Bird Watching on the Scenic Byway

If you set out to find a place on this continent with the highest counts of different breeding bird species, a place with exciting viewing in every season of the year, you'd need look no further than right here in the Brainerd Lakes Area of North Central Minnesota.

Here you'll find a unique coming together of prairie, evergreens and deciduous forest - all centered around the Mississippi River. This is one of the world's major flyways for migrating birds. This diverse blend of geography - with its lakes, streams, forests and wetlands - and our four-season weather pattern results in a combination unlike any other in the world.

Here, it's not unusual for a keen-eyed birder to log more than 100 different species in an eight-hour day. The luckiest may spot a northern goshawk or an American woodcock, found in woodland openings. Seeing either of these species, let alone both, is an experience of a lifetime.

This inviting scenic area, long a vacation destination for those looking for family resorts and angling opportunities, also offers an abundance of wildlife and nature-oriented centers.

These include the Uppgaard and Lowell Wildlife Management Areas, the Crosslake Historic Log Village, Ideal Park and Playground, Crosslake Corps of Engineers Park and many others. You'll also find many striking viewing areas just off the Scenic Byway roads as you explore the region.

So enjoy your stay and keep your eyes open for bird watching opportunities that await you around every corner.

Summering

After our lakes empty of ice, they quickly fill with an astounding variety of waterfowl and water loving birds. You'll see and hear the haunting loon, various ducks, osprey, gulls, great blue and green herons and many more.

In the forests, you may spot a scarlet tanager, hear a thumping grouse, or see any number of other species. Wintering

As ducks head south in their great V-formations, they seem to pull winter in behind them.

Along with snow and frost, you're likely to see bald eagles; great horned and barred owls; woodpeckers including the hairy, downy, red-bellied and pileated; gray and blue jays; ravens; nuthatches; snow buntings; and finches including tree sparrows, juncos, pine siskins and evening grosbeaks.

The open spaces of our beautiful area offer unique viewing opportuniites as our seasons change. Each fall and spring, you can view an immense variety of birds, including some species that may be seen as they pass through the area during their annual migration.

Among the bounty of species seen during these times are Canada geese, swans, flycatchers, vireos, thrushes, warblers, tanagers and sparrows. Loons become more evident and their cries more frequent as activity builds during their premigration, multi-lake visits.

Eight of the country's most sought-after species may be seen in our area: the great gray owl, yellow rail, snowy owl, northern hawk owl, three-toed woodpecker, black-backed woodpecker, yellow-bellied flycatcher and Connecticut warbler.

The best way to increase the numbers and types of birds you spot is to visit more frequently. Remember, you're always welcome here along the Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway.

Research assistance and direction was provided by Steve and Jo Blanich, Kent Montgomery of the U of M County Extension Office, and Pam Perry of the DNR Non-Game Wildlife Program.