Varied Bunting at Lion’s Den Gorge in Ozaukee County, yes I said a Varied Bunting!!!

Jeremy6 Comments

I had just parked and started walking onto the Warnimont Park Golf Course, when I received a notification for a Varied Bunting at Lion’s Den. I had to reread it and still said to myself, “what the hell is that???” I googled it and saw its range was Mexico. I immediately turned around and started walking back to the truck! I thought to myself, this is a repeat of last year with the Flame-colored Tanager. I drove up and I was pulling into the parking lot, and it was relocated. Now I was really excited. I parked and walked as fast as I could, carrying my gear. When I arrived at the location, there were 10 or so people there, who just had it. Within 20 seconds it was spotted again. It was bouncing around an apple tree, eating and moving fast. It was sunny and the light was somewhat at our backs. WOW, what a beautiful bird!!! It moved around the entire tree and then went down out of sight. I moved around the area and saw it another 10 times or so, helping dozens of people find it. It seemed like it would stay in roughly a 100-yard radius and circle around with a mixed flock of warblers. Every time I saw it, it was in an apple tree. It was still being seen when I left, but it was rather foggy and slightly misting. I felt I had decent enough photos from the early morning, that I didn’t need to stick around any longer in that weather. A mega find by Alex and Braden! Thank you for getting the word right away! This has been an incredible week so far, with something awesome being found almost every day in Milwaukee or Ozaukee. This is a 1st state record and life bird for me. Photos below are from the morning. Enjoy!

As of this writing, 3:20pm the bird is still being seen. For updates, you can follow the Wisconsin Birds server on Discord at the link below. This app is an excellent way to follow the state or certain counties for bird alerts. It’s highly customizable to suit your wants and needs. For example, if you live in Milwaukee and only want notifications for Milwaukee, you can set it to that. I definitely recommend at least trying it out. If the link doesn’t work or expires, feel free to contact me for help. Good luck!

https://discord.com/invite/paRWFrdt

Sunrise in Port Washington

Jeremy2 Comments

This past week I was working in Port Washington. There was a very beautiful sunrise on Monday, so I brought my ultra-wide lenses to work the rest of the week. The next few days did not disappoint! I took a few pictures from Hwy 32 into town and then some more from Coal Dock Park. On Tuesday, there was a heavy frost and it made for beautiful colors as the sun came up. I was right downtown on the marina and went back over to the park a few hours after sunrise for a couple more photos. I have not done many landscape photos, but it is something that I love looking at when out and about, especially since I’m usually out at sunrise and sunset for wildlife. Let me know what you think of these photos, I’m curious. You can comment below, thank you. Enjoy!

Black-legged Kittiwake in Port Washington 12/10/22

Jeremy2 Comments

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!

Laughing Gull in Port Washington

Jeremy2 Comments

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!

Spotted Towhee in Ozaukee County 11/27/20

Jeremy5 Comments

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!

White-winged Crossbills in Ozaukee County 10/30/20

Jeremy5 Comments

I stopped by Forest Beach Migratory Preserve on 10/27 and was able to see the crossbills in the afternoon. I only saw them for a short time and got just a few doc shots. They were a life bird for me that day, so I was still excited. I think I had 30 or so. I was off on Friday 10/30 and thought I would try for them again, and hopefully get some decent photos. I walked the path back and found them almost right away. I setup and started taking pictures. They flew almost immediately. This time though, there were at least 45 of them. I watched them land and headed over to the next group of trees. Again I setup and started taking pictures, and again they flew almost right away. Now, I always wear camo and don’t have anything really flashy with me, trying to always blend in. I was thinking these birds sure are skittish! I watched them fly away and land in a few trees over, so I packed up and went over there. I setup and and took one photo and off they flew again! I couldn’t believe it, not sure why they were so jumpy. This time they looped around me and went to the southwest, so I had to walk all the way around them to get the sun back on my backside. This time I decided to turn my camera shutter on silent (6fps), instead of the normal (10fps), and see if my shutter noise was spooking them, although I can’t imagine it was. It worked though! Either coincidence or my shutter was really too loud for them. From then on, I followed them around tree to tree and back to previous trees, eating seeds and throwing pine cones around, without spooking them. They would eat in a tree anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. Then move on to the next. They flew all over the preserve and even went all the way south, to the line of trees along County Hwy P. From there, they went to the marsh area, just south of the parking lot and all went down for water. They sure move around quite a bit! I spent several hours there and took over 1500 photos, trying to get some nice behavior shots. All photos are from Friday 10/30. Enjoy!