As the Bird Flies: Birding and the Outdoors

Great Crested Flycatcher at Sucker Lake Park in Vadnais Heights (Photo by Kateri Routh)

Kateri Routh, Director of Finance and Administration for Great River Greening, knows that in the wintertime you can typically find the Mountain Bluebird in the Western mountains. But according to eBird (a bird tracking app), one Mountain Bluebird stayed at Como Lake this past winter hanging out with a group of Eastern Bluebirds.

Through eBird, Kateri found this uncommon visitor locally. As she approached the crowdsourced coordinates, she saw that she wasn’t alone. “It was the first time I walked up and saw all of the real birders, with their giant cameras and their scopes.”

The elusive mountain bluebird at Como Lake (Photo by Kateri Routh)

Red-tailed Hawk perched high in an area after goats had done their work in removing buckthorn, an invasive species at Carroll’s Woods in Rosemount, MN, a Great River Greening project site.

Once quarantine began, Kateri bought a bird feeder so she would have something to watch as she worked from home. Soon she started noticing activity at the feeder and started using the Merlin Bird ID app to identify them. Merlin is an app where you give your location, time of day, and characteristics of the bird, like size, color, beak size, and shape. Then it gives you a list based on your area of the type of birds it might be. It’s like iNaturalist for birds.

Thanks to working at Great River Greening, Kateri has immediate access to knowledgeable ecologist co-workers and more than 400 project sites to birdwatch. Our interactive map below shows Kateri’s favorite places to bird, including the irresistible Sax-Zim Bog.

Since that first bird feeder, half a dozen more have joined it, along with bird baths and a host of native plants to cultivate an enticing habitat. 

All locations on this map are Great River Greening sites.

Habitat plays an important role in birds’ migration patterns. For instance, sandhill cranes, historically native to Minnesota, made themselves scarce in the mid-1900s due to threats within the habitat. Recent improvements at Great River Greening project sites like Carlos Avery State WMA and Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge have drawn sandhill cranes back to Minnesota, offering birders a feast for the eyes. These two sites offer rare glimpses at one of the biggest bird species found in Minnesota. (They’re also listed on the above map.)

Sandhill Cranes near a Great River Greening prescribed burn area controlling invasive species at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, MN

“For sandhill cranes or any bird, you provide the habitat and they will come,” says Sharon Stiteler, a.k.a. Birdchick. More experienced birds know the best places to go while younger birds use trial and error. “If they try a spot and there are predators who eat the eggs, or not enough food to keep the chicks alive, they will try a different spot next year. If they try Sherburne and they can get a spot without being driven away by rival cranes and the babies have enough food, they will come back. It’s all part of the process in how birds expand their range.”

Kateri cites Sharon as the person who got her interested enough in spring migration to get up at 5 a.m. to see migratory warblers passing through the Minnesota National Wildlife Refuge, a former Great River Greening project site. Through the Minnesota Birding Facebook page which Sharon recommended, Kateri was able to see what birds were on the move and when. “It was super helpful in springtime when there was all this migration happening. Then I could see the pictures of these birds everyone's talking about, and what I might see in my own backyard or when I go out. They're the ones that pointed me to great birding locations,” Kateri says.

Copper, Kateri’s birding dog (Photo by Kateri Routh)

Now Kateri has a hobby she’s made her own, both with the help of experienced birders and from her own unique experiences in the field. When she goes on vacation, she uses the change in scenery to look for unique birds. Last winter, she ventured an hour away from her cabin rental up north to visit the Sax-Zim Bog, not letting the -20 degree morning dissuade her. 

Like Kateri, you can start birding at any experience level right from your own backyard. Bring binoculars and a smartphone as they will help you with visibility and identification.