Buffalo River and the Spotted-Eastern-Hybrid Towhee

After a couple weeks of rest (hard to believe you can actually rest when trying to hit every state park in a year) I got on the road on Saturday morning June 9th nice and early. I pulled into Buffalo River SP just a few minutes past 9AM, though I was hoping for earlier than that honestly.

I see a Greater-Prairie Chicken on the sign, though I didn't get one on this trip it is very high on my get list for the state soon.

 

I had heard great things about Buffalo River SP in the sense of it being a western edge park with rarity potential (Western Wood-Peewee last year) and some outstanding prairie space bordered to the south by Bluestem Prairie SNA just to bolster those creds even more. In the shade of the Buffalo River segment not far from the parking and swim pond I picked up plenty of American Redstart and Yellow Warbler staking claim to prime sections of habitat. The same area had an active Scarlet Tanager and the area acted more like a nice forest than anything resembling prairie.

That changes very quickly though as you cross the river and pickup the segments of the Prairie View Trail that runs a couple large loops out to the west and south edges of the park property.

The prairie masters quickly made themselves known as Western Meadowlarks perched and Grasshopper Sparrows issues their insect-like calls. A few Bobolink let out their robotic calls and chased around the open spaces. This is true prairie space that began to heat up very quickly on the day and made the open area feel several degrees warmer than it might actually have been at this point in the morning. I really needed that extra hour or more of morning time to avoid the high heat of the day.

Several low areas had Alder Flycatcher claiming their own space as thickets of bushes dotted the moist areas. As I arced around towards a river overlook I heard a call I did not recognize and my heart jumped. This happens less and less these days and I was keen on figuring out what new single phrase call I couldn't immediately identify...

I got closer and closer to the woodline and the call was repeated the entire time. I soon made the treeline just south of the river and still it persisted. I was having trouble finding the bird that seemed to be calling from the tree tops so I circled the area even cutting into the brush line hoping to change my viewing angle enough to pick up the bird.

After nearly 10 minutes of this I finally set eyes upon a Towhee! Well, I knew for a fact this was not an Eastern Towhee call note. Even with their tendency to issue several calls and also modify/shorten their signature "Drink-Your-Tea" call I knew this voice was not an Eastern voice. I immediately jumped to Spotted Towhee. A rarity, I was almost ready to send out alerts for any that might happen to be in the area and want such a bird. I paused though wanting to snag a photograph showing the spotted wings and eventually was able to do so.

My angle finally shows me a spotted wing pattern I had hoped would be the final clincher for Spotted Towhee and a new rarity to report for my State Park big year.

As soon as I got my photo, confident I had gotten my bird even though I'd never heard this call before, the bird did something that was at once amazing and disheartening. It began to sing...the entire normal "Drink-Your-Tea" song of an Eastern Towhee. This bird had I not seen it would have gone down as an Eastern on this song alone and if the song had never started would have been an easy call for Spotted for me with an assumption that I just didn't know all of their call notes.

Now I knew where I was and that was bird limbo. I had found an Eastern/Spotted Hybrid that all at once was super cool and a bit sad since it would not have an official count on my life list. The educational value though far outweighs the indeterminate tick of finding a hybrid. I popped out to Facebook after a Google search showed me an article on the hybrids and I even found a short description that indicated such hybrids often have a call type not matching either bird, but a song matching Eastern Towhee. In my post I made short joke of "That moment when" meme of thinking you have one thing, but it turns out to be another. Not long later Bob Dunlap (MOU President) commented that the same bird was present last year as well playing the same games with birders.

I was happy to have not completely fallen for the ruse and worked through the identification using my own skills, some quick article research on hybrids, and photographic evidence. It was a great education and a story I won't soon forget.

A nice White-Admiral butterfly that I was able to photograph while hiking one of the trails.

The Great: Finding a unique hybrid and getting to work on the identification was as special moment that lasted for nearly 30 minutes. The park has a great section of prairie and being bordered by an SNA helps to make it an even bigger preserved natural space. The river valley helps to ensure this area has some diversity of species and I certainly look forward to keeping this location on my NW MN tour stops for birding.

The Meh: Beyond the Hybrid I wasn't astounded by the birding I encountered, but I was already into June at this point and finding some additional unique prairie natives likely takes a lot more than a couple hours in a single loop. One area I hiked had a recent burn so a swath of my effort was basically a bird dead zone. The park seemed to have a huge influx of humans by the time I finished my first loop showing dozens of cars in the lot looking to use the swim area, making the park seem more crowded than I would have expected.

The Verdict: Getting native habitat like this is a thing to treasure. Were I closer to this park it would be an easy monthly or more visit type of place looking for errant rarities. I'd also expand efforts into the adjacent SNA and the regional science center land to the east. I'll be back at some point I'm sure when I want to expand my park or county life list or simply look for things I've never seen before in the state.