This site is dedicated to all things bird, especially in Wisconsin. You are invited to submit brief notes (less than 200 words) or photos to me at dalybar@aol.com (subject “LB”). I reserve the right to edit or not use submissions. The goal of this blog is to encourage Wisconsinites to be more aware of birds and bird-related groups, places, people, and events in the state, and of what is being done and what we can do to help the birds and their environment. This is a personal blog and is not intended to reflect the opinion of any other person or group, including the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology (WSO). This blog will be published periodically as suitable content and I become available.
The Dance of the Prairie-Chickens
The mission of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin (NRF) is to “protect our state’s lands, waters, and wildlife by providing funding, leading partnerships, and connecting all people to nature.” The NRF organizes people all across the state to offer hundreds of field trips each year. The fees collected for each trip go to the NRF or other designated non-profit group.
I had been wait-listed on this morning’s very early (4 am) NRF trip to Paul J. Olson Wildlife Area south of Wausau about 30 miles, but thank goodness, at the last minute a space opened up. After our group met, we were led out to the fields where we split into two groups of 4 people each to go to the two different blinds, each of which is positioned in the middle of a lek area where Greater Prairie-Chickens display during the breeding season. Our wooden blind mounted on a wheeled base was set in the middle of a flat field where beans are grown during the summer but was now just dirt and old plants. These birds, while occurring in a couple of other states in the US, are very much threatened in Wisconsin and are only found in the center of the state in a few restricted areas. We sat on wooden benches totally protected from the elements, with openable windows to allow us to better hear and to photograph the chickens when they arrived.
We began to hear to their moaning hoots and clucks about 5:25. Soon after that we could see dim views of them as they danced around, sometimes having what seemed to be mock fights with other males. At first we could only see the displaying males, about 8-9 of them. Eventually three females casually appeared, pecking at the ground, while the males danced around. They moved around our blind coming closer and moving away as they danced, clearly accustomed to its presence. About an hour later, the females disappeared, but the males, now up to 12 or so, carried on. I’m not sure if they thought the females were still lurking nearby in the taller grass surrounding the lek area, which could have been the case, or if they were just practicing for tomorrow’s display. By about 7:30, most of the males had gone, and we headed back to the meeting area for coffee, food, and discussion about the world of the Prairie-Chickens and the people who manage and/or own the land where the Prairie-Chickens live.
Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a Memory Trip
This morning I saw my first Ruby-crowned KInglets of the year at McMillan Marsh about 45 minutes south of my Wausau home. There was a little flock of them singing and chattering, some of them coming down to bushes along the path, ignoring me entirely. Every now and then one of them would excitedly raise his red crest and chatter even more vigorously, apparently at another kinglet that came too close. There were also a couple of Golden-crowned Kinglets that stayed higher in the trees. I spent about half an hour trying to get a photograph of the ever-moving Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Many many of my photos showed only branches, but finally one of the kinglets stayed near enough for long enough that I was able to get some pictures of it.
For many years, every time I have seen a Ruby-crowned Kinglet I have been suddenly reminded of a day long ago in North Carolina. After we moved to Raleigh in the late 70s, the heat and the ever-present numerous wood ticks mostly had kept me mostly indoors for weeks, maybe months. I had been a birder before the move, birding in the much cooler climates of Wisconsin, Alaska and Oregon, but now I just could not face the muggy frighteningly ticky out-of-doors. One day as I was taking trash out to our backyard garbage can, a sudden explosion of chattering came out of a sapling near the can. Just at eye level was an extremely tiny, extremely agitated bird, with the top of his head bright red. A beautiful little Ruby-crowned Kinglet. I was stunned. Why had I abandoned birding? Just because of heat and bugs? Really. There were too many birds waiting to be seen. I had to face it. I would face it. I would go back to birding! And I did! Since then I have never not been a birder. It is too much fun. There are too many remarkable little (and big) birds, and too many remarkable things to see them do. Thank you little Ruby-crowned Kinglet!
Increasing Bird Colors – Maybe It’s Spring?
Most of winter’s birds (at least in our central Wisconsin yard and except for Blue Jays and Northern Cardinals) are rather drab.
Slowly, however, bits of color are arriving. The grass is beginning to green, although the deciduous trees at best have buds. No green leaves on them yet. The male American Goldfinches that have been around all winter now are splotchily becoming more yellow.
Today a pair of Purple Finches were very briefly at our feeding area.. The male ate seeds below her and then they both flitted off.
While not a bird, and not as colorful, it is fun to watch the chipmunks, which have emerged from wherever they winter, zip over to the feeders. I don’t begrudge them the seeds they stuff into their cheeks. And I really don’t mind the much more numerous squirrels, most of the time.
Good Birds and Bad Birds
As mentioned in my last blog post, most bird lovers have their favorites. But birders’ preferences often are broader than just defining their personal favorites. We often seem to judge the value of a bird or bird species as separate from whether we personally like them. Most of us can sometimes be heard to call a particular bird species “good” or “bad.” Such terms most often are synonymous with rarity. A good bird is thus quite often a bird that is hard to find or that a particular birder has had a hard time finding. At the beginning of a calendar year or when a birder travels to a new place, a good bird is often a bird that hasn’t yet been seen that year or in that place.
Even though I am not currently attempting to do a big year of birding, I still am keeping track of which birds that I have seen so far this year. A couple of weeks ago, I heard another Wisconsin birder telling of a huge flock of Brown-headed Cowbirds that he had just seen in the southern part of the state. Cowbirds normally do not winter in Wisconsin. Male Brown-headed Cowbirds are glossy black with brown heads, which gives them part of their name, and the females are a plain brownish-gray. They follow cows around gleaning insects that the cows stir up, which gives them the rest of their name. I had not seen a cowbird in 2024 when I talked to this birder, nor had I until an hour or so ago. Thus, when I spotted a male cowbird under my feeders earlier this morning, it became a “good” bird to me. The odd thing is that today’s good bird for me is actually a bad bird to most birders and to most little birds. Cowbirds do not make their own nests but lay their eggs in the nests of warblers and other birds that typically are smaller than cowbirds, resulting in the fast-growing cowbird baby outcompeting the littler bird’s youngsters, often shoving them out of the nest entirely. Over its lifetime, today’s male cowbird will probably cause more than one colorful little warbler to die. So, while it was temporarily a good bird for me this morning, most birders would call it a bad bird (except I guess it is a good bird to other cowbirds).
Do You Have a Favorite Bird?
Most of us who appear to be even remotely interested in birds have at least once been asked what our favorite bird is. It can happen at the end of a group field trip when the leader might ask the group to tell their favorite bird of the trip. Or it might happen when people first meet each other at a bird club or when out birding. It is a good conversation starter.
I never know what to say when I am asked. I usually just blurt out the most memorable bird that I have most recently seen. Probably a colorful or cute or funny bird. If I am allowed more than one bird and better yet, can generalize to groups of birds, it is much more easy for me to answer. I can at least say that my favorite birds are hummingbirds, cranes, and owls. The smallest, the biggest, and one in between in size. Hummingbirds have yet to arrive in Wisconsin for the year, and owls, while always around, are usually not that easy to find. But Sandhill Cranes have arrived. There are usually at least two cranes, and sometimes small flocks, in many of the fields around where I live, and probably all across the state. Their scrawky calls delight me as I drive along with my windows open, or hear them overhead.
Nowadays owls are on my mind the most though. I am mostly through the process of writing the text for a book about owls and have painted over 40 of the 50 owl paintings that my publisher is allowing me to have in the book. I am to submit my manuscript and paintings by the end of June to Texas A&M University Press, which published my three other books. Although this process is very time-consuming, I have been enjoying putting this all together. If all goes as planned and I don’t have more than a zillion rewrites, it may actually become a real book by early 2025.
Much needed snow
We have had a very dry, snowless winter so almost all the people are happy about today’s snow. The birds are busily scrambling to eat my new deliveries of birdseed before everything is again covered with snow. We are expecting a couple of inches yet today and more tomorrow apparently. We all will be busy.
Over the winter the American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins have regularly gone from being omnipresent to disappearing and back again. With this snow the goldfinches are up to over 50, but there are only a few Pine Siskins around our yard. Every now and then there is a small flock of American Robins in the yard, but mostly just one or two right now. The Mourning Doves are down to a few pairs from being a huge flock during the winter.
While there are at least two Northern Cardinals around, they do not come down to our feeders as often as the goldfnches, robins and doves. Today, however, there was a pair. The female was briefly at the feeders, but the male sat up high in the trees, first in a deciduous tree across the street, and then hiding toward the top of our front yard spruce.
The snow just keeps coming down. An unphotographed Tufted Titmouse called to me a little while ago as I was typing and then was quiet. For now all the birds have disappeared, probably hiding in the trees to get out of the wet, never-ending snow. I expect they do not admire the beauty of it as much as I do (or maybe not at all).
From a western WI friend about our recent dump of snow
From longtime friend Ellen: “In the middle of Menomonie’s recent 10-inch March snowfall, while out with my dog, I heard several sandhill cranes. I couldn’t see them, but I’m sure they were swearing.”
Robins?
Yes, robins. I guess the point of this post is to show that I am no longer just concerned about chasing rarities. The first bird to allow itself to be photographed after I restarted this blog was an American Robin in our yard eating seeds from a fallen seed ball. Robins mostly are absent from central Wisconsin during the winter. Any that are around and those that come early in Spring if there is snow on the ground can often be found in and under crabapple and other fruiting trees. Our neighbor’s apple tree was stripped of its bountiful harvest all in one day late last week by a flock of robins hopping on the ground to eat fallen fruit and up in the tree.
March 2024 Update
It’s been a while since I did much writing on my blog site, but I’m hoping to post much more regularly in the future. My hope is that this blog can become an informational site about Wisconsin’s birds, birding and birders. After a gap of many, many years from when I was at the UW-Madison, I am now again a Wisconsin resident and have been here for almost three years. In that time I have explored much of the state, birding all the way, and loving the variety of birds and relative ease of birding (especially as compared to my previous state, Alaska). I have also met many Wisconsin birders, especially since I became a member of the board of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, and then its VP, almost two years ago. Soon (May 17-19) the WSO will have its annual convention in Two Rivers. I expect that the spring migrant birding there will be astoundingly good, and it will also be a great time and place to meet and talk with other birders. I encourage everyone to check out the details of the convention at https://wsobirds.org/what-we-do/annual-convention, and to join the birding fun there!
Lynn Barber's Birding Blog 