A Grasshopper Sparrow was discovered near the Northern Mockingbird this morning at the Grant Park Beach. It was on the north side of the parking lot, along the tree line and out into the grass area. I stopped after work and it was still in the same general area. It moved around with several Dark-eyed Juncos and a couple American Robins. This bird is a little early for the year, and is the third good sparrow in the last five days in Milwaukee County. While not as rare as the last two, this one is still not as common. I really enjoy seeing this species each year. Photos below are from the afternoon. Enjoy!
After work today, I thought I’d head down to Grant Park and see if the feeder area had any good birds. When the weather is brutal, like it was this afternoon, the feeders usually host some good birds. On my way to the feeders, I stopped at the beach parking lot and decided to walk out to the concrete pier and see what was around. No more than 30′ from my truck and I find a Northern Mockingbird! I didn’t even bring my camera with me. I ran back to the truck and got it setup. I walked to where I last saw it but I could not find it. I figured it had to be in the grasses somewhere, so I walked towards the lake. As I walked farther, there is a gap between the grass dunes and there it was! So, I circled back around towards the parking lot, to try for a better view. As soon as I got over there, it flew right out in front of me and fed for several minutes. It was quite active, moving very fast over the grassy areas, feeding. It was hanging with 7 American Robins, 1 Savannah Sparrow and 1 Field Sparrow. I watched it go from the sandy area of the beach, all the way to the west side of parking lot and then across the outlet to the yacht club side. Eventually, it ended up on the parking lot side again. It was extremely windy and very chilly, especially compared to the last week of beautiful weather. This was a completely unexpected bird for the day, which makes it all the more rewarding. Photos below are from the afternoon. Enjoy!
With the extremely warm weather and strong South/Southwest winds this past week, some early migrants showed up. On 4/12, a Henslow’s Sparrow was found, along the east side of the lagoon. It was a sneaky little bird and very tough to get good full looks at. This is quite common with this species. Then on 4/14, a LeConte’s Sparrow was found, about 50 yards away from where the Henslow’s was seen. It flushed into a nearby evergreen and moved about in there for a few minutes, before going back down to the grassy area. It didn’t stay there long though, as a Red-winged Blackbird chased it away and I never relocated it. Apparently, it was threatened by a little grass sparrow! As far as I know, they were each only seen one day. Photos below are from their respective days. Enjoy!
Late Monday evening, a Louisiana Waterthrush was found singing along the creek. It was in the creek that runs northwest from Seven Bridges at Grant Park. On Tuesday, I left work around 1130am, as I wanted to try for it. This is one of my favorite warblers and can be easily missed in spring. They usually pass through our area from middle to late April. As I was walking down the stairs, I saw one of my friends, who had just seen it up the creek. I made my way up and found it all the way towards Lake Dr. It then circled around me and went down creek. It was not very cooperative at first. I spent three hours waiting for it in several spots, before finally getting some close, excellent looks at it. I watched it feed for quite a while and it amazes me how it can grab the teeny tiny worms from a fast moving creek. It happens so fast, and I would not have known it was catching them without capturing it on photo. It was seen again early this morning, but several others failed to relocate it after that. There are a few creeks in that area, so it’s possible it just moved to another one. Seven Bridges has a lot of foot traffic, especially when the weather is nice, like the last few days. The coordinates below are approximately where I watched it for the majority of the time. It also came back to this location several times. Good luck if you try for it. Photos below are from mid-day Tuesday. Enjoy!
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)
