I was on the auto tour on Monday morning (5/24) watching the shorebirds, but it was foggy and not a very nice morning for pictures. I wanted to see the Red Knot though, so it was worth it. I looked at the weather and decided to come back again on Tuesday, as it was suppose to be better by 7ish. Of course it wasn’t, the weather report was wrong… shocker!!! With the southwest/west winds Monday night, I thought there was a chance to have some cool birds blow through. I arrived just past sunrise, but it was cloudy, so alas no sun. I sat down by the rocks on the drawn down pond that has been holding the shorebirds, pretty much in the same spot I was on Monday. They would move around quite a bit, but always came to the one spot that was closer to the road. It might take 20 to 30 minutes, but it was worth the wait each time! After an hour or so of sitting there, I hear a couple of strange calls coming from the right. I look over and here come 2 ibis flying in. They end up landing, just to the right of me, about 100′ away! I move my camera around, get them in focus and realize they are White-faced Ibis. Wow, that was unexpected! There was only one other person on the auto tour at that time, but they were way south, near the red rock and still in their vehicle. The two ibis fed for about 10 minutes before flying off to the north. I’m not even sure they saw me sitting there. If that wasn’t good enough, about an hour later, 2 Red-necked Phalarope and 1 Wilson’s Phalarope flew in, again landing right in front of me! What is going on??? All 3 were in full breeding plumage. I just got my lifer Red-necked Phalarope about a week prior, but it was far out and not in breeding plumage. By this time, there were a handful of vehicles on the road and numerous people walking by. Good thing the phalaropes were rather tame and did not spook every time the other shorebirds would move around. My day went from ok, to great, to amazing, all in about an hour and a half! Photos below are from the morning. Enjoy!
Connecticut Warbler at Lake Park 5/22
A male Connecticut Warbler was singing in the locust ravine yesterday morning for several hours. I had already seen two for the year, but thought I would try to get photos, since it’s a much smaller area to forage in and less area to hide in. When I was walking up to the spot it was last reported, I heard it sing twice. I quickly got eyes on it, in the thick brush behind the stage. I would say that for Connecticut Warbler it was rather cooperative, considering they usually walk about on the ground, but he was walking in the branches grabbing midges off them. There was also a male Mourning Warbler with him, so sometimes it was tough trying to track the Connecticut. I was able to get a few, what I would call, decent shots for that bird. He then flew to the other side of the ravine and I went around and up, hopefully for a better look. I was walking across the wooden bridge, and noticed he was in the branches, a few feet off the ground. I was able to get an excellent look at him, for 20 seconds or so. I spent a little over two hours there and had 25 warbler species. There were 6 Mourning and 6 Canada Warblers, in the locust ravine area! I didn’t check anywhere else in the park, but it was quite active. Pictures below are from the morning. Enjoy!
Yellow-throated Warblers in Southern Kettle Moraine Forest
There are at least a pair of Yellow-throated Warblers at the Emma Carlin Trail, in Southern Kettle Moraine. I’m pretty sure I saw a third, but it didn’t stick around long, maybe because of territory. I started by the bench, on the south side near the pond, but did not see them right away. I finally found them though, but they were closer to the parking lot. As I walking towards the parking lot, I noticed a pair of Pine Warblers and watched them briefly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bird fly across the parking lot and into one of the little trees on the edge. I threw up my binoculars and saw it was one of the yellow-throated! I hustled across the parking lot and it was still feeding in that tree. After a minute or so, it flew up into the bigger tree, right along Hwy Z on the northeast corner of the parking lot. They both ended up in that tree and feed for a few minutes. They continued onto the pines on the southeast side of the parking lot. One started on the outside branches, feeding very low and the other went into the ground shrubs to the water. They both ended up in one of the smaller trees, one feeding and one preening from bathing. They then flew up high to the pines behind the bathroom. I happened to be there at the perfect time, I guess. It is always very nice to see these birds in Wisconsin. We are at the northern edge of their range, but they have been pushing farther north in recent years. I’ve had them in Milwaukee County, each of the last three years. Photos below are from the late morning/early afternoon spent out there. Enjoy!
Orioles and Grosbeaks at Whitnall Park
In addition to the wonderful selection of warblers this past week at Whitnall Park, there have been a lot of orioles and grosbeaks. They have also been in the flowering trees, picking at the buds, petals and eating insects and worms or caterpillars. Baltimore Orioles have been busy building nests too, with one hanging over the waterfall creek, in the large willow tree. I found a Rose-breasted Grosbeak nest in an apple tree, too. I’m not sure if they are incubating yet, but both the male and female take turns on the nest, so I assume they are. An Orchard Oriole has been around the last couple days as well. He sings from the flowering trees and is quite skittish, as they usually are. These trees have sure produced the birds this spring, which has been a pleasant surprise. All of the photos below are from the past week at Whitnall Park. Enjoy!
Baltimore Oriole
Orchard Oriole
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Laughing Gull in Port Washington
A Laughing Gull showed up in the Port Washington Harbor on Saturday 1/16/21. One of my jobsites is currently in Port, only about 5 minutes from downtown. I was able to get away for a little while on Monday, to try for it. I did see it, but it was pretty far out, sitting on the wooden posts of a dock. After 15 minutes or so, it flew off towards the power plant and I saw it go down somewhere over there. I didn’t bother driving around to try and relocate it. The clouds were rather low and lighting was pretty terrible for photos anyway. I also figured I had the rest of the week to try as well. Then on Tuesday, I saw it was starting to get sunny out, so I stepped away quickly, to see if it was any closer. It was! It was sitting on the rocks, on northern most part of the marina. I watched it for about 25 minutes and then it again flew off to the south. Some other people had stopped by looking for it, and I told each of them they just missed it. About ten minutes later, it came back to the north and landed on the blue concrete wall. There has also been a Harlequin Duck hanging out on the north side of the marina. I saw it both times I went this week, and the previous two times earlier this month, that I went. He is starting to get more color and defining marks. Hopefully he sticks around little longer, while his colors continue to develop. Pictures below are from this week at the harbor. Enjoy!
Allen’s Hummingbird in Wisconsin!
An Allen’s Hummingbird was coming to a private residence since the week before Thanksgiving. It was banded on 12/17/20, which confirmed the ID of the species. It is the first state record for Wisconsin! The home owner was extremely nice and allowed people to visit her yard to see it! Thank you!!! I tried for it on Saturday morning 12/19, and saw it almost immediately after arriving. It was very cooperative and came to the feeder quite frequently. The last time viewing it, he sat in a few different trees and came to the feeder several times, spending about 5 minutes in view, providing excellent looks. Life bird for me! Photos below are from the morning of. Enjoy!
Spring Warbler Migration 2020
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!!!
American Redstart
Bay-breasted Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blue-winged Warbler
Brewster’s Warbler (blue-winged x golden-winged)
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
Prairie Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Fall Warbler Migration 2020
The fall warbler migration in Milwaukee, was what I would consider average. There were definitely some very cool birds, but the overall numbers were just okay and the weather wasn’t very good. Highlights of the fall were a beautiful male Kentucky Warbler (no photos) at Lake Park, 6 different Connecticut Warblers at multiple local parks, and several Mourning Warblers scattered around the local parks as well. 9/5 was my first big day with 17 warbler species. Two days later was my best day of the fall, with 24 warbler species, including my first of six Connecticut Warblers. I also had several Black-throated Blue, Golden-winged and Blue-winged Warblers. I couldn’t get out again until 9/13, if my memory serves me right, the weather was not very good that week. On the 13th, I had 18 warbler species, at Warnimont Park during the morning hours. That was also the day I saw the Kentucky Warbler at Lake Park. I didn’t get there until after 4pm, but I still had 21 warbler species there! The rest of the days were below average for me, with right around 10 warbler species. On 10/22 at Grant Park, I saw a late male Nashville Warbler and a week later at Grant Park, was a late beautiful male Pine Warbler. I ended the fall migration with 28 warbler species. Photos in the post are by specie and are from this year’s fall migration. I try to include males, females and hatch year birds and each photo is labelled. 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
Cape May Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Connecticut Warbler
Golden-winged Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Mourning Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Northern Waterthrush
Orange-crowned Warbler
Ovenbird
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Spotted Towhee in Ozaukee County 11/27/20
This bird has been seen for at least a week at Forest Beach Migratory Preserve. I finally had a chance to try for it today. I started out walking the path east from the building towards the gravel road… nothing. Then I walked down the gravel road to the bend and back up and found some bird activity. There were sparrows, juncos, cardinals and chickadees, but no towhees. So I continued back towards the building and went south on the trail, near the pond, which wrapped back around into the gravel road, still nothing. Since the only place that had birds was the gravel road, on the north side of the bluff, I decided to focus on that area. I walked along the top of the bluff and about 100′ from Lake Bluff Dr (private road), I saw something larger pop up into some thicket. I could see some movement, so threw up my binocs and tried to maneuver through all the branches. That was it, life bird!!! Very poor view but could clearly tell what it was. The white spots are very obvious and stand out. He flew to north and into a thick shrub. I got positioned better and waited. I was rewarded with a solid minute of him sitting in the open on a branch, before he went down to the ground and started foraging, typical towhee style. I tried getting a better view, but he must’ve heard me and flew back into the shrub. I walked backwards, and around until I realized I was really close to the private drive, so walked out to that and waited. That’s when I saw a female Eastern Towhee. They were foraging together under the bush and I had never seen her until now. I kept waiting, hoping they would come out for better views, but they never did. She flew right across the drive into a pine tree and he followed closely behind. They both went down to the ground, right on the side of the road, underneath the tree near a fence. I was only 20′ from them! I continued watching them as they moved about, and they moved into the next yard over. They would forage for awhile and then he would chase her. She always stayed hidden and he would be in the open. They again flew back across road to the area where I originally found. His actions seemed like courtship to me, but its fall, not spring. I never did get a photo of her. In the meantime, the resident there walked out and down the private drive to the mail box, on the main road. On his way back he asked if I found anything interesting? So I explained it all to him and he thought it was very cool! He told me I could walk around his yard if I wanted and his neighbors aren’t currently there, so I could go into their yard as well! I thought wow how nice, thanked him and continued on. I walked down Country Club Rd, all the way down, because earlier a guy told me he saw a mockingbird near a specific address. I didn’t see it though, probably because I spent over an hour watching the towhees. Overall an excellent day to be out hiking, with sun shining and temps in the 40’s! Photos below are from today. Enjoy!
Evening Grosbeaks at Grant Park, Thanksgiving Day 2020
A pair of Evening Grosbeaks have been coming to the Grant Park feeders since Sunday morning. They seem to be very specific though. They arrive between 7:30-8:00 a.m., and then take awhile to decide whether or not to come down. They eat for several minutes, fly off, and do not coming back for the rest of the day. I skipped out of work for about an hour on Monday morning, but never saw them. I again tried for an hour or so on Tuesday afternoon and didn’t see them either. So, I figured I would head out and try again today, before throwing the turkey on the smoker. I got there about 7:10 a.m. and waited around… and around… and around… They finally showed about 7:55 a.m.! It took about 10 minutes for them to fly down to the feeder. I almost left too, because I didn’t think they were coming and knew I needed to get the turkey on. Today was different than the previous four days, because around 11:30 a.m. they showed up again, but this time there was 4! All of them were females. They do call when flying and sitting in the trees, so hopefully they can attract a male or two! Photos below are from today. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving… I DID!!!
