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Birding Season in Park Rapids, MN

Eyes On the Skies; It’s Birding Season

Some birds have started their spring migration with warmer days and thawing lakes and rivers. Whether you’re a backyard, casual birder or birding has become a serious hobby, there’s always more to learn about our feathered friends in the Heartland Lakes area.

Just ask Sue Tomte, who became fascinated with learning more about gulls and terns on Fish Hook Lake. She’s identified and photographed four kinds of gulls and four kinds of terns on the lake. Then she put together a program and a cheat sheet on how to identify them. By example, she has shown one way a casual observer can take a deep dive into the world of birds all around us if we pay attention. Click here to print off your own cheat sheet!

As the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources suggests, if you are a photographer, hiker, or gardener, these activities and birding go hand-in-hand. 

Learning Through Local Sources

Itasca State Park offers programs with naturalists leading exploration of trails and offering tips to teach us more about birds. On April 16, a Kids Science Discovery program on Spring Sounds kicks off the spring season. Another program May 23, is titled From a Bird’s Eye View (except for the flying part). To find out when these and other programs are being offered, go to https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/events.html?location=spk00181. Itasca also has free birding kits to borrow before you invest in equipment. The kits include binoculars, guidebooks, and a bird checklist. Or you can download the checklist of the 234 kinds that have been recorded at Itasca, by species from blackbirds to wrens, at https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/nature_viewing/index.html.

Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) between Park Rapids and Detroit Lakes is one of 52 sites on the Pine to Prairie, International Birding Trail. This 200-mile trail offers a chance to see more than 275 species of birds in our lakes, north woods, and other habitats, all four seasons of the year.

Another place to bring your bird checklist is the Detroit Lakes Festival of Birds. This year, the festival will be held May 14-16. Registration is open now with a firm deadline of Friday, May 1. Go to https://visitdetroitlakes.com/event/festival-of-birds-in-detroit-lakes-minnesota/. The event includes field trips by coach bus to sites, including the Tamarac and Hamden Slough Refuges. Adding to the festival fun are presentations, bird trivia, and a chance to meet and share stories with other birders.

Birding: Learning More is at Your Fingertips

Take advantage of the information age and your ever accessible cell phone to learn more. You can sign up for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology – https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/ – for online classes, tracking migration routes, tips on preventing bird strikes on your windows, watching live bird cams, and much more. The National Audubon Society offers a Bird Guide app, and there’s another free app at https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/. 

In addition to the birds you may see along our highways and byways, the Heartland Lakes area’s parks, trails, state forests, and other natural areas offer the chance to see a variety of species during migration season and year-round.

Want to make a weekend out of it? Head to the Heartland Lakes area and make a full weekend out of birding and other nature activities! Click here to see a list of all of our lodging members!

Stop in at our Visitor Center and Chamber offices at 1204 Park Ave S., Park Rapids, MN 56470. We can’t wait to meet you!