Unlike some recent years when migrant geese have pushed into the state in February, this year Greater White-fronted, Snow, Ross's, and Cackling geese didn't arrive until after the first week of March. Three drake Eurasian Wigeon were discovered during the season, all in the western third of the state. Drake Cinnamon Teal were spotted in Carver and Becker counties, and a presumed Blue-winged X Cinnamon Teal was well-documented in Stearns County. An unusually high tally of 1,800 Green-winged Teal was noted at Long Meadow Lake, Hennepin County; such counts are typically only seen at the national wildlife refuges along the western edge of the state. Scoters were scarce this spring, with reports of only two Surf and a lone Black scoter, both coming from Duluth.

Grouse are known for inter-breeding when given the opportunity, so it wasn't too surprising that an apparent Sharp-tailed Grouse X Greater Prairie-Chicken was photographed near Rothsay. Sara Vacek of the Minnesota DNR indicated that such pairings have been noted before in Minnesota in the West-central Region, generally when Sharp-taileds have moved eastward from South Dakota and found their way to prairie-chicken booming grounds.

Clark's Grebes were documented at Lake Osakis, probably the most likely spot to find this species in the state, even though they are not annual there. Another Clark's discovered at the Karlstad W.T.P. was a first record for Kittson County.

White-faced Ibis were found in seven south counties, which is typical of recent migration pattern for this species, but the one found in early May at Park Point, Duluth was quite unexpected as their migration route tends to keep them in the southwestern half of the state. No one saw the Whooping Crane that passed through Dakota County in mid-May, but it was one of the Wisconsin birds, and its presence was detected through high-resolution satellite tracking.

For the eleventh year out of the past 13, one or more Black-necked Stilts has been found in Minnesota during the spring season; this year's birds were a pair found at Getchell Lake in Stearns County in late April. Individual Piping Plovers were at Park Point in Duluth in both early and mid May. It would be nice to see this species resume breeding at this location, even if that resulted in the closure of some Lake Superior beaches. In addition to various reports of Whimbrels from the North Shore, chiefly Park Point, three were found in an agricultural field in Cass County. Minnesota averages about one Red Knot each spring season, so it was surprising to get reports from three counties this spring — the first time since 2007 that so many have been reported.

Many spring vagrants are one-day wonders — birds that cannot be found the day after they are discovered. Presumably, this is because during spring migration, birds are in a hurry to get to their breeding grounds. In the fall, they tend to linger in locations as they head south, and so are more likely to be viewed over multiple days. A male Ruff found on Long Meadow Lake in Bloomington violated this pattern, however, as it remained there for eight days in May. Only the first state record Ruff, seen in Stevens County in 1964, lingered longer in the state — nine days. And as if to put an exclamation point on this discovery, a female Ruff, or Reeve, was documented at the same location later that month! She, however, could not be refound the next day.

Three wetlands produced very impressive shorebird tallies this season, including the Minnesota Valley N.W.R.'s Bass Ponds (Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpipers), Miller Lake in Yellow Medicine County (Pectoral Sandpipers, Long-billed Dowitchers), and the Heron Lake area of Jackson County (White-rumped Sandpipers, Semipalmated Sandpipers). The last Thayer's, Iceland, and Lesser Black-backed gulls of the season were reported from Duluth in mid-May, while the only Great Black-backed Gull report was also from Duluth, though in late March.

Since 2004 Minnesota has had, on average, one report of White-winged Dove each spring. This season's lone report was a first record for Becker County. Northern Hawk Owls were sighted only in Cook, St. Louis, Koochiching, and Roseau counties; the only report after March was of an individual in Roseau in mid-April. Several Boreal Owls were noted singing in Lake County in mid-March, but no subsequent evidence of breeding was reported.

Say's Phoebes, whose status was recently changed from Casual to Regular, were seen in Yellow Medicine and Lake counties. Scissor-tailed Flycatchers were found in three widely separated counties this season; only once before — in spring 1983 — have so many been sighted in a season. Also notable were the three White-eyed Vireos discovered — more than in any other season except for the five found in spring 2001 and three in spring 1999.

Tufted Titmice are generally confined to areas south and east of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, so a first record photographed in Lake County was a nice surprise. Other noteworthy first county records included a Rock Wren in Kittson County that was also the first spring record in nine years, and the first Mountain Bluebird for Crow Wing County.

A Townsend's Solitaire overwintered in the Twin Cities until mid-March, while migrants were found in Carver County and southern and central St. Louis County between mid-March and mid-April. The lone Varied Thrush of the season lingered at a feeding station until mid-April. Nine Northern Mockingbirds were found in May at locations scattered across the state. Small groups of Smith's Longspurs in Lincoln and Murray were overdue first county records, as both counties are well within the expected migration corridor of this species.

Early south arrival dates for regularly occurring warblers averaged 2.7 days early, whereas early north arrivals were a full 3 days early. Unusual warblers reported this season included a Worm-eating Warbler that was a first record for Scott County, and a Yellow-throated Warbler that may well be the same bird returning to Winona for the third consecutive spring. Some other “southern” warblers were reported farther north and west than usual. Blue-wingeds were found in St. Louis, Becker, and six counties west of its traditional range. Prothonotary Warblers were seen in Sherburne, Wright (a first county record), and Yellow Medicine counties. Hooded Warblers were found well north of their southern Twin Cities Metro breeding range stronghold.

A male Spotted Towhee was found at Buffalo River State Park in Clay County in May; this species has been seen at this park every spring or summer since 2012. A Brewer's Sparrow photographed in Two Harbors provided a fourth record of this species for the state.

Summer and Western tanagers were reported in typical numbers (3 and 5 records, respectively), but a male Black-headed Grosbeak in Brainerd, a male Painted Bunting in Eveleth, and the sixth state record Brambling in that same Brainerd yard were outstanding finds. White-winged Crossbill numbers continued to be low, though the lone individual reported this season bested the zero reports of the prior spring. Both redpolls were present in about average — neither scarce, nor invasive — numbers. And that Eurasian Tree Sparrow that was discovered at a Dakota County feeding station in late December was last seen there in early March.

Weather: Average temperatures were several degrees above normal across much of the state in March, near normal in April, and slightly below normal in May. Significant warm fronts produced record daily temperatures around the state in mid-March and again on 1 April, while below-freezing temperatures were reported in many areas as late as 19–20 May.

The dry pattern that began during the summer of 2014 continued through March and April of this season, but in May precipitation levels were one to three inches above historical averages in many parts of the state. The most notable weather event was a late snowstorm on March 22–23 that produced totals in excess of eight inches along an arc from McLeod to Goodhue counties.

Insufficiently documented records of Regular species: Stilt Sandpiper 4/10 Lac qui Parle (very early); Short-billed Dowitcher 5/15 McLeod (100) (high count with details only on a few birds; acceptable as dowitcher species); Prairie Falcon 4/25 Lac qui Parle, 5/30 Polk (Rare Regular species, no details); Eastern Kingbird 4/6 Renville (very early); Winter Wren 5/28 Hennepin (5) (high count on a late a date); Gray-cheeked Thrush 4/11 Steele (very early); Hermit Thrush 5/31 Sherburne (late date); Canada Warbler 4/11 Fillmore (very early); Spotted Towhee 4/23 Hennepin (out of range); Lark Sparrow 3/1 Brown (very early); Savannah Sparrow 3/14 Morrison (very early).

Acknowledgements: We thank Jeanie Joppru and Jim Lind for compiling and providing transcripts of Minnesota's two weekly birding reports. Special thanks to Dave Cahlander for building and maintaining the seasonal reports submission and production web pages (http://moumn.org/moureports/season.php) through which most of this data is collected and organized. In addition to the data collected through this MOU website, we are grateful for the data provided for the creation of this report by eBird (http://www.ebird.org, accessed June 2015). Medians of recent arrivals and departures are based on published and unpublished seasonal report data from 1985 through 2013. Finally and most importantly, our appreciation goes out to all our contributors. We are especially grateful to those who respond to our requests for details and who submit observations online.