MN 23 is now state park property and almost all grasslands, spared from the plow by the Sioux Quartzite outcrops, where Grasshopper and sometimes Henslow’s sparrows nest. Note as well there are still more prairie pastures south to the Rock county line and east to CR 15 with the same birding potential.