2020 Outings

Saturday, 14 November 2020.

Fourteen birders participated in our November outing. Our objective was finding the waterfowl, gulls, grebes and loons that often frequent Lewis & Clark Lake at Gavin's Point Dam near Yankton, SD. It was a nice November day with cloudy skies, temps in the 30’s and a light breeze. The pullouts on the dam gave us some great views of some good birds and some other good species were found in the area and while traveling. Highlights included White-winged Scoter, Surf Scoter, Western Grebe, Eared Grebe, Horned Grebe, Common Loon, Greater Scaup, Belted Kingfisher, Ross’s Goose, American Kestrel, and Rough-legged Hawk. The White-winged Scoter was a life bird for some of the birders. We recorded a total of 55 species for the day which included some species found at participant’s feeders. Thanks to all who participated!

11-14-2020 Birds—Lewis & Clark Lake at Gavin's Point Dam near Yankton, SD. and related areas. Outing—55 species. Highlights are in bold.

Saturday, October 10, 2020.

Nine birders participated in our October outing. The group decided to search for migrating shorebirds and sparrows. It was a nice morning as our group headed for our first destination at New Lake where we found lots of shorebirds and other species. We made additional stops at Brown’s Lake, Sandhill Lake, and Owego Wetlands. We recorded a total of 44 species for the day. Highlights included Black-bellied Plover, Greater White-fronted Goose, Le Conte’s Sparrow, American Golden-Plover and Wilson’s Snipe. Thanks to all who participated!

10-10-2020 Birds—New Lake, Brown’s Lake, Sandhill Lake, Owego Wetlands, and related areas. 44 species, highlights are in bold.

Saturday, September 19, 2020.

Nine birders participated in our September outing. The sun was coming up as we gathered for our trip and it was a cool, windy morning with clear skies and temperatures in the 50’s. Our first stop was at New Lake where we found a good variety of shorebirds including numerous Stilt Sandpipers. Several Great Blue Herons were wading in the shallow waters and small flocks of American White Pelicans glided in. Two Bald Eagles flew in and perched near the top of a large, half-dead cottonwood. We made additional stops at Brown’s Lake, Sandhill Lake, the ‘Square’, and Owego Wetlands. The best surprise of the morning was an immature Yellow-crowned Night-Heron found in the ditch at the north side of the ‘Square’.

 We recorded a total of 41 species for the day. Other highlights included Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Peregrine Falcon, and Swainson’s Hawks. Most of the group enjoyed lunch at the Subway in Sloan before calling it a day. Thanks to all who participated!

9-19-2020 Birds—New Lake, Brown’s Lake, Sandhill Lake, the ‘Square’, Owego Wetlands, and related areas. Outing—41 species. Highlights in Bold.

Saturday, August 15, 2020.

Thirteen birders participated in our August outing. It was a beautiful morning with clear skies, temperatures in the low 60’s with calm conditions. We found a good variety of birds with stops at Dairy Ponds South, The Square and Owego. Song Sparrows, Sedge Wrens, and Blue Grosbeaks were singing for us at the Square and a variety of shorebirds were working the mud flats. Numerous Great Blue Herons flew up and some of them landed and perched at the top of the big hi-lines. They blended right in to the poles and were hard to pick out. Most of the large area of grasslands there had been baled into hundreds of big round bales and many of them had Turkey Vultures perched on them. A passing farmer stopped to say hi and explained that the area was being baled because it had been designated as a drought area. Three Upland Sandpipers were also seen there. A Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Bell’s Vireo were heard at Owego.

We recorded a total of 55 species for the day. Some of the group enjoyed lunch at the Subway in Sloan before calling it a day. It was nice to be on an outing again with fellow birders. We drove separate cars and social distanced as much as possible and face masks were used. Thanks to all who participated!

8-15-2020 Birds—Dairy Ponds South, The Square, and Owego areas Etc. Outing—55 species. Highlights in BOLD.

July 18 and 19, 2020

July 18, 2020 New Lake, Woodbury County, IA - LHAS Field Trip highlights

Report by Bill Huser and Paul Roisen

July 19, 2020, Snyder's Bend (Woodbury County portion):

Report by Bill Huser

Water levels are very low, exposing large mudflats across the lake from the observation deck and along that same shore further south. This area is distant and hard to access but the birds can be closely approached by kayak.

Thousands of shorebirds are present with Killdeer ubiquitous and numbering 1000 on their own. 12 species are in the table below.

Additionally:

Found a lone gull. I judged it to be medium sized though it was alone and without a good reference.

Most notable was the checkered black and white mantle and wing coverts. Since it lacked brown tones and the rather early date, I surmised it was a 1st summer bird but have not found anything close in National Geographic (NG) or Sibley. Other field marks were pink legs, black primaries with tiny white tips, brownish tertials with white tips, pink-gray bill with dark tip, medium sized bill.