May 8,2021
Today over 20 people showed up in some rainy, windy conditions in Sioux Falls to do some in-person birding. This was our biggest group in a while, even by pre-pandemic standards. We broke into two groups, with several cars heading west of town to look for waterfowl and shorebirds right away, while others stayed to bird at the Outdoor Campus for about 90 minutes on foot before heading west as well. Collectively, we found just shy of 100 species for the dayWe managed to find quite a few shorebird species at the various wetlands, and there is still a fairly diverse group of waterfowl around west of Sioux Falls. The songbirds were a little harder to come by, but sparrows were plentiful and there were a few warbler species at the OC.Some of the new-ish arrivals to our area included Black Terns, Green Heron, Willow Flycatcher, Blue-headed Vireo, Marsh Wren, Brown Thrasher, Swainson's Thrush, Bobolink, Nashville and Yellow Warblers. I've attempted to merge our two groups' species list into one full list below; apologies if I missed anything.
May 11, 2019 Field Trip to Newton Hills and Worthing wetlands
Today thirteen birders spent the morning at Newton Hills State Park and the
wetlands near Worthing south of Sioux Falls. The horse camp at Newton Hills
was very full of birds; warblers and flycatchers were in fairly short supply
(aside from ubiquitous Yellow Warblers), but we did find a White-eyed Vireo,
a number of singing Wood Thrushes, Baltimore Orioles, Rose-breasted
Grosbeaks, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and a nice mix of sparrows, including a
late Dark-eyed Junco on the beach at Lake Lakota.
The wetlands around Worthing yielded a Willet, Black and Forster's Terns,
Virginia Rails, and many Soras and Wilson's Phalaropes.
