2 more at my house

I was out of town from Thursday, October 9 through yesterday, the 13th. My sister-in-law stayed at our house while we were gone, and heard two thumps. She couldn't find one of them at all, and the other, "one of those little brown birds, bigger than a sparrow I think," sat on the ground for a minute before flying. So that adds two more to the Peabody Street toll.

2 Unknown

Another Yellow-rump at Essentia

Rob writes:

I found a dead yellow rumped warbler on Wed Oct 1st about 2pm, looked like it had hit a window at the 1st street Essentia in Duluth. Thanks for recording all this.  Should we put out feeders for the poor migrants? 

Yellow-rumped Warblers don't digest seed, but have been visiting my suet feeders this fall. I'm not sure how nutritious suet is for them in the long run, but Yellow-rumps have the capacity to digest many foods other warblers cannot, so in this case I'm trusting their judgment. It is such an awful feeling that these tiny birds can't count on us big, smart humans, isn't it?

1 Yellow-rumped Warbler

Huge numbers of birds are also being killed by cars, too.

I'm not going to keep track of auto-killed birds during this fall-out because I honestly don't know how. But it's a horribly serious problem. I wrote about birds killed by cars in a similar fall-out in 1991 in my book For the Birds, and we've experienced at least four of these events since I lived in Duluth. They're rare enough to not warrant regular action, but huge enough to warrant emergency action, if people care enough to be willing to go along with lowering the speed limit on Hwy. 61 during these unique periods. 

Jo writes:

At the advice from Lisa Johnson regarding a post I made on Duluth Phenology Facebook page, I am emailing you to let you know that I have found a couple of dead warblers in my pasture, which is away from any roads or windows.  I'm pretty sure they were Yellow Rumps and I can go back out tomorrow and photograph them if I can relocate them.   I am on Korkki Rd about 1 mile west of Homestead Rd.  I am also seeing alot of dead warblers on the road and sadly, I know I have hit a number of them when I've been out.  Would you like any more information about them?

I will publish reports here, though these birds won't count within our running total of window-killed birds in the Duluth-Superior area.

Duluth Outskirts

I'm including Lakewood Township, because it's right on the edge of being part of Duluth, and some birds seen at Hawk Ridge are actually over Lakewood Twp. I got this letter today from Heather:

Just read the article in the Duluth News Tribune, I am really upset - I have had over 40 birds hit my windows in the past month.  My brother down the road has had over 20.  I live on West Beech Street in Lakewood Township.  I don’t know the types of birds real well, but a woodpecker died, a brown bird with yellow belly, six other types of birds died - multi-color, then yesterday - I was working from home and over 20 little brown birds kept hitting my window all day.  Most did not die, but a few did - it was very upsetting!  I have black bird cutouts on the windows - they do not seem to work.  Thanks for educating us on the migration problems!  I hope they will survive this transition.  Any suggestions on what to do are greatly appreciated!

So this adds:
60 unknown

Brown Creeper

This little Brown Creeper was found under the windows at Essentia Health Center today, and released in the woods.

1 Brown Creeper.

Citizen scientists come in all ages

Got this this morning:

My name is Arthur, and I'm 6.
So far this fall, I have helped 3 small brown and yellow birds get back to their flock after hitting our windows.
Unfortunately, one additional bird was found dead, and it could not be helped - it was another little brown one. 

White-throated Sparrows can have very conspicuous yellow on the face between the eye and bill (the lore), and Yellow-rumped Warblers have yellow on the rump, shoulders, and crown, so these are counted in the "unknown" category.

4 Unknown

Reports taken from blog comments (so it's easier to keep track)

1 Robin at 26th Ave. E. and First St.