VENTURE TO MANITOBA AND NORTH DAKOTA
JUNE 3-13, 2004
Venture to Manitoba and North Dakota Winnipeg from the air looked wet and once on terra firma (sort of), we discovered that it had certainly rained a lot over the past month. The fields were flooded and the ducks were having an easy time. Thankfully the weather stayed somewhat dry the first part of the week and enabled us to enjoy the eastern Manitoba forests without getting wet. Warblers were the order of the day during the first few days and we had a pretty good list by the time we headed west. We all had excellent views of Mourning, while some had passable views of the elusive Connecticut. Tennessee, Nashville, Black-and-white, Ovenbird and Chestnut-sided were abundant as we slowly drove along the dusty forest roads searching for birds. Riding Mountain National Park is beautiful, but our main quarry, the Great Gray Owl, eluded us. With help from some others we managed to find the occupied nest cavity of a Three-toed Woodpecker - a rare sight anywhere in the country. An owling trip at night again failed to produce out Great Gray, but some displaying American Woodcock were a nice consolation. Riding Mountain also produced our only Black Bears of the trip - one being a spectacular "Cinnamon" Bear that we watched for quite a time before he ambled back into the woods. The weather in the prairies turned a little more unpleasant with a lot of rain making the gravel roads very slippery and muddy. The weather made the birding quite challenging, but despite that fact we did get most of our target birds, although the views could have been better. Highlights were the "blonde" porcupine wandering around in the daytime, a Sprague's Pipit singing from high above our heads, several pairs of Gray Partridge and an impressive prairie storm that produced wind, rain and hail - no tornados thankfully! Lasting impressions? For me it was the number of ducks on every patch of water from Blue-winged Teal in roadside ditches to Wood Duck and Gadwall in flooded fields. What a good way to learn your ducks! Manitoba is a wonderful area of Canada and a trip to the varied habitats really enables us to see a wide variety of species.
BIRD LIST
| Common Loon | Sanderling | Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
| Pied-billed Grebe | Semipalmated Sandpiper | Eastern Bluebird |
| Horned Grebe | Least Sandpiper | Mountain Bluebird |
| Red-necked Grebe | White-rumped Sandpiper | Veery |
| Eared Grebe | American Woodcock | Swainson's Thrush |
| Western Grebe | Stilt Sandpiper | Hermit Thrush |
| American White Pelican | Wilson's Snipe | American Robin |
| Double-crested Cormorant | Wilson's Phalarope | Gray Catbird |
| American Bittern | Red-necked Phalarope | Brown Thrasher |
| Great Blue Heron | Franklin's Gull | European Starling |
| Cattle Egret | Ring-billed Gull | Sprague's Pipit |
| Green Heron | Herring Gull | Cedar Waxwing |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron | Forster's Tern | Tennessee Warbler |
| White-faced Ibis | Black Tern | Orange-crowned Warbler |
| Turkey Vulture | Rock Pigeon | Nashville Warbler |
| Greater White-fronted Goose | Mourning Dove | Yellow Warbler |
| Snow Goose | Black-billed Cuckoo | Chestnut-sided Warbler |
| Ross's Goose | Great Horned Owl | Magnolia Warbler |
| Canada Goose | Common Nighthawk | Yellow-rumped Warbler |
| Wood Duck | Chimney Swift | Black-throated Green Warbler |
| Gadwall | Ruby-throated Hummingbird | Blackburnian Warbler |
| American Wigeon | Belted Kingfisher | Blackpoll Warbler |
| Mallard | Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | Black-and-white Warbler |
| Blue-winged Teal | Downy Woodpecker | American Redstart |
| Northern Shoveler | Hairy Woodpecker | Ovenbird |
| Northern Pintail | Three-toed Woodpecker | Northern Waterthrush |
| Green-winged Teal | Black-backed Woodpecker | Mourning Warbler |
| Canvasback | Northern Flicker | Connecticut Warbler |
| Redhead | Pileated Woodpecker | Common Yellowthroat |
| Ring-necked Duck | Olive-sided Flycatcher | Wilson's Warbler |
| Lesser Scaup | Eastern Wood-Pewee | Scarlet Tanager (heard) |
| Bufflehead | Yellow-bellied Flycatcher | Canada Warbler |
| Common Goldeneye | Alder Flycatcher | Chipping Sparrow |
| Hooded Merganser | Willow Flycatcher | Clay-colored Sparrow |
| Common Merganser | Least Flycatcher | Vesper Sparrow |
| Ruddy Duck | Eastern Phoebe | Lark Sparrow |
| Bald Eagle | Great Crested Flycatcher | Savannah Sparrow |
| Northern Harrier | Western Kingbird | Grasshopper Sparrow |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | Eastern Kingbird | LeConte's Sparrow |
| Cooper's Hawk | Loggerhead Shrike | Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow |
| Northern Goshawk | Blue-headed Vireo | Song Sparrow |
| Broad-winged Hawk | Warbling Vireo | Lincoln's Sparrow |
| Swainson's Hawk | Philadelphia Vireo | Swamp Sparrow |
| Red-tailed Hawk | Red-eyed Vireo | White-throated Sparrow |
| Ferruginous Hawk | Gray Jay | Dark-eyed Junco |
| American Kestrel | Blue Jay | Chestnut-collared Longspur |
| Merlin | Black-billed Magpie | Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
| Peregrine Falcon | American Crow | Indigo Bunting (heard) |
| Gray Partridge | Common Raven | Bobolink |
| Ring-necked Pheasant | Horned Lark | Red-winged Blackbird |
| Ruffed Grouse (heard) | Purple Martin | Western Meadowlark |
| Sharp-tailed Grouse | Tree Swallow | Yellow-headed Blackbird |
| Wild Turkey | Bank Swallow | Brewer's Blackbird |
| Virginia Rail | Cliff Swallow | Common Grackle |
| Sora | Barn Swallow | Brown-headed Cowbird |
| American Coot | Black-capped Chickadee | Orchard Oriole |
| Sandhill Crane | Boreal Chickadee | Baltimore Oriole |
| Piping Plover | Red-breasted Nuthatch | Purple Finch |
| Killdeer | White-breasted Nuthatch | House Finch |
| American Avocet | Brown Creeper (heard) | White-winged Crossbill |
| Willet | House Wren | Pine Siskin |
| Spotted Sandpiper | Winter Wren (heard) | American Goldfinch |
| Upland Sandpiper | Sedge Wren | Evening Grosbeak |
| Marbled Godwit | Marsh Wren | House Sparrow |
| Ruddy Turnstone | Golden-crowned Kinglet (heard) |
| Other Critters: | ||
| Black Bear (one "Cinnamon" color phase) | Richardson's Ground-Squirrel | Snowshoe Hare |
| Raccoon | Eastern Chipmunk | White-tailed Jack Rabbit |
| Short-tailed Weasel | Red Squirrel | Eastern Cottontail |
| Red Fox | Beaver | White-tailed Deer |
| Coyote | Muskrat | Eastern Garter Snake |
| Thirteen-lined Ground-Squirrel | Porcupine | Painted Turtle |
| Butterflies | ||
| Monarch | Eastern Comma | Eastern Pine Elfin |
| Clouded Sulphur | Red Admiral | Hoary Elfin |
| Azure sp | Painted Lady | |
| Mourning Cloak | Canadian Tiger Swallowtail | |
