I stopped by Bender Park last week and saw a few ducks in the boat launch area. I drove down close to the water and shut off my truck. I counted 3 Red-breasted Merganser, 3 Common Goldeneye, 1 Common Merganser all swimming, along with 2 Mallard sleeping on the sand bar. I have stopped here dozens of times before and I know that if you park close to the water, shut off you truck and be quiet, the ducks will come back, close to shore. On this particular day, the Common Merganser swam in, slightly off the newly formed sand bar, and started diving. After the first dive, she popped up with a something and I got my camera on her. I thought it was a fish, and I started snapping photos in a burst, so that I wouldn’t miss anything. After the sequence was done and I looked at some photos, I realized it was actually a frog she caught. I was quite surprised by this. After a few more dives, I saw her pop up with another frog! This time though, a male Red-breasted Merganser started chasing her. After about 100′ feet of scooting through the water, he got really close, and she dropped the frog. He grabbed it and enjoyed her catch. The photos below show these events happening and I tried to capture the entire sequences. However, not all photos are in focus during the event, so I picked the ones that were. The photos below were taken on 1/11 in the late afternoon. Enjoy!
Since I’m spending the last two weeks of October in Hawaii, the fall warbler migration is over for me. It turned out to be a very good one, with it starting earlier than normal for me. I had huge numbers of birds beginning very early in August (8/10) through the end of the month. My guess is it had something to do with the wildfires in Canada. I was pretty busy in August, so I had limited chances to get out. Because of this, I missed out on some fall birds, including my favorite, the Canada Warbler. I spent all of my time at Warnimont, Grant, Sheridan and Bender Parks this fall. I ended up with 25 species of warblers this fall. September started off very good for warblers, but then we got some terrible weather patterns for the next few weeks and had one major migration day after that, which I wasn’t available for. I was able get the two late passerines, Pine and Orange-crowned Warblers, just before I left. I would have been upset if I didn’t see either of those. It will be a long, cold winter waiting for the colorful little birds to return. Hopefully the owls cooperate in the cold months! The photos below are from early August through the middle of October, when I left. Fall warblers have so many variations of plumages. I try to capture as many as possible to show what you might see when out. The individual photos are labeled male, female or hatch year, if you click on them. Enjoy!
The spring migration was incredible for warblers in Milwaukee! We had some very good rarities and several amazing days. On 4/23, there was a Worm-eating Warbler and a Louisiana Warbler at Whitnall Park. That was a perfect way to kickoff the spring warblers! Then on the 27th, there was a Yellow-throated Warbler at the Wind Point Lighthouse. On Friday night 5/1, into Saturday 5/2, the winds were out of the south and the damn broke loose!!! I went to Warnimont Park in the morning, and spent over 13 hours there! I had 100 total species and 21 warblers, including a Brewster’s Warbler (Blue-winged x Golden-winged), 2 Hooded Warblers and big numbers of all the others. On Sunday 5/3, I ended up with 18 warbler species. The next two days were rather slow, but a few nice single birds were being seen. I had a Hooded Warbler in the same area for 5 days. I thought he might be on territory, but there was no sign of him later on in spring. On 5/5, around 9 a.m. an email came through saying a Black-throated Gray Warbler has been seen along the Menomonee River Parkway. I quickly left Whitnall Park and shot over there. Within 30 minutes, there were at least 15 of us searching the area. After another 30 minutes or so, Mark yelled, “got it!”. Everyone hurried over and there he was, working along the ground on the opposite side of the river. Life bird for me! The next 4 days were just so-so. We kind of got stuck in a bad weather pattern and nothing new came in. However, on 5/8, I was at Whitnall Park and it was snowing!!! It was definitely strange to be watching warblers in a snow storm! It didn’t last very long, but fun while it did. On 5/10, the weather changed! I had 19 warblers at Whitnall Park that day and the next. 5/12 provided some excitement, I had excellent looks at a Cerulean Warbler, along with a total of 18 warblers for the day. The next week 5/13-5/18, along the creek at the Wehr Nature Center (Whitnall Park) was just insane! There were warblers everywhere!!! I had posted several reports about how good it was previous days and apparently people took my advice. I would say at any given time there were at least 20-30 people walking up and down the creek watching these beautiful songbirds. The bonus of Wehr Nature Center at Whitnall Park, you can get within a few feet of most birds. They fly around you, almost like an aviary! When it’s as good as it was this past spring, they will fly within inches of you! One particular day, it was so amazing at the logjam, there were at least 30 warblers catching mayflies out of the air or grabbing them from the water and ground. A male Bay-breasted Warbler was so tame, he would hop around between your feet searching for the mayflies and other insects. I told a woman (Amanda) there to put a couple of the mayflies in her hand and hold them out. The Bay-breasted landed on her hand and grabbed them! Pretty awesome experience. I was in the 20’s every day for warbler species during that time and on 5/16, I had 27 warbler species. That day was incredible! I had 1 Connecticut, 2 Prothonotary, 4 Mourning, 6 Black-throated Blue and 8 Blackburnian Warblers. I also totaled 107 species for the day, in a little over 9 hours. I spent so much time at Whitnall Park this spring because it was so awesome, I didn’t get too much time at my other local spring hotspots. However, on the 19th at Grant Park, I had another Yellow-throated Warbler, and a total of 24 warbler species. It continued great through the 24th with 20+ warblers seen each day. In early June, I went up to Adams County and saw 2 Prairie Warblers and 7 Kirtland’s Warblers. Both of those were killer birds to finish up the spring with! The sheer numbers of birds this past spring was amazing. I had several birders tell me this was how it used to be years ago. One can only hope we get to enjoy more spring migrations like this. I ended up with 36 warbler species for the spring. I took over 50,000 photos in May, which is why I’m just getting this report posted. I wish I would have had more time to do it in the summer. All of the photos in this post are from the spring this year. I always try for male and female, along with first spring birds and behavior shots. They are labeled as such too. If there are not any photos under a name, it’s because I missed out. However, if you click on the smaller name, it will take you to its page so you can at least see prior photos of them. Enjoy!!!
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!
The last week of August has been very good for shorebird migration. We have had a very good variety, along with high numbers of birds, at the various beaches in the county. Last weekend the entire beach at Bender Park was covered in algae, some areas over ten feet wide, hosting over 30 birds. Today, there was no algae and only two birds. It really is quite amazing how it develops and then disappears, in a matter of days. Grant Park, on the other hand, has had a great algae mat for over a week now, but no birds. I’ve been checking it almost daily. On 8/21, Grant Park did however, have two juvenile Dunlin, that created quite the excitement for everyone as they were originally reported as Western Sandpipers. Along with the 2 Dunlin were 4 Sanderlings and 4 Semipalmated Sandpipers. On 8/24, Bender Park had 21 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 5 Sanderling, 2 Pectoral Sandpipers, 2 Least Sandpipers and 1 Spotted Sandpiper. On 8/25, Lakeshore State Park had 2 Baird’s Sandpipers and 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper. On 8/29, Bradford Beach had 2 Piping Plovers, 11 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 1 Ruddy Turnstone and 1 Semipalmated Plover. But depending when you were there, many of the birds might not have been seen, due to the amount of activity for the 115th Harley celebration. I didn’t arrive until about 2:30pm and I only saw the three plovers, missing out on the turnstone for a third time this year. It’s always nice to see Piping Plovers, and this time both birds were not banded. There have been shorebirds on the different beaches every day, but these are from my sightings. Now let’s hope the next few weeks bring in a couple rare ones. There are a few pictures of each bird below, with the links taking you to their individual pages and full galleries.
Spring warbler migration is my favorite time of year. This past April/May happened to be one of the best since 2013 and quiet possibly my favorite ever. I ended up with 33 warbler species for the month and I saw them all in Milwaukee County, I even missed 2 rarities that were reported. I took over 38,000 photos this spring. I was able to capture some very cool behavior as well, including singing, eating, sleeping, preening and courtship. Some highlights were, a Connecticut Warbler at Whitnall Park (which I was finally able to get pictures of). Cerulean Warblers at Whitnall and Warnimont Parks, I think I had four this year. Lastly, a Worm-eating Warbler at Whitnall Park, which I thought I had seen days earlier, but just couldn’t confirm. Some of the behavior activities included, watching a Golden-winged Warbler eat a giant flying bug, then get really tired and sleep for about 25 minutes. That all happened within five feet of the ground. Later, I watched him grab spiders out of dried, dead curled leaves, that webs were attached to, and eat them. That was one very smart bird! I had a Canada Warbler go on a singing rampage for about 20 minutes at Whitnall Park, when a second female flew into the “logjam” he was feeding near. Sometimes singing too close for my camera to focus on. On two different occasions, I watched a singing Black-throated Blue Warbler eat bugs from the brush, then go down into the thicket and sleep for a few minutes. He would then “pop up” start singing and eating again. It happened four or five times on each occasion. I saw three different Yellow-breasted Chats, at three different parks, with there being a potential pair at Bender Park. Based on recent reports, it seems likely that there is a pair of them at Bender Park. This was an extremely fun warbler migration. The sheer number of warblers I saw this spring was incredible! I thought I’d share my spring experiences with you through photographs. Below is a list of the warblers that I saw, along with links to each page to view full galleries. After that is a large gallery of photos, males and females of each, in alphabetical order. Take your time to see the differences in the two, along with some of their behavior activities. Enjoy!
