I was also fairly lucky with some warblers bathing, right in front of me. Lake Park and Whitnall Park are usually very good places to view this behavior. Whitnall Park has a creek that runs through it and is accessible in many areas. Lake Park has ravines and most of the time a small stream of water running through them. The key to finding where they bathe, is finding protection near the water. By this, I mean they want to come down into a tree overhanging or next to the water, a small bush near it or raspberry vines that are thicker for examples. This way they feel protected at a vulnerable moment and have a hiding spot should there be any danger. In my experience, when one comes down, be prepared because more are coming and coming fast! It happens so quickly and poof, they’re gone! I’ve had up to 6 different warblers in one little pool before. A lot of times I just happen to stumble upon them bathing. However, if you have more patience you can choose to sit and wait, but it may take a couple hours before you get any action. The photos below have been taken the few weeks in the Milwaukee area. Enjoy!
This spring so many warblers have looked directly at me while photographing them. I will get them like that occasionally, but not like this year. It has been all of the warbler species too, not just a few of them. I’m not sure if they see the huge front element on my lens, that reflects back at them or if they hear the camera shutter clicking 10 frames per second. Either way I’ve found it to be quite funny how the photos turn out. Something different than seeing the normal profile picture. Photos below are from the last few weeks in the Milwaukee area. Enjoy!
An uncommon but extraordinarily stunning warbler when seen! On 4/26, this male did not disappoint. He appeared less than 15′ from me at first, and then worked its way along the edge of the bluff, feeding on midges. He first showed along the path, just north of the trail, that runs east of the archery range. He continued north, along the thickest part of the trail. I watched him for several minutes and then as fast as he appeared, he was gone! I don’t think anyone else saw him the rest of that evening. Photos below are from Tuesday 4/26. Enjoy!
There have been 2 Hooded Warblers along the bluff, behind the archery range at Warnimont Park. One was still seen today, but was on the golf course, just across from the archery range. I’m guessing the brutal east winds on Wednesday, forced them away from the lake a little. This is one of my favorite warblers and they were just posing for the camera Monday and Tuesday, while I was there. It was hard not to sit and watch them all day, but there was so much else going on too. Every time I would make a pass back and see one, I’d stop an admire a little more! Photos below are from Monday and Tuesday this week. Enjoy!
A Prairie Warbler was found at Warnimont this morning and I was able to relocate it about 200 yards to the northeast, almost an hour later. I was walking down a trail and I heard it sing. I’m very familiar with the song, which really helped out. I started walking towards the song and then waited, heard again and continued walking to it. I stopped and listened, heard again and ended up walking just past it. I went back and then a little to the north and there he was, sitting atop Red Twig Dogwood! It was on the south side of the large “butterfly” ravine in the center of the park, closer to the east. He was just singing away. After a minute or so, he flew up into a tree and fed. Shortly after feeding, flew down into the shrubs again and continued singing, along with some preening. He repeated that procedure again and that is when I left him. Also feeding with him were an Orange-crowned, Nashville, Palm and several Yellow-rumped Warblers. Another awesome warbler at the start of the warbler migration! I don’t think it was relocated much after that and if it was, not in the same spot. Good luck if you try for it tomorrow, though I don’t think it’s very chasable. Pictures are from this morning. Enjoy!
This spring has been excellent for Mourning Warblers, in Milwaukee. Just the last week alone, I have had no less than 4 at any park I go to. These are one of my favorite warblers and I love when we have years like this! In normal years you just go sit by the logjam at Whitnall Park, and wait to see them come hopping through. Since we can’t do that anymore, I thought it would be tough to get good looks at any, especially with the leaf out weeks early. That hasn’t been the case though. It’s almost like I’ve been spoiled by them. Lake Park has been incredible for Mourning Warblers! A couple of days there, I had at least 6. They can usually be found foraging on the sides of the ravines. Warnimont Park was also very good and Whitnall Park had a few, along the creek on the north side of the park, away from the Wehr Nature Center. Pictures below are from the last couple weeks, in Milwaukee County. Enjoy!
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!
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!
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!!!
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!
