There has been a Carolina Wren hanging around Warnimont Park for at least two months now. It’s usually behind the archery area, but I’ve seen and heard it just north of the drive going down to the lake, on the north end of Warnimont Park. Today, he was hanging out near the parking lot, on the north side. I was watching Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets drink sap from a couple larger vines, when I heard him singing his “cheer cheer” song. I pished a little and he responded to it, giving great views. He sure moves around fast! One minute on the left and the next, way off to the right. It was a rather nice fall morning, partly sunny and breezy. The images below are from today.
Red Knot in Milwaukee 9/3/19
A juvenile Red Knot took a southern migration break at Lakeshore State Park on 9/2/19. I didn’t hear about it until the next day, when a friend asked me for an ID on a shorebird. I took a look at the photos and to my surprise, it was a Red Knot! I immediately text my group of bird friends, and said it might be worth checking the beach in case it hung around. Usually they don’t and are only one day birds, or even only around several hours. One of them said they could be there within the hour and check it out. A little while later, received a text saying, “it was still there!”. Now I had a choice to make, leave work, race down there and go back to work or work faster, get done sooner and leave early… I stayed and left early. I got down the park about 1:30pm and it was still around. I walked over to the beach area and laid on ground and waited for it to walk over to me. After about 10 minutes or so, it was right in front of me, feeding on the water’s edge. It was a very tame bird, considering it has probably never seen people before. It actually even took a brief, one minute nap, only 15′ from me! At one point, it was only about 5′ from me. It was so close, I slowly slid out my cell phone and recorded video of it. It’s always nice to be able to see a rarity so close! The pictures below are from the day.
2019 Spring Warbler Migration
It was another fantastic spring for warblers, in Milwaukee County. The weather was not very good, with most days being cloudy. Things started out fairly early, with 13 warbler species coming through the area April 20th-26th, along with some nice mild weather. Then it turned back to the classic weather pattern of northeast winds every day for the next couple weeks. It wasn’t until May 5th, that we got another decent push of new warblers. From then on, the weather didn’t really cooperate, but the warblers did! I had 20+ species every day for the next two weeks. May 15th was by far the best day for species and numbers of warblers. I was stuck at work early in the day, but left by noon and stopped at Doctor’s Park. It was really good there, but for some reason, every random person in the park felt the need to come up to me and ask what I was taking pictures of. That doesn’t really help when I’m trying to sneak around and get close to them. So, I left and went to Lake Park. From 2:30-7:30pm, I had 99 species and 27 warblers. I think it was the best single day that I’ve seen, in my life. Every tree had 10 or more warblers, and not just Yellow-rumped or Palm. It was absolutely incredible that day. For the spring, I ended up with 34 species, including 3 sub-species. All of them were seen in Milwaukee, except one, which was the Kirtland’s Warbler (Adams County). I think my best find this spring was a beautiful male Yellow-throated Warbler. I put my binoculars on him and said his name in my head and moved on to the next warbler. Then I was like, wait a minute, what??? I got him in view again and couldn’t believe it, it really was one! On top of that, he even gave me some good photo ops. I found him at Grant Park (Wil-o-Way), around 6pm on May 6th. A few other cool finds were a Brewster’s Warbler on May 15th, at Lake Park, and a odd Palm Warbler at Warnimont Park on May 7th. Instead of it being yellow in the face and neck, it was orange! I have never seen anything like it. I also had two big misses this spring, a Prairie and a Kentucky Warbler, both seen on days that I was at the parks. I took over 30,000 photos again this spring, trying to capture the warblers in their most natural state, whether it’s eating, preening, bathing or singing. I also try to get both male and female of each and sometimes I get lucky with first spring birds that are just starting to show their colors. I have a lot of photos below, so take your time when going through them, to see the differences between males, females, and first year birds, as well as some behavior/action shots. I will list each warbler that I saw this spring, which you can also click on to go to their page, for an extended gallery. Hope you 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
- Brewster’s Warbler
- Canada Warbler
- Cape May Warbler
- Cerulean Warbler
- Chestnut-sided Warbler
- Common Yellowthroat
- Connecticut Warbler
- Golden-winged Warbler
- Hooded Warbler
- Kirtland’s Warbler
- Louisiana Waterthrush
- Magnolia Warbler
- Mourning Warbler
- Nashville Warbler
- Northern Parula
- Northern Waterthrush
- Orange-crowned Warbler
- Ovenbird
- Palm Warbler
- Pine Warbler
- Prothonotary Warbler
- Tennessee Warbler
- Wilson’s Warbler
- Worm-eating Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Yellow-throated Warbler
Lake Vista Park 4/28/19
One of my stops along the lakefront today, was Lake Vista Park, in Oak Creek. Although it’s a relatively small, grassy field area, it produces some really cool birds throughout the year. I check it every time I’m along the lake. This morning was a great time to be out, sunny and some snow on the ground, which gave the photos some nice backgrounds. The Eastern Meadowlarks and Savannah Sparrows were all over, singing and chasing each other around. Today I had 9 meadowlarks and 14 savannahs. I’m sure there were more, but I did not walk around just stayed in my truck. I parked in several different areas for awhile and watched the birds in action. By the time I left, most of the snow was already gone. Here are some photos from this morning.
Whitnall Park Warblers 4/22/19
Warblers are starting to arrive in Wisconsin! Yellow-rumped Warblers have been around for a couple weeks, but numbers are really starting to build now. Today, I had 14, just along the creek north of the waterfall. A Louisiana Waterthrush was flying up and down the creek, and an early Nashville Warbler made an appearance at the logjam, in the evening. A Palm Warbler and Black-throated Green Warbler were also seen today, but I missed them. Pine Warblers were seen a few days ago, too. I ended the day with 46 species, just along Kelly Creek. Warbler migration is my favorite time of the year, and we are already off to a great start! Here are some photos from the day.
Florida Vacation 02/19
Each February, the wife and I take a vacation to Florida, just to get away from the winter for a few weeks, relax and enjoy some warmth and sun. We stay at my dad’s house, in Northport, which is a few miles east of Venice, on the gulf coast. He lives in a gated retirement community, on the Myakka River with several ponds and a lot of wildlife. This works out real nice for me, because I don’t even have to leave the house to get great photo opportunities. This vacation was not a bird/photography vacation exclusively, but I did allow plenty of time and days for it. I ended up with 110 species and 8 life birds, without much work. The life birds I added were Florida Scrub-Jay, Mangrove Cuckoo, Loggerhead Shrike, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Bronzed Cowbird, Nanday Parakeet, Clapper Rail and Sandwich Tern.
The first couple days (2/10-2/11) we just bummed around and relaxed. I sat out on the back patio and watched birds flying over the river. Ospreys were building a nest, and kept flying up and down the river. They would grab huge chunks of things or large branches. Cool to watch. A Carolina Wren was singing in the backyard, along the river. I also checked the several neighborhood ponds a few times and walked down to the boat dock area. Here are some photos from those days.
On Tuesday (2/12), we went down to Bunche Beach and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. We started at Bunche Beach, just after sunrise. The road to the beach is at least a half mile long of mangroves on both sides. Prairie Warblers are abundant in there, and on that day I had 6 of them! Depending on when you go to the beach, depends on how many birds you will see, based on high/low tide. On this day, it was on the higher end, but there were still a decent amount of birds. A Reddish Egret put on quite a show for me! I also had great looks at a Little Blue Heron and Snowy Egret. Here are some photos from the morning.
After spending about an hour and a half at Bunche Beach, we drove over to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. If you have never been there, make it a priority the next time you are in Florida. It is a 2.5 mile boardwalk through pine flatwoods, wet prairie, around a marsh, and through the largest old growth Bald Cypress forest in North America. It’s loaded with birds, wildlife and plants! Here, I added a life bird, Brown-headed Nuthatch. On this particular day, the warbler activity was very high, with good numbers. I didn’t spend too much time watching them though, because I get most here in Wisconsin. However, I did see a Prairie Warbler and a Yellow-throated Warbler. This is a great place to see the beautiful Painted Bunting, but we missed them that day. I had a few here a couple years ago, though. I ended up with 35 species for the day. Here are some photos from the swamp
The next couple of days (2/13-2/14), I didn’t do much as far as birds go, just a few walks around the neighborhood. Here are some photos from those days.
On Friday 2/15, we went to the Venice Beach at sunrise. It’s a great beach for terns/gulls and shorebirds, and the best time to go is sunrise. This beach fills up fast with people and then it forces the gulls and terns out on the water. I found a life bird on this day, the Sandwich Tern. There was a group of about 200 birds on the beach. This group included Black Skimmers, Sandwich/Royal/Caspian/Forster’s Terns, Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls. There were also four common shorebirds. On the way home, we stopped at the Shamrock Park and Nature Center, looking for the Florida Scrub-Jay. We walked around the entire park but never saw them. Here are some photos from the day.
On Saturday 2/16, I went out in the morning by myself, in search of the Florida Scrub-Jay. I missed it the day before and the Shamrock Park and Nature Center is rather close to my dad’s. It is an endangered species and they live strictly in areas with scrub oaks. I think there are only 8 families in the entire park. I walked around the trails and didn’t see any, again. I came out on the northwest side, by the Venetian Waterway. I was scanning across the waterway with my binoculars and found a Loggerhead Shrike (life bird), sitting just off the path. I saw two more birds to the right and when I got them in view, I saw they were scrub-jays, also a life bird! Now, I needed to figure out how to get over there. I walked back to the car and drove around to the other side of the waterway. It was a 2.5 mile walk, one way, to where they were. When I finally got to where I saw them originally, I didn’t see the jays, but the shrike was still in sitting close to the path. I walked right over to it and took pictures. The shrike flew down to the ground a few times, but I never saw him get anything. I must have been less than 40′ from it, and it just sits there. I’m lucky to get within 300′ feet of a shrike in Wisconsin! I then turned my attention to finding the jays. I walked on the trail a little bit and I saw one hopping around on the ground. Next thing I know, he’s right at my feet, maybe four feet away! I tried to slowly walk away, so I could try to get some photos, but that didn’t work. He followed me! I squatted down and started running my hand through the leaves and sand. I found an acorn and stuck my hand out, thinking maybe it would take it. It did!!! While he was cracking the acorn, seven more came flying out. By now, I’m completely freaking out, from how awesome of an experience this was. I had no idea they were so tame! I stood up and when I did, one landed on my head! He was picking a little bit at my hat. I grabbed my phone and took a picture of myself. Once I got back to the path, I saw an eighth jay, but it was carrying a twig. I watched it fly to a small scrub oak and then found a nest that was almost done being built. Wow, what a wild morning! Here are some photos from the day.
On Sunday (2/17), We headed to the Sarasota Audubon Center and Celery Fields. I saw that several Roseate Spoonbills had been reported. I was able to find three of them, which were rather hard to come by so far. While I was there, I overheard a local birder, telling a group of people that there was a Cinnamon Teal out in the water, behind some weeds. He was showing them all through his scope. He told where he was looking and I was able to get a couple of doc photos of it, since it’s rare for Florida. He also told me that a few Bronzed Cowbirds were by the feeders at the Audubon center and that a Barn Owl has been seen. I stopped by the feeders and found the Bronzed Cowbirds which were a life bird and also rare for Florida. While watching the cowbirds, a couple of really loud, noisy birds flew in. Turned out to be a couple Nanday Parakeets, which were also a life bird. They flew into the feeding area, but didn’t stick around long. I was there midday and didn’t stay around long enough to see if the owl would come out. I ended up with 48 species and two life birds. I also got to document two rare birds. Here are some photos from the day.
The last hour of sunlight, I headed over to the Venice Audubon Society. This is a rookery and also where a lot of birds come to roost for the night. If you haven’t been there, it’s best to come about a half hour before sunrise and then, come back for sunset. Getting to the see all the birds waking up and leaving the roost area for day is really cool. Then around sunset, they come flying in from all directions and land in the middle of the pond, on the small island to roost for the night. It’s quite the spectacle. There are five huge bat houses, on the south end. Just after sunset, they begin squeaking for about five minutes or so, and all of a sudden, hundreds of bats come flying out! It is awesome to see. These are some of the photos from the evening.
On Monday (2/18), we started the morning out on Sanibel Island. We made a drive through JN “Ding” Darling National Refuge right away, but it was really foggy and not worth spending too much time there. So we drove up to Captiva and had breakfast and then walked the beach. There were quite a lot of shorebirds running around, but nothing uncommon. We then returned to the refuge and made another pass through. It was a rather quiet morning there, only 33 species. I think the tide was a little high, which negatively affected things. I did get to see a Mangrove Cuckoo (life bird), fly from across the water to the Mangroves right next me. I couldn’t relocate it though and I didn’t get a photo of it. We did some more bumming around Sanibel Island before leaving. Then it was off the Cape Coral to see the Burrowing Owls. I arrived to the library and saw one sitting on the wooden structure, right above his hole, along the entrance road. I watched him for about 30 minutes. I was able to see a yawn, wing stretch and foot stretch. They are very alert and constantly looking up when other birds fly over, especially the Fish Crows. I drove around the entire area and that was the only one I saw. I checked the baseball fields and didn’t see any sitting out there either. On the way out of town, I spotted one sitting on the ground, near his hole. I turned around and watched him for a little bit and a second popped out. Here are some photos from the day.
Tuesday the 19th, I didn’t do much as far as photography. I stopped by Florida State College, with about an hour of light left. I’m glad I did, because there are five times as many roosting birds here then are at the Venice Rookery. I could not believe the amount of birds coming in for the evening. Hundreds and hundreds just kept coming. There were also several decent sized alligators. Here are some photos from the evening.
On Wednesday (2/20), we started the morning back at Florida State College. I wanted to see the birds leave the roosting area at sunrise. It was quite impressive. Then we continued our day at the Myakka River State Park. I ended up with 38 species for the morning there, including 16 Roseate Spoonbills. However, most of them were far away, and it was not very good for photos. This is a great park if you want see an alligator. They are all over and there are some real large ones. We saw one about 12′ long, and it came all the way out of the water, stretching out. Nice to see one moving around. I went back to Florida State College in the afternoon to look for rails and soras, but I couldn’t find any. There were a couple of Purple Gallinules, that walked about the lily pads. Here are a few photos from the day.
The next couple of days (2/21-2/22) we just relaxed and hung around the house, enjoying the last few days of beautiful weather, before going home. It was pretty much 80-85 degrees and sunny, every day but one. What a wonderful time to spend two weeks, in sunny Florida! I already look forward to next year, but first, I will be anxiously awaiting another fantastic spring migration in Wisconsin!
My Yard 2/3/2019
I usually have both Red-breasted/White-breasted Nuthatches and Brown Creepers over the winter. It’s been so cold lately, that being outside is not really reasonable. Today when I came home, from being out taking pictures, I could hear the three birds in my trees. So, I stood by my door with my camera and took some photos of them. The warmer weather had them quite active today. The pine tree with the suet and peanuts they go to, is only about 25′ from my front door, so I can get some very close looks at them. Below are some of the photos from today.
White-winged Scoter, Port Washington 1/27/2019
There was a very beautiful male, White-winged Scoter at Coal Dock Park on Sunday 1/27/19, in Port Washington. Usually I only get to see and photograph first year or females scoters, so it was really nice to see this one! Beautiful colors, a bright sunny day, and very cold temperatures, made for some nice photos. He hung out very close in the harbor, providing some real nice views. He seemed to be a very tame bird, considering they are deep diving ducks, usually found further out in the lake. enjoy the photos from the day.
Super Blood Wolf Moon 1/20/2019
Sunday, January 20th was a full lunar eclipse. This occurred around 10:41pm CST, and lasted for 62 minutes. It was called a Super Blood Wolf Moon. It was a super moon, because of it’s close proximity to the earth. The January full moon is also referred to as a wolf moon. Blood moon comes from it’s color at the full total eclipse, creating a reddish color from the earth’s shadow. During the total eclipse, you could see a lot of stars around the moon, that you wouldn’t normally see, due to the brightness of the full moon. It was a very cool event to watch. Below are a few images from the night, from the full moon to the total eclipse moon
Hammond’s Flycatcher, 12/14/2018 near Avoca, WI
I finally decided to try my luck with the reported Hammond’s Flycatcher today. It was first seen and reported on Sunday afternoon 12/9/18. Hoping it was still there, a friend and I made the two hour plus trip out there. When we pulled up, we saw a group of 5, all looking in the same area. As soon as they saw us, they were waving to hurry up and get over there! We grabbed our things and rushed down to the western end house. There it was, sitting in a tree 25′ away! Wow, what a beautiful bird!!! We watched it for about 50 minutes and the entire time, it fed, mostly on flies. It grabbed them off the siding on the house, from the grass and off the balcony railings. It flew about the yard, usually staying within 35′ of the road. My understanding is this is the first recorded sighting for Wisconsin. It was a perfect sunny day for a road trip and it was even better to get such awesome views for an extended time. Here are a few images of the bird from today.
