I had an awesome vacation for butterflies, and I found lots of them, 33 species and 12 lifers! I spent about one week of my 3+ week vacation chasing butterflies. Out of that time, I was mostly in two spots. I spent several days at the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area and a couple more at the State College of Florida in search of butterflies. I have seen a decent amount at these places in the past and this year was even better. I also spent half a day at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, looking for birds and butterflies. I found one Ruddy Daggerwing while walking the boardwalk. Then near the nature center, there were many more butterflies flying around, however most were away from the boardwalk. Weather was absolutely perfect this year, 82-86 degrees and sunny the entire vacation. The photos below are from my Florida vacation in February. Enjoy!
This is a “year in review” photo gallery, of the different butterflies I photographed in Wisconsin this past year. 2022 was an amazing year for some of the rare or uncommon strays to our state, especially in Milwaukee County. Those included Marine Blue, Reakirt’s Blue, Common Checkered Skipper, California Tortoiseshell, Gray Hairstreak and Variegated Fritillary. When looking at the photos, if you are interested to see where a specific butterfly was seen, please navigate to the individual pages from the gallery page. You can do that by clicking on Butterflies and choosing a the one you want to see. Also, there is a great website for Wisconsin butterflies, that has photos for each specie and a description to help ID them. In addition, you can submit your sightings throughout the year. That website is, Home — wisconsinbutterflies.org. Enjoy!
A Black-legged Kittiwake was found on 12/8 in the Port Washington Harbor. The first chance I had to go was on Saturday, 12/10. Of course, it was overcast and misting out when I arrived, which then turned into a full-on light rain. It was fairly dark with a low ceiling, terrible for photography. I stuck it out and watched the gull fly around the harbor, usually on the west side, hunting for alewives. I observed it catch several alewives and then get chased by Ring-billed or Herring Gulls. A couple of times it flew off to the east and disappear for 15-30 minutes, but then it would suddenly reappear, flying over the harbor. I also watched it land in the middle of the harbor, out towards the east. It would loaf around with the Red-breasted Mergansers and then head back in. This is a very cool bird to watch, especially with its markings in flight. This gull is rare for the area, so I was glad it hung around for several days. According to eBird, it was last seen on 12/17. Photos below are from the morning of 12/10. Enjoy!
Yesterday afternoon, a beautiful male Mandarin Duck was photographed at South Shore Yacht Club in Bayview. I thought I would head down at sunrise today and see if it was still around. It was! This is an incredibly gorgeous bird! About 5 minutes after I arrived, all of the ducks took off and flew to the other side of the breakwall. Turns out, a Peregrine Falcon came in from the north and I didn’t see it at first, but the birds always see predators right away. Within 20 minutes, the ducks all came back and so did the Mandarin Duck. As soon as they landed, a Bald Eagle came circling in from the north. They got up, flew around but came right back. The eagle landed on the rocks of the breakwall, and never bothered the ducks. For the next couple of hours, it moved about between the water and the shore. A great morning to be out! Photos below are from today. Enjoy!
I spent a couple weeks driving around the county parks looking for deer. I follow the Wisconsin rut report and communicate with a bunch of my friends, who are hunters, to get a fairly detailed timeline of what to expect. This year, at least for the Milwaukee area, the second weekend of November was peak. At this point, the buck would walk right out in the open, with almost no attention paid to people. It is quite awesome to be less than 100′ from some of these massive animals. During the weekdays, I go out after work and drive around until 5ish, when it gets too dark for pictures. On the weekends, I start before sunrise and stay out until I don’t see them any longer. Sometimes though, they are moving all day long! I saw at least 20 different buck (of all sizes) and over 20 doe. This is my second year doing this and it is a blast! The photos below are just some of the pictures I took. I have the different buck grouped together, kind of in order. All 20 are in this post. If you would like to see more of the photos I took and edited, click on the “White-tailed Deer” link below, and you will be taken to the gallery page. Enjoy!
While watching the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Two Rivers, there were a handful of other shorebirds. At the time, Semipalmated Sandpiper was assumed to be one of them. However, after reviewing the photos, it appears it could be a Western Sandpiper. Most of these photos are heavily cropped and not what I would normally keep or share, but for this ID they are needed. I wish I would’ve spent more time taking photos when it was closer, but all my attention was focused on the SHTS. I will list the differences between WESA and SESA below. Feel free to comment with your thoughts as to which ID you believe it to be. For ID purposes, this bird is in a basic nonbreeding plumage.
Western Sandpiper
small, rather chunky shorebird
longer, slightly drooping dark bill (bill length and shape is quite variable)
larger head, heavier bodied look
dark legs
pale gray above, white below (nonbreeding plumage)
little to no streaking on the breast
whitish face
Semipalmated Sandpiper
small shorebird with short neck and small head
appears slimmer looking
short, straight dark bill (bill length and shape is quite variable)
A Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was found on Wednesday morning in Two Rivers, Manitowoc County. It was just east of hwy 42 on Hillcrest Road. I wanted to go right away but had too many things going on at work. I waited until Thursday morning and got up a littler earlier than normal to drive up. I arrived about 15 minutes before sunrise, but it was light enough to make things out. I was the first person there that day, which surprised me. I parked on the side of the road, on the east end of pond. I was looking through the windows with my binoculars, but all I could see were 2 Greater Yellowlegs. There was only a small area to look through, that didn’t have shrubs or cattails. I got out of the truck and walked a little west on the road to get a different vantage point. I could faintly see a few smaller birds closer to the back corner, near the weed edge. I looked through my binocs and there it was! Woohoo!!! This was a life bird for me. In addition to the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, I found 2 Greater and 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, 3 Dunlin, 3 Pectoral Sandpipers and a single Semipalmated Sandpiper. I walked back to my truck and setup my camera equipment. I saw that everything was still wet from the morning dew, so I grabbed an extra sweatshirt to sit on, and walked down into ditch and up onto the berm. I threw down the sweatshirt and set up shop. At this point, the birds were only 30′ from me, but it was still rather dark and not good enough for photos. I sat there and watched them, while it ever so slightly got lighter. It felt like the sun was moving extra slow that morning! They continued to feed fairly close for about 20 minutes or so, but lighting was still rather low. I took a bunch of photos anyway (99% did not turn out), just in case it flew off. It was finally starting to get light out when the birds flew to the other side of the pond. I waited around my spot for a while, but they continued feeding on the other end. By now, several people had arrived to see it. I decided to walk down to the other end. I got a few good shots of it in the sunlight, and it took off, with 3 Dunlin and 1 Lesser Yellowlegs. Most of the times, shorebirds will fly a bit and circle back around and land in the same general area. I watched them fly with binoculars and it seemed like they were going farther away than usual. They circled back around but went down into a pond further off the road. I saw the general area they went and decided to walk back there. They ended up about 300 yards off the road, but not visible from it. I saw them briefly, but that was it. I returned to the road and there were about 15 people now. I let everyone know where it had gone and where it was. I said it was not worth trying to go back there but hope that it returns to this pond. Several of us were standing around talking when someone said, “birds just flew in from the north and landed on the far side of the pond.” We walked over there to look, and it was the 3 Dunlin that had left before, but still missing the SPTS and LEYE. While most of the people waited, we were watching the other shorebirds. They were pretty close to us and made for some good photo ops. After 45 minutes or so, I heard a single “tu” call and thought it was the Lesser Yellowlegs from earlier. I made a comment about hearing it and two others said they did too. I never saw anything though. Five minutes later, something caught my eye, all the way on the eastern edge of the pond. I looked through the cattails with my camera and saw a bird that appeared more reddish. I said, “I think I’ve got it!”. Everyone walked over to the other side. There it was again! It must’ve flown in when I heard that single call note. The bird was tucked back into the corner, behind two clumps of grass. It made its way out into the open and everyone was able to get a look at it. Shortly after, it flew to the other side and joined the group of birds. It was there that it put on quite a show! What a beautiful bird! The Sharp-tailed Sandpiper is an ABA code 3 bird. It is very uncommon, and I missed out on the one at Horicon several years ago. I was very excited to see this one, especially at such close range. It was a great morning out, with good friends and meeting a few new ones. Photos below are from Thursday morning. Enjoy!
Several Nelson’s Sparrows were seen at Lake Park between 9/29-10/09. They were along the east side of the soccer field and magic hedge, near the Linnwood Water Treatment Plant. I tried a couple times to find them but couldn’t. I walked the entire area several times, but when birds would flush, they would not stay up long enough to ID. On 10/5, I finally found one! I saw it on the rocks, in the corner area of the magic hedge and water treatment plant. I only saw it for a few moments though. It was pretty skulky, as you can see in the photos below. I only got one real good shot of it, before it flew into the heavy brush. I tried to relocate it, without luck. I didn’t spend too much time though, since it was getting dark out. Photos below are from evening of 10/5. Enjoy!
An Eared Grebe was spotted along the shore of Lake Michigan, just below the bluff of Sheridan Park on Sunday 10/16. It was staying very close to the shoreline and sometimes hard to see from above. I decided to walk down the service road to the shoreline. I walked north from there about 100 yards, and it was swimming and diving between two of the jetties. I sat down on the rocky beach area and watched it for about 15 minutes. It was actively diving the entire time. After several dives, it popped up fairly close to me, stared me down and dove again. Every time it would go down and come up, then look at me and continue about its business. This bird appears to be a hatch year and in a plumage I have not seen before. I’m glad that it was reported and stuck around for the day. Enjoy!
Three Lapland Longspurs showed up at Lakeshore State Park on Sunday 9/25 and hung around for a few days. I was able to get down there Monday after work and watch two them for a little while. I never did see the third one. They were just foraging about on the rocks and in between them. They would disappear for a few minutes and then pop up. It was perfect afternoon light and really made all their colors standout. These birds are always nice to see in fall. Photos below are from 9/26. Enjoy!
