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.
American GoldfinchPine SiskinAmerican Robin
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 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.”
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.
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!
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.
Like many March months that I have experienced, this March was a combination of slow birding times interspersed with birding moments of great excitement.
When I am able to get good pictures of birds, even the “normal” birds, I forget to be antsy about waiting for the unusual birds. Thus, this little Black-capped Chickadee made me very happy as I wandered about looking for rarities.
Similarly, I had great fun watching a crow harass a wintering Rough-legged Hawk.
My first “chase” of March was to try to see one of the Long-eared Owls that I was told were wintering this winter near Milwaukee. I understood the location to be known to some birders, and possibly to vary from year to year, but information on the birds’ location was deliberately not widely disseminated. Suffice it to say once I learned about it, I drove down there on March 4th, found the wooded area, and slowly walked in on the very icy trail. Not a bird was to be seen, until suddenly I saw one, then another and then a third Long-eared Owl, all quite close together! They were all apparently sleeping and never moved. I was very quiet, just aiming my camera, and leaving the area. I love owls!!
I was also glad to re-see the Carolina Wren that I had first seen in Wausau in late February, when I went back again on March 10th, where I found in singing high in a street-side tree.
On March 11th, I drove east to the Lake Michigan shoreline area to bird alone for a while and then to join a WSO (Wisconsin Society for Ornithology) field trip on the 12th. The weather was very cold (about 10 degrees with a strong wind off the mostly frozen lake). Highlights included my first Eastern Meadowlark of the year on the 11th and two Harlequin Ducks seen both days, as well as the amazingly hardy Wisconsin birders on the field trip.
As the month progressed, Sandhill Cranes, which I first saw on March 5th, began to be more and more evident, usually seen flying over or standing hopefully on ice-covered lakes.
Nearly every day, ducks were reported arriving across Wisconsin, most of which could eventually be found in Marathon County where I live. One of my favorites that I was able to photograph is Wood Ducks.
Ross’s Geese, clearly less common here than Canada Geese, were sporadically reported on the rarity lists, usually only one seen at any one place, and usually seemingly disappearing shortly thereafter. At least that was my experience as I drove a couple of long trips to the south and east without finding a Ross’s Goose where they had been reported. Then I was happy to see another report of one west of Wausau, where I had not yet birded, and so I went off to Dunn County on March 19th. Dwarfed by a large flock of Canada Geese, I finally found the lone Ross’s Goose foraging in an old corn field.
A few days later, someone reported a Little Gull on Lake Wisconsin, south a few hours’ drive. There was another scheduled WSO field trip coming up soon that included that area. I decided to drive down early, worried that the gull would disappear before the field trip. I was joined on my first hunt for the gull by two other birders (Mary K and Anne M). We were able to find the Little Gull, which was still present the next day for the field trip. It was absent when the three of us first got there, but when seen it was typically flying near the causeway with the similar sized Bonaparte’s Gulls. Its rounded black underwings were clearly visible, leaving no doubt as to its identity.
As often occurs with birds that are difficult to find, once one is found others are quickly seen. This was the case with Ross’s Geese, of which there were at least four among the zillion White-fronted Geese (also a bird I had difficulty finding earlier in the month) along the causeway.
Eurasian Collared-Doves are increasing in numbers across the US. In the 90s when I drove from Madison to Wausau to visit my parents, one of my birding side-trips was to find one of these doves that had been reported at a farm. I had not seen another one in Wisconsin since we moved back last May, but had been regularly looking for one since then. Although I was able to see one in a neighboring county in February, I kept hearing that they came to feeders in a town just a short distance from Wausau. I tried many times to find one, but did not succeed until March 28th. I believe there were two of them going into this spruce tree and then flying away and returning, maybe building a nest.
I conclude with the photo above, taken mid-month, of a Short-eared Owl hunting one morning over a friend’s prairie back yard in southern Wisconsin. As I said earlier, and say often, I love owls!
The last half of February began delightfully with the viewing on the 16th of a cuddly-seeming Eastern Screech-Owl peering from the kestrel box of a local birder. I learned that a screech-owl, maybe the same one, has been using this box as a winter roost spot for a number of years.
The next day I wandered around areas of Marathon County south and east of Wausau, seeing Horned Larks and Snow Buntings, a perched Merlin, and the previously reported Belted Kingfisher fishing in a small area of open water on the Plover River.
On the 18th I made an unsuccessful attempt to see a reported Slaty-backed Gull in Mayville, some 150 miles south of Wausau. Since I was in the area, I went over to Sheboygan to see if perhaps the gull had wandered over there. There were no remarkable gulls there, but I was happy to see an American Black Duck in with the Mallards, and a little flock of White-winged Crossbills.
Back at home, the Varied Thrush was there again on the 19th (and also later in the month on the 25th), valiantly working to get a few of the remaining fruits on our neighbor’s tree. I find it remarkable that this bird has been coming so infrequently but regularly to this same tree for over a month.
On the 20th, I went to Milwaukee to try to see the reported Ross’s Goose, but arrived a couple of hours after anyone reported it. I spent the afternoon of that day and the next day not seeing the goose, but was able to see my first Long-tailed Ducks for the year (and for the state, I believe).
The final exciting bird of the month was today’s Carolina Wren in Wausau. I learned about it two days ago, and spend almost an hour then, another half hour yesterday, and about two hours today in the neighborhood where it had been reported before finally seeing it late this morning on my second visit there today. I had heard it on my first visit there early this morning, but gave up without seeing it and wandered off to bird elsewhere. While I had not seen one in the county before today, I learned when talking to other local birders who have lived here longer than I have that there are numerous instances when these wrens have been seen here in previous years.
Leaving birds for moment and going to mammals, a couple of days this month an opossum came to an area in our back yard where I throw birdseed on the ground under two of our feeders. It came in the late afternoon, allowing photographs, but the raccoon that also was new for us in our yard came much later, when it was too dark. We regularly have deer, up to 10 of them a few evenings, also coming to munch birdseed under the feeders. It’s not looking too good for my gardening plans for the summer.
The Varied Thrush, first seen next to our yard in our neighbor’s fruiting tree (cherry? crabapple?) on January 6th, and then not seen again until January 25th, was seen periodically during the first half of February (on 8 of the 15 days so far). The fruit tree by now is almost naked of fruit. I have tried to attract the thrush to a feeder in our yard with cut-up blueberries and raspberries, dried mealworms and cracked corn in the feeder and on the ground below it, but although the thrush sits in our maple tree above that feeder, I have not seen it eat anything in our yard.
Probably related to the over 100 Common Redpolls in the yard and often 20 or more Mourning Doves, our neighborhood Cooper’s Hawk has been a regular visitor, landing in the maple tree, or sometimes nailing a hapless redpoll or dove. When the Varied Thrush has been recently seen, I become protective of it, and often go out on the porch to chase away the hawk, which usually works.
I took a day-trip on February 10th to look for Golden Eagles at Devil’s Lake State Park south of Wausau a bit over 100 miles. I was a bit unclear as to where to look for the eagles, but settled on parking at an overlook near where I understood that they had been seen. I waited. Nothing. And where was the “east bluff” and the “west bluff” that had been mentioned in posts on eBird? There seemed to be numerous bluffs around. After an hour or so, a car arrived, and 5 or 6 people, some with binoculars, piled out of the car and walked rapidly up the road. Maybe they knew. So I followed. They did know, and although no eagles were seen before they left, I was able to see 3-4 Bald Eagles, and then two Golden Eagles about half an hour later. The latter came from the direction of what I now knew was the east bluff, flew overhead, and disappeared over the west bluff, as previously reported. But, the very good news was, they did not actually disappear. They landed at the top of that bluff, and could be photographed there!
Another exciting sighting in February was of three Red-headed Woodpeckers on a Wisconsin Society for Ornithology field trip to a few counties about 50 miles south of Wausau on February 12th. The woodpeckers were flying around and landing in large dead-appearing deciduous trees just off the road. These woodpeckers are definitely not rare here, especially in the summer, but somehow I had missed them and these were the first I had seen since we moved here in May last year.
My most recent unexpected sighting was on February 14th. My goal birds (boreal forest birds) were nowhere to be found, but I had a very pleasant drive up to the northeast of Wausau about 80-100 miles. Birds were few and far between, consisting mainly of Blue Jays, American Crows, Common Ravens, and Black-capped Chickadees, until I got to Alvin, where before I turned around I found a feeder where Evening Grosbeaks were added to my day-list. Just before that, however, along a very snowy road with absolutely no other cars seen for over an hour, I found a Barred Owl perched on a limb that extended out over the side of the road. It was awake, and turned its head a bit as I backed the car up after lurching crunchily to a sudden halt in the snow. It never flew but just regarded me solemnly the whole time. I often say that it is impossible not to be happy on a day when you see an owl (or a crane or a hummingbird). I was very happy. The boreal birds can wait until another day.
