The waterfowl migration is an exciting time, with most arriving in my area during the month of March. This year proved to be another excellent one. On the 4th, under the Hoan Bridge, there was an excellent variety of ducks, including 2 Surf Scoters and 1 White-winged Scoter. A nice size group of Ruddy Ducks had been there all winter and were still around. Unfortunately, all the gates were still locked from the strong east winds and monster waves, that destroyed a lot of lakeshore things, so I was unable to take pictures of them. Then on the 7th, an excellent variety were seen on the Kinnickkinnic River. Redheads, Canvasbacks, American Black Ducks, and a White-winged Scoter were among the more common ones. The next day, 5 Trumpeter Swans and 8 Greater White-fronted Geese were at the dance studio in Oak Creek. Also present that day were, Northern Shovelers, Gadwall and Redheads, along with a few other common breeds. On the 10th, under the Hoan Bridge I saw several scoters, including 3 black. On the 20th, there was a nice variety behind the dance studio in Oak Creek again. Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal and Hooded Merganser were the highlights, among the common ducks. On the 26th, at Grobschmidt Park, another good day with nice variety. Ring-necked Ducks were plentiful, with 15 right along the eastern edge, close to the road. There was also a Common Loon and 11 Pied-billed Grebes, which were all hanging together in the corner along the cattails. Grobschmidt seems to get at least 1 loon every year. The following day, I had 6 Wood Ducks at Greenfield Park. I was able to get a lot of nice photos to document the month. All of the photos below are from the month of March, in Milwaukee. Enjoy!
Carolina Wren at Warnimont Park 10/19/2019
There has been a Carolina Wren hanging around Warnimont Park for at least two months now. It’s usually behind the archery area, but I’ve seen and heard it just north of the drive going down to the lake, on the north end of Warnimont Park. Today, he was hanging out near the parking lot, on the north side. I was watching Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets drink sap from a couple larger vines, when I heard him singing his “cheer cheer” song. I pished a little and he responded to it, giving great views. He sure moves around fast! One minute on the left and the next, way off to the right. It was a rather nice fall morning, partly sunny and breezy. The images below are from today.
Red Knot in Milwaukee 9/3/19
A juvenile Red Knot took a southern migration break at Lakeshore State Park on 9/2/19. I didn’t hear about it until the next day, when a friend asked me for an ID on a shorebird. I took a look at the photos and to my surprise, it was a Red Knot! I immediately text my group of bird friends, and said it might be worth checking the beach in case it hung around. Usually they don’t and are only one day birds, or even only around several hours. One of them said they could be there within the hour and check it out. A little while later, received a text saying, “it was still there!”. Now I had a choice to make, leave work, race down there and go back to work or work faster, get done sooner and leave early… I stayed and left early. I got down the park about 1:30pm and it was still around. I walked over to the beach area and laid on ground and waited for it to walk over to me. After about 10 minutes or so, it was right in front of me, feeding on the water’s edge. It was a very tame bird, considering it has probably never seen people before. It actually even took a brief, one minute nap, only 15′ from me! At one point, it was only about 5′ from me. It was so close, I slowly slid out my cell phone and recorded video of it. It’s always nice to be able to see a rarity so close! The pictures below are from the day.
2019 Spring Warbler Migration
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!
- American Redstart
- Bay-breasted Warbler
- Black-and-white Warbler
- Blackburnian Warbler
- Blackpoll Warbler
- Black-throated Blue Warbler
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- Blue-winged Warbler
- Brewster’s Warbler
- 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
- Prothonotary Warbler
- Tennessee Warbler
- Wilson’s Warbler
- Worm-eating Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Yellow-throated Warbler
Shorebirds in Milwaukee, August 2018
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.
Baird’s Sandpiper – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/bairds-sandpiper/
Dunlin – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/dunlin/
Least Sandpiper – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/least-sandpiper/
Pectoral Sandpiper – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/pectoral-sandpiper/
Piping Plover – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/piping-plover/
Ruddy Turnstone – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/ruddy-turnstone/
Sanderling – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/sanderling/
Semipalmated Plover – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/semipalmated-plover/
Semipalmated Sandpiper – http://www.jmeyerphotography.net/photo-gallery/photo-gallery-2/semipalmated-sandpiper/
