A Wonderful Warbler Weekend
The Saint Paul Bird Alliance has organized an annual celebration of spring migration along the Mississippi Flyway for the last 50 years: Warbler Weekend, a weekend focused on birding around southeastern Minnesota near Lake Pepin. Urban Bird Collective’s leaders have attended together the last few years as a teambuilding opportunity (and to dust off our spring and summer birding abilities). After all, what could be a better way to develop deeper relationships than to spend all weekend birding together?
There is something extraordinary about committing an entire weekend to birding. No timelines, no meetings, no rushing back to the car… Just the simple pleasure of waking up and going to bed with the sun and the birds. This was my first time attending Warbler Weekend, which also coincided with Mother’s Day. I chose to spend the weekend without my child or family; instead, I chose myself and to indulge my greatest joy without the pressures of making it home for naptime. I didn’t know what to expect. How long could I spend birding before my neck ached, my eyes shut on their own, and I threw in the proverbial towel (in this case, my binoculars)? I had seen very few warblers at home in St. Paul. What if the weekend was a total bust? Would I even see warblers, or was the event a misnomer?
Wanting to really give myself the full experience, I chose to camp at Frontenac State Park with a few other leaders from UBC. After our quick drive down from St. Paul, we went straight to Hok-Si-La Park in the hopes of starting the weekend with a prothonotary warbler. No luck, but we managed to see many other wonderful birds, including countless northern waterthrush, a chestnut-sided warbler, many palm and yellow-rumped warblers, a small flock of pelicans, and an American redstart. We backtracked to hastily set up our campground at Frontenac (after slow-rolling by some bluebirds and a ring-necked pheasant), and continued north along the shore to Redwing to meet up with other UBC leaders for dinner. Fortunately for us, a wrong turn across the bridge into Wisconsin gave us incredible views of one of the largest bald eagle nests we’d ever seen with a very awkward eaglet inside, along with Forster’s terns fishing 50 yards away, and yellow warblers and orioles welcoming us along the shore. Dinner was full of hugs and smiles, greeting old friends and new, sharing our hopes of what we would see over the weekend, and raucous laughter. Back at our campsite, barred owls, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, and coyotes serenaded us throughout the night.
Saturday was the day we would bird from sunrise to sunset. Rather than an alarm clock, various warblers sang us awake as they paused in the trees directly above our campsite during their morning breakfast commute. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers drummed throughout the campground and the white-crowned sparrows sung in the brush. We enjoyed a quick camp breakfast and hike before donning our binoculars and coffee mugs to head back out to Hok-Si-La again to join the rest of our small but mighty crew of leaders. We cheered in the parking lot as more and more of us gathered, and thus began an incredible day of birding. The trees were alive with movement and songs. Leaders with an ear for birdsong excitedly whisperedwho they could hear: a black-throated green warbler! a parula! a black-and-white!! Moving at a hilariously slow pace, we managed to see 60 species during our 2.5 hour morning walk (well, crawl). We ultimately DID accomplish our goal of seeing the prothonotary warbler. In fact, we saw 4, including a nesting pair scoping out a nesting location in a snag cavity over the slough. The day continued with stops at Sand Point Trail, Frontenac State Park, the Frontenac Cemetery (where we were gifted a long encounter with a bay-breasted warbler), and a last-minute pause at the Pleasant Valley Lakelet on our way back to the campsite to glimpse tons of shorebirds dancing in the fading pinks and golds of the sunset.
Sunday morning our hearts were full, but we knew there were more birds we could see before making our own journey north along the river back home to the Twin Cities. Once again, our campsite was alight with birds first thing in the morning. How could we leave our campsite when Blackburnian warblers and an orchard oriole sang overhead? We managed to pull ourselves away to enjoy more of Frontenac’s trails, and we were rewarded with red-headed woodpeckers, scarlet tanagers, and even more warblers. My final stop for the weekend was one last look at the feeders at the top of Frontenac overlooking Lake Pepin to be dazzled by a rare sighting of a scissor-tailed flycatcher! It was the perfect final bird to cap off the weekend before returning home to be smothered by toddler hugs and kisses.
I’ve had few collective experiences that were this powerful and positive. This was the first time I had been around so many birders who were all so welcoming, encouraging, and excited. We rarely crossed paths with other members of the Saint Paul Bird Alliance, but when we did, everyone was kind, smiling, and eager to share what they had seen. After Minnesota’s brutal winter with Metro Surge, this felt like a moment we could all exhale and recalibrate together. I was also amazed at the diversity of skills and knowledge among the leaders. During our weekend together, our group spanned from another leader’s 15 month old to elders with 30+ years of experience, yet we all shared the same sense of wonder and delight. After everyone had time to rest their eyes, UBC leaders compiled our total species count: our group collectively saw 125 species in less than 48 hours! That’s 1/3 of the total species recorded in Minnesota. I came away with new friendships, a stronger community, and gratitude for this place and river I get to call my home.
The Urban Bird Collective would like to thank the Saint Paul Bird Alliance for their continued support for UBC to bring new and diverse communities to Warbler Weekend.
By Rachel Kimpton, Urban Bird Collective leader, reprinted with permission
Photo-David-Boltz
