Barred Owls in Wautoma, WI

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I had an awesome experience with a pair of Barred Owls a couple of weekends ago, in Wautoma. It was near 6pm while walking my brother’s property in Wautoma, when I heard a Barred Owl call, closely to the east. I grabbed my camera out of the truck and waited in the drive, hoping it would come into the yard. Thankfully I had my smaller zoom lens attached from photographing butterflies earlier in the day, because it flew right over my head and landed in the tree overhanging the house. Then out of nowhere, a second one flies in and lands next to it! They started calling back and forth. Several American Crows were close by and heard them calling. They came flying in and were really loud. How they can find the owls so fast is just amazing! One of the owls then flew towards the back of the property and the other flew to the other side of it. The crows surprisingly left them alone in a short time and they met back up in the same tree, above the house. They sat up there for at least 30 minutes or so, before flying off to the Southwest. It was still light enough out, that I was able to manage a few flight shots of them going back and forth. I have never seen that before and it was incredible! Photos below are from 7/19/24. Enjoy!

Indigo Buntings at Waste Management Franklin Landfill

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While looking for Dickcissels on Friday May 31st, I also found 2 singing Indigo Buntings. These little songbirds are absolutely beautiful! When the sun hits them, their blue color is a stunning! These colorful songbirds can be found in any open field with small shrubs for nesting. The 2 that I saw were on County Line Rd, singing along the fence line. At one point, one of the Dickcissels was chasing one of the buntings around. It must’ve been too close to his territory, although the Indigo Bunting would have been there first. I also had one fly down to the roadside and pick through the gravel. I’m not sure if it was finding seedings, insects, or just gritting. While they are common, they are a sight to see every time. Photos below are Friday afternoon. Enjoy!

Dickcissels at the Waste Management Franklin Landfill

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Dickcissels are late arriving spring migrants, typically showing up the last few days of May. One of my favorite places to find them is at the Franklin Landfill. On Friday May 31st, I saw at least 12 of them along the South side and Southeast corner of the hill. I went after work, in the late afternoon. They sing along the fence line and move around a bit, feeding in between. I had one pop out of the grasses near the edge of the road, eating a cricket. Luckily, I was able to capture that moment! These birds usually sing from the top of a perch and lean back to belt out their loud song, a buzzy “dick-dick-see-see-see.” I only saw males, so I’m not sure if the females are even back yet. They are down in the grasses most of the time, and hard to see anyway. Photos below are from Friday afternoon. Enjoy!

Cerulean Warbler at Mangan Woods

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A Cerulean Warbler was singing his little heart out on the morning of May 12th. He was in the treetops, NE of the parking lot. He was moving constantly and chasing other warblers out of the tree he was in. This bird was quite crazy and covering about a 100-yard radius. Cerulean Warblers have nested in this area before and he was acting like he might stick around. However, I stopped by a couple of days later and he was gone. No singing and no sign of him. At any rate, the day he was singing, I had several nice looks even though he was quite high up. Photos below are from the early morning 5/12. Enjoy!

LeConte’s Sparrow at Lake Park/Linnwood Water Treatment

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On Monday, May 13th a LeConte’s Sparrow was found along the lakefront by Lake Park/Linnwood Water Treatment plant. It was about halfway between both ends of the soccer fields. This small, skulky sparrow is usually very hard to get good looks at. However, on this day, I literally walked right out to the location I was provided and it was sitting on the rocks underneath a tree, all fluffed up. It couldn’t have been any easier to find this bird! There were numerous other birds near it, mostly Common Yellowthroats. I watched it for a few minutes and then it went down into the ticket vegetation and out of sight. People tried before and after me with and without luck. I guess I was lucky! This might have been my best views ever of this beautiful little sparrow. Photos are from the late afternoon, May 13th. Enjoy!

Pine Warbler at Whitnall Park

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I was walking around the flowering trees at Whitnall Park, in the area leading up to the botanical gardens. For the most part, it was rather quiet. I found a few birds moving around in a pink flowering tree. I setup my camera and waited for them to get to my side. It was a Northern Cardinal, 2 Black-capped Chickadees, and a beautiful male Pine Warbler (PIWA). The Pine Warbler is easily in my top 3 for warblers! I have always loved seeing them and this year, it was my first male. I’ve only seen several females thus far. In previous years, this has been a good area for PIWA. They usually come through earlier in the spring and well before the trees are in full bloom. However, with the early spring, the apple trees are couple weeks early, which made for spectacular views! He was feeding constantly, and I watched him catch and eat several caterpillars and spiders. Just before exiting the tree, he started singing and then flew up into the pine stand and continued to sing for the next 30 minutes or so. I could hear him singing until I was out of range to hear it. Being this late in the spring for PIWA, I would think it is on territory in those trees. I will be keeping an eye out in the coming weeks to see if he is still around singing. Photos below are from the afternoon of 5/7. Enjoy!

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

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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

Northern Saw-whet Owl with a Deer Mouse

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The ’23-’24 winter has been excellent to me for owls! I finally got to photograph the very tiny and adorable Northern Saw-whet Owl. When I saw this owl, it had a Deer Mouse in its talons, most likely a catch from the night before. It appeared to be half eaten, from the head. It was in a rather open spot, although still hidden very well, but excellent for photos. I watched it for about 20 minutes. I was able to see it cough up a pellet as well. Of course, my camera lost focus on that event, which was very irritating. I did capture the weird faces/poses it made before and after though. Photos below are from the late morning, that day. Enjoy!

Hooded Merganser eating a Crawfish

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The same day that I saw the Black Scoter in the previous post, I was able to watch a male Hooded Merganser catch a Crawfish (crayfish) and eat it. This was quite an action sequence, as he needed to keep moving it around to avoid getting a claw to the bill. He ended up taking it down, facing away from me, so I never really saw if he swallowed it whole or just bit pieces off. All of this was a little farther out than I would prefer, but I think enough detail comes through in the photos, especially with bad lighting for the day. Photos were taken on Saturday 1/27. Enjoy!

Black Scoter in Beautiful Breeding Plumage

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Behind the Milwaukee Art Museum a few weeks ago, there were 1500+ ducks! There was an excellent variety of them as well, with the water still being open. There were 11 duck species including a very cool hybrid, Common Goldeneye x Hooded Merganser. One of the species was a beautiful male Black Scoter in full breeding plumage. I had never seen one like that before, only in basic plumage. When I saw him, he was closer to the north side of Veteran’s Park. He was hanging with a smaller group of ducks diving and feeding. At one point, he was even calling and appeared to be courting a female Greater Scaup. He must have had a long Friday night! The other duck species present were, Mallard, Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, Greater & Lesser Scaup, White-winged Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser and Red-breasted Merganser. The photos below are from Saturday 1/27. Enjoy!

Common Goldeneye x Hooded Merganser

Canvasback

Ring-necked Duck

White-winged Scoter

Common Goldeneye

Red-breasted Merganser