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Birds of every sort are on the move, and it's a wondrous thing. The Cornell (University) Lab of Ornithology helps bring the spring migration indoors with some fascinating tools like its BirdCast. For a migration-follower, the forecast pulls the action together in real-time. Cornell breaks down the migration into four U.S. regions, and the BirdCast sorts which species are arriving, rapidly increasing in numbers, and peaking — all by date. In Minnesota:
• About now, purple martins are rapidly increasing in number.
• Song sparrows, pied-billed grebes, American kestrels and Eastern phoebes, some of which began to arrive in early to mid-March, are beginning to peak.
• New arrivals include broad-winged hawks, yellow-rumped warblers and soras.
Dig in online at bit.ly/MNbirds.