Whitnall Park – Page 2 – Jeremy Meyer Photography

Orioles and Grosbeaks at Whitnall Park

May 11, 2021May 11, 2021 Jeremy2 Comments

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

Black-throated Blue Warbler and more… at Whitnall Park

May 10, 2021May 10, 2021 Jeremy2 Comments

The Black-throated Blue Warbler that has been at Whitnall Park for the last week, finally decided to put on a show in front of several people! He was singing away in the white flowering tree just east of the bridge. Singing and eating, dropping all the way down to the water, before continuing to the other side. He went in the downed tree overhanging the creek. He even took a little break, right in front of everyone, closing his eyes for a minute or so. After the short break, he continued singing and up creek he went. Up until then, he had been relatively elusive. Perfect timing to enjoy a beautiful bird! He was still being seen as of today (5/10).

Spring Warbler Migration 2020

December 5, 2020December 5, 2020 Jeremy6 Comments

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

Townsend’s Solitaire at Whitnall Park 12/15/19

December 15, 2019December 15, 2019 Jeremy2 Comments

Today while watching the Packers game, I saw a post about a Townsend’s Solitaire being seen near the Boerner Botanical Gardens, at Whitnall Park. I’ve seen these birds many times before, but it’s a great county bird for the year, so I decided to try for it. Whitnall Park is only 10 minutes from me, making it an easier decision. I work from dark to dark during the week in winter, and my only time to take pictures is on the weekend, so it was today or nothing. I’m glad I went, because I found it fairly quickly, and was able to help several others find it too. At first, I saw a bird fly up to the tops of the trees. Based on the size of it and flight, I thought it might be the bird. I got my binoculars on it and it sure was! It sat way up high for about 15 minutes, singing softly and preening. Then it turned and flew down to the berry trees below. After eating a few berries, it again flew way up high, and did the same thing again. After about another 15 minutes or so, it flew down the opposite way of me. I walked around the tree line to the other side and didn’t see it. All of sudden, it pops out in the berry tree, right in front of me. It ate a few berries and a Hermit Thrush chased it off. Must have been “his” berry tree. The solitaire again few up high and did the same thing. I watched it for about 50 minutes and it went down for berries 3 times. It was pretty active. It was sunny and cold with temps in the low 20’s. Pictures below are from today.

2019 Spring Warbler Migration

July 10, 2019July 11, 2019 Jeremy6 Comments

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!

Whitnall Park Warblers 4/22/19

April 22, 2019April 28, 2019 Jeremy2 Comments

Warblers are starting to arrive in Wisconsin! Yellow-rumped Warblers have been around for a couple weeks, but numbers are really starting to build now. Today, I had 14, just along the creek north of the waterfall. A Louisiana Waterthrush was flying up and down the creek, and an early Nashville Warbler made an appearance at the logjam, in the evening. A Palm Warbler and Black-throated Green Warbler were also seen today, but I missed them. Pine Warblers were seen a few days ago, too. I ended the day with 46 species, just along Kelly Creek. Warbler migration is my favorite time of the year, and we are already off to a great start! Here are some photos from the day.

2018 Spring Warbler Migration

June 2, 2018March 14, 2019 Jeremy2 Comments

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!