I got my lifer Spotted Towhee less than two months ago, a beautiful male in Ozaukee County. Then two days ago, a female is found in Milwaukee County, at Greenfield Park! Someone who doesn’t belong to any group or use eBird, had a picture on his camera and showed it to someone who is, saying he thought it was a Spotted Towhee. Sure enough it was! It was confirmed Friday afternoon just before dark. So I thought I would try for it right away Saturday morning. It was being seen on the east side of the park, near the waterfall on the little pond. There is some seed thrown out, under a few trees and it’s attracting a decent variety of birds, including the towhee. I got there around 8 a.m. and friends that were already there said it showed very briefly about 7:30. With it nowhere in sight, I decided to take a walk behind the pond to the railroad tracks and look around back there. I had also heard a Carolina Wren singing from back that way, so hoped to see that as well. I couldn’t find either, so I walked back to the feeding area. I was standing there talking with a few friends and it flew in from behind us, landing in the very thick brushy area. After a few minutes, she popped out and gave very good views for at least 10 minutes. Then she flew up into the trees and flew back behind the pond, into the wooded area. A beautiful bird and a great chilly morning with friends. Since I now have very good photos of both the male and female, I’ll include the male photos from just over a month ago, so you can see the difference between the two. Enjoy!
Providing a realistic experience to wildlife
Your photos are so good, it’s insane.
We get the Towhees in our yard and woods in summer into fall. I hadn’t seen a Towhee since I lived in NJ in the late 60s to 70s. What a thrill!
Today we had an enormous flock of Common Red Polls on our Birch Trees. They looked like glass ornaments.
Sheridan
Thank you Sheridan! Redpolls are beautiful birds and have so much color variance between them.