A couple of Eurasian Wigeon were seen a few weekends ago, on the auto tour. I was there looking for them, but they must have been in the cattails, the several minutes I was scanning for them. They never came out. Then this past Saturday, I went to Ledge Rd to find the Surf Scoter. On my way home, I heard that another Eurasian Wigeon was seen by the educational center. I missed out on that one as well. Today it was seen again and when a friend text me about it, I decided to leave work and try for it. When I arrived, I saw several people way in the back northern corner, that appeared to be scoping. By the time I got over there, it had flushed into the cattails and I never got a look at it. Less than 30 seconds later, it flew back into the open water along with two American Wigeons and a Gadwall. Finally, another life bird! He was hanging out with a pair of American Wigeons early on, but I lost him for awhile. I started walking back and I looked to opposite side of the trail and there he is, with a group of Blue-winged Teal. I never saw him fly across the path, but he was over there. He sure is a beautiful bird. The photos below are from today. Enjoy!
Surf Scoter at Horicon Marsh 4/11/20
I saw the report of a Surf Scoter seen along Ledge Rd, on Friday afternoon. I thought I’d give it a try Saturday morning, since it was seen so close. I see them every year along Lake Michigan, but rarely do I get good close looks at them. When I arrived, he was swimming extremely close to the road, providing excellent views. Such a beautiful bird! I watched him swim around for about an hour or so. He was very tame and hung around the same general area the whole time I was there. Images below are from the morning. Enjoy!
Golden-crowned Sparrow in Calumet County 4/9/20
A Golden-crowned Sparrow has been visiting a private residence since 4/4/20. The homeowners are very nice and welcoming to people looking for the bird. I had a chance to go on Thursday afternoon, 4/9. I arrived to the house at 3:15pm and after about 40 minutes, the bird finally showed under the juniper tree. The bird ate a few seeds and disappeared. It looked like it just went up into the juniper and hid. The brief view I had was with terrible lighting, very dark under the tree and bright sunlight around it. I wasn’t very happy with the looks that I had, so I decided to wait and see if it would come out again. After another 35 minutes or so, it did come out again, but this time stayed out in the open for about five minutes or so, providing me excellent views. It flew off with a group of juncos and I decided to leave. A great afternoon, getting to see a life bird! Images below are from the day. Enjoy!
March Waterfowl Migration in Milwaukee County
The waterfowl migration is an exciting time, with most arriving in my area during the month of March. This year proved to be another excellent one. On the 4th, under the Hoan Bridge, there was an excellent variety of ducks, including 2 Surf Scoters and 1 White-winged Scoter. A nice size group of Ruddy Ducks had been there all winter and were still around. Unfortunately, all the gates were still locked from the strong east winds and monster waves, that destroyed a lot of lakeshore things, so I was unable to take pictures of them. Then on the 7th, an excellent variety were seen on the Kinnickkinnic River. Redheads, Canvasbacks, American Black Ducks, and a White-winged Scoter were among the more common ones. The next day, 5 Trumpeter Swans and 8 Greater White-fronted Geese were at the dance studio in Oak Creek. Also present that day were, Northern Shovelers, Gadwall and Redheads, along with a few other common breeds. On the 10th, under the Hoan Bridge I saw several scoters, including 3 black. On the 20th, there was a nice variety behind the dance studio in Oak Creek again. Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal and Hooded Merganser were the highlights, among the common ducks. On the 26th, at Grobschmidt Park, another good day with nice variety. Ring-necked Ducks were plentiful, with 15 right along the eastern edge, close to the road. There was also a Common Loon and 11 Pied-billed Grebes, which were all hanging together in the corner along the cattails. Grobschmidt seems to get at least 1 loon every year. The following day, I had 6 Wood Ducks at Greenfield Park. I was able to get a lot of nice photos to document the month. All of the photos below are from the month of March, in Milwaukee. Enjoy!
Raptors at the Franklin Landfill in February
February turned out to be an excellent month for viewing raptors at the Franklin Landfill, in Milwaukee County. Bald Eagles were plentiful, with 11 being seen on the 15th. Two of them flew around, performing quite an acrobatic show. It was very cool to watch and photograph. Also during the month, up to 15 Red-tailed Hawks were seen, many just soaring on the sides of the hill, in the up drafts of the wind. They would just hover, flipping their wingtips up and down to stay in one place. Also present were, 1 Rough-legged Hawk, 1 Northern Harrier, 2 American Kestrels and 1 Northern Shrike. I was able to see the Rough-legged Hawk go down to the ground and catch mice several times. A couple of bites and back in the air it went. The shrike was one of the more tame shrikes I’ve ever seen. Usually you can’t get within 50 yards of one, but this one let me a lot closer! That was really exciting! I spent many days there during the month, while taking over 10000 photos, trying to catch all of the action happening. The photos below are from my visits during the month.
Snowy Owl at MKE 1/4/20
I was on my way to Whitnall Park to look for the Northern Goshawk, when a friend text me and said a Snowy Owl was sitting in the grass, close to the road. This owl has been hanging around the airport for a little over a month, but has been hard to locate. I immediately turned around and went over there. I’m glad I did, because it was about as close and good a look you would ever get of a Snowy Owl. She just sat there, rotating her head back and forth, hunting for prey. I watched her for about 15 minutes, and then went on my way, back to Whitnall Park. I never did see the hawk that day, but missed it by about ten minutes, after waiting around for it close to 6 hours. Here are some photos of the owl, sitting in the grass, hunting.
Road Trip 12/27/19
My friend Lorri and I were planning a road trip on Friday 12/27. We were originally going north to find some of the winter birds. However, in combination with the negative reports and warm weather, we decided to try for the Varied Thrush instead. We arrived at the UW-Stout parking lot 21 at 7:15am, where it was apparently feeding with a group of robins. It was still fairly dark, so we parked facing the berry trees, in case they came in before sunrise. Sure enough, about five minutes later, the thrush came in with the robins. This was a life bird for both of us! They were feeding on berries in the snow, that got knocked off the trees. The trees were right alongside the road, so they would fly up into the larger trees, when trucks would drive past. We pulled up right next to the trees and waited for them to come back down. After 20 minutes or so they came back down. They would go up and come back down about every 30-45 minutes, and would disappear and then reappear into the larger trees. We then caught some bad luck. A woman was plowing the parking lot with a front end loader with a large plow, scraping across the asphalt and making a lot of noise. We waited it out, but the thrush never came back. We did see a flock of robins head off to the south, during the snow removal. We spent the majority of the morning there, and before heading out, we decided to take a ride around the block, to see if we could relocate the thrush. We did! It was with several robins in parking lot 30, between the fire and police departments. We didn’t stick around to see if it would come down to some of the berry trees over there.
We then thought we would head over to the Buena Vista Grasslands, hoping to see the male Snowy Owl, that has been around. We didn’t find any Snowy Owls, but did see several Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Harriers and American Kestrels. We also saw 38 Greater Prairie-Chickens, which were lifers for me. They were very far out, but were flushed by something and flew a good distance, that we could watch them. We drove around the area for the rest of the afternoon, but there wasn’t too much activity. We did get 3 Short-eared Owls just after sunset. They were in the field southeast of the intersection at Hwy W and Taft Rd. The photos below are from the day.
Barred Owl in Milwaukee County 12/21/19
I finally had some time to get out and take some pictures. I came across a Barred Owl, relaxing on a branch. It didn’t move too much and was very tame, as they usually are during the day. I didn’t find much else for the day, but anytime you find an owl, it’s a great day! Photos below are from the day.
Townsend’s Solitaire at Whitnall Park 12/15/19
Today while watching the Packers game, I saw a post about a Townsend’s Solitaire being seen near the Boerner Botanical Gardens, at Whitnall Park. I’ve seen these birds many times before, but it’s a great county bird for the year, so I decided to try for it. Whitnall Park is only 10 minutes from me, making it an easier decision. I work from dark to dark during the week in winter, and my only time to take pictures is on the weekend, so it was today or nothing. I’m glad I went, because I found it fairly quickly, and was able to help several others find it too. At first, I saw a bird fly up to the tops of the trees. Based on the size of it and flight, I thought it might be the bird. I got my binoculars on it and it sure was! It sat way up high for about 15 minutes, singing softly and preening. Then it turned and flew down to the berry trees below. After eating a few berries, it again flew way up high, and did the same thing again. After about another 15 minutes or so, it flew down the opposite way of me. I walked around the tree line to the other side and didn’t see it. All of sudden, it pops out in the berry tree, right in front of me. It ate a few berries and a Hermit Thrush chased it off. Must have been “his” berry tree. The solitaire again few up high and did the same thing. I watched it for about 50 minutes and it went down for berries 3 times. It was pretty active. It was sunny and cold with temps in the low 20’s. Pictures below are from today.
Fall Warbler Migration 2019
This fall warbler migration was one of my best ones ever! I tallied 26 species with 21 coming on one amazing day, 9/14 at Warnimont Park. Most days I was between 10-16 species, which I find to be a little above average for fall. Most years, I would say 8-12 species is a good day. I usually focus on the parks along the Lake Michigan in fall. I find that the bluffs and surrounding areas are loaded with birds versus the inland parks. My highlights this fall were 6 different Mourning Warblers, including my first ever adult female, several stunning male Golden-winged Warblers, and quite a few different Canada Warblers, which are my favorite.
Photographing fall warblers can be quite tough. The leaves create almost no gaps in the branches and everything is toned green. Lighting is also very harsh, with the sun casting dark shadows, under the foliage. It’s certainly not like the spring migration! All that aside, fall warblers are extremely fun. You get to see so many different plumage variations of each. I have quite a few photos of each warbler, showing the different fall plumages. All of the photos below are labelled accordingly, so you will know what each is. I will list the warblers seen this fall below, which you can click on, for expanded galleries. Not all warblers seen, were photographed. Enjoy!
- American Redstart
- Bay-breasted Warbler
- Black-and-white Warbler
- Blackburnian Warbler
- Blackpoll Warbler
- Black-throated Blue Warbler
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Blue-winged Warbler
- Canada Warbler
- Cape May Warbler
- Chestnut-sided Warbler
- Common Yellowthroat
- Golden-winged Warbler
- Magnolia Warbler
- Mourning Warbler
- Nashville Warbler
- Northern Parula
- Northern Waterthrush
- Orange-crowned Warbler
- Ovenbird
- Palm Warbler
- Pine Warbler
- Tennessee Warbler
- Wilson’s Warbler
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
