The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

There is a country super star whose name is Jason Aldean. He sings a song call “Fly Over States.” Many folks who are not familiar with the Midwest just plain and simply call our great part of North America flyover states. When it comes to wildlife and waterfowl this is in many respects the truth.

The spring season in Minnesota does allow us the opportunity to see waterfowl and other wetland related birds for a few weeks as they are headed to other parts of the world that they find more attractive. I received a call the other day from my area wildlife biologist from the Minnesota DNR and he told me of a sighting he found of great interest. He told me the location of a temporary wetland that had a large gathering of a bird called a white-faced ibis.

A white-faced ibis in my opinion really does not have a predominate white face. These are a large bird with long legs much like a great blue heron has but they are about 1/3 the height of a great blue heron. They have a curved bill unlike any other bird I see in our area. They use this curved bill to forage for crustacean and other critters that live in shallow wetlands. They normally live from the west coast to the west edge of South Dakota. When they are seen in Minnesota it is usually in the southern part of the state.

These are big birds when compared to most of the winged creatures that live here. There is a separate population in South America. They are about 18-22 inches long and have a wingspan about of about 3 feet. An interesting fact about this bird is that the populations are increasing. This is the opposite of the trend for almost all other birds except for geese and ducks.

These are songbird species and many of them that have seen population declines so dramatic that biologists feel their numbers will fall below a threshold of what it will take to keep the species from coming extinct.

White-faced ibis are not the only unique visitors that make a stop in some of the flyover states. For example, canvasback ducks which are almost never seen in southwest Minnesota during the summer months will be common as they stop and rest here on their way to somewhere else each spring. The same can be said for blue bill ducks, ring bill ducks and several others. These same ducks which are absent in the summer will occasional show up in a duck hunters’ bag here in the fall but not in great numbers. One of the things I find the most impressive in spring is just the total numbers of ducks and geese you can see in one spot. I crept over a hill a few nights back and saw about 400 ducks of many different species all utilizing the same temporary wetland.

During the summer months you can drive many miles in my neck of the woods and search out many different wetlands that might have zero ducks utilizing them and others might just have a half dozen. The sheer numbers of birds visible on an early spring day might be more then you can see for the entire summer in total.

If you are into raptors, this spring will be a great time to watch out for them as well. Many of the shallow lakes across the state have experienced significant winter kills. Winter kills are common, but the total number of lakes that had a significant winter kill are far higher than in almost all other years. Raptors will feed on the dead fish as they move through the area. They might very well stay here longer than normal for as abundant as the food supply is turning out to be.

For the next few weeks, you can view a wide variety of fowls that will be absent from our area in only a few weeks. Take the time to do a wildlife ride in the next two weeks to capitalize on this great opportunity. You might just catch a bug to do this event more often and if you do a ride quickly you just might see a white-faced ibis as well.

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.