Fall birding at Saylorville

Alright, it's been about 9 months since I last worked on this (time constraints of being a college student right? Back to the birding...

Wednesday, I kicked the fall migration season off to a banging start. I hit the Neal Smith Trail south of Sycamore Access (between Ankeny and Johnston) over my lunch hour, roughly from about 1230-110 PM. I wasn't anticipating much as it was the middle of the day and pushing the upper 80s with muggy conditions, but I was very pleased with 29 species, the majority of which were migrants.

12 warblers topped the highlights:
1 Golden-winged
1 Tennessee
1 Chestnut-sided
2 Magnolia
10 Black-and-white
2 Redstarts
4 Ovenbird
7 Northern Waterthrush
2 Mourning Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Wilson's
1 Canada

I'm rarely awarded excellent views of Northern Waterthrushes, but they seemed to be unusually responsive to pishing. Easily some of the best looks I've ever had at this species and I certainly can't complain when an agitated bird is a mere 6 feet away from me on a dead branch!

I love getting to see Mourning Warblers and an adult male was truly a sight to behold. I wish I could have watched him longer, but alas Accounting was calling.

Rounding out a few more notable migrants were 4 Eastern Wood Pewees, 6 Red-eyed Vireos, and 3 Swainson's Thrushes.


After an evening class, I made my way out to Saylorville Reservoir for a quick loop... or at least that's what I thought. My first stop was the Saylorville Dam. At 615 PM, I pulled in for a quick scan when I noticed decent numbers of Common Nighthawks flying outside my window. Upon exiting the car, I realized that migration was fully in swing. For the next 30 minutes, I camped out here and set up a stationary count. By 630 PM, 15 minutes later, I had tallied over 650 Common Nighthawks, and by 645 PM, that count had rose to 952! Birds were not only moving overhead, but along both the east and west ends of the reservoir and I'm certain I missed several hundred birds!

86 Caspian Terns were also moving, about 1/3 of which also moved south over the dam, the rest were foraging over the western side of the reservoir.


After watching the amazing spectacle at the dam, I drove up to the Cherry Glen access where a roosting (loafing?) flock of Terns and Gulls had been assembling. The reservoir has seen several bouts of flooding so far this year and it is just starting to get back to normal (even though it is still several feet above where it should be this time of year). A portion of the lower boat ramp parking lot has begun showing as the waters have receeded and the birds seem to take a liking to this (I recall a number of shorebirds here back in 2008 after those floods, including a Piping Plover). Irregardless, I counted 263 Caspian Terns, just over 200 Ring-billed Gulls and 4 Forster's Terns.


Once I finished here, nightfall was rapidly approaching and I drove back into Ankeny for some supper and ultimately, home. Along the way, Common Nighthawks were actively hunting over most of the city and I estimated another 70-80 birds, if not more, along the way.

What an awesome spectacle! The simple pleasures are what make this hobby so wonderful; incredible views of an aggravated Northern Waterthrush, the feeling of awe in observing an adult male Mourning Warbler, and nature's spectacle of migration. All in all, September 1, 2010 will go down as a day fulfilled in my book.

Now to see 17,000 Common Nighthawks migrating over Chicago!