From Birds at Peninsula, 05/02/2010, posted by Karin Hankwitz on 5/04/2010 (14 items)

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Other birds seen or heard but not photographed:

• 2 Semipalmated Sandpipers (Weborg Marsh)
• 1 Black-Throated Green Warbler (Weborg Marsh)
• Multiple White-Throated Sparrows (Weborg Point)
• Multiple Yellow-Rumped (Myrtle) Warblers (Weborg Point)
• 1 Brewers Blackbird (Weborg Point)
• Multiple Red-Winged Blackbirds (including 1 female, Weborg Marsh)
• 3 Turkey Vultures

That’s not rain. It’s birds! :) Welcome back, little guys!!

The Quad Cities had the best bird signatures of all, kind of a big GLOB of birds moving northwesterly right smack dab over QC.

There was a strong influx of birds from the southeast on the Duluth, MN radar.

The Milwaukee, WI radar showed SSE-to-NNW activity up through the central part of the state of Wisconsin. It  also showed big clouds of pollution billowing out over Lake Michigan from both Chicago and Milwaukee, then getting picked up by the prevailing southerly wind over the water, and blowing north.

The Green Bay, WI radar showed very faint SE-to-NW signatures of birds moving up through the central part of the state, as well. Movement within +/- 50 miles of the lakeshore wasn’t evident, so it will be interesting to see if there was significant bird movement overnight or not.

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Nothing has really changed between Thursday (pre-weekend) and Friday (officially the weekend) — the weather is still sort of crummy (50′s and cloudy more often than not) and there is no magic “feeling” of anything, marking the significance of one day to the next.

Sea of Blue Forget-Me-Nots

But what has changed is the magical flourishing of green upon the landscape; everything has literally just sprung to life. It is truly boggling, and amazing, and beautiful. And with it has come a full-court press of Little Birds. What has felt like a slooooooooowwwwwww process this spring (I never did see any teals, wigeons, shovelers, etc.?) has finally truly picked up steam. :)

Perfect still evening on the Bay

I took my sandwich and salad from the Northern Grill down to Peninsula State Park, and picked Weborg Point as the most likely place to have some wildlife/bird activity. It was perfect! Seriously, if I could enjoy a simple sandwich at Weborg Point every day for the rest of my life, my life would be utterly complete. It is impossible to improve upon perfection!

View of the Strawberry Channel from my picnic table

A few flittery warblers caught my eye over where another couple was eating. The birds were a few feet too close for my 10×50′s, but were too far to make out with the naked eye. So I obligingly ate while admiring the gorgeous view across the bay and Strawberry Channel.

But then, a couple of bites into my burger, I saw several gazillion warblers in the trees over my head and behind me! Gack! I unceremoniously shoved a couple more bites in my mouth, snapped the lid shut (warbler poop on my sandwich did not appeal, no matter how pretty the birds are) and grabbed my binocs. And watched the show.

My first catch was a female Yellow Warbler, and shortly thereafter a male Yellow Warbler. I didn’t have my bird guide with me, so was hoping that the rusty streaking on the male’s breast had bought me a 2nd species. No dice though. :) I also finally spied several Black-and-White Warblers, which just made my day, because I’ve been listening to the little buggers for 6 weeks now but haven’t been able to spot one!!

Wood Pewee on a snag, watching for bugs

I was also entertained right from my picnic bench by a delightful little Eastern Wood Pewee.  This little fellow had it totally figured out. He found an old snag poking up in the middle of a number of trees, but open to the grassy area. He sat atop the snag, watching for bugs. Then when he saw one (several?) he’d take off and flit around in circle, catch it, and return to the tree. It was sort of like tight circular bomber runs, and he did this over and over and over again.

There was also a Black-Throated Green Warbler, another happy sight because I’ve also been listening to them for the last 3-odd weeks, but finding them as they sit stock-still in a tree and sing is pretty much impossible. It’s  ridiculous; their coloring makes them totally indistinguishable from a semi-sprouted leaf on a tree.

Of course, the infamous Yellow-Rumped Warblers were well-represented (I’m thinking the park should be renamed Yellow-Rumped Warbler Central!), both males and females were plentiful.

I did snap my best pics of a male thus far; I have a standard (and very limited) 18-55mm camera lens which makes warbler photog pretty much impossible. So any shots I do get, that feature distiguishable birds smaller than a crow :) are pretty much a personal victory! LOL!! :) It was very nice of this little fellow to sit still, and fairly low! in a crab-apple tree.

I decided to abandon my sandwich for a bit (I didn’t see any critters which might steal it, LOL), and take a quick walk down the dock. The dock is usually good for at least a few birds zooming by so quickly that it’s impossible to identify them. :)

My true hope was that I might spot a shorebird. They are rare over here (too many people, I think), but I’ve seen ‘em before, so I hold out hope.

Spotted Sandpiper

White wingbars on the Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper (close-up)

I totally scored! :) There, on a rock right along shore, was the unmistakable silhouette of a sandpiper. I was so excited I held my breath, and just kept snap, snap, snapping pictures.

Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper with fairly dark spotting and an orange bill

The setting sun was also behind clouds, so the light was marginal quality. I kept waiting for her (him?) to spook and fly off, but she didn’t. She hopped from rock to rock, picking and pecking for food.

I was shocked at how friendly she turned out to be. Neither me, nor my beeping and clicking camera, seemed to bother her a bit. She hopped and flew from rock to rock, peck, peck, peck. Then she flitted up to the dock itself and quickly wove around, back and forth, pecking at invisible bits that apparently she found quite yummy. :)

Finally she had enough and flew off, to a rock sitting in the water, on the north side of Weborg Point, just behind one of the campsites.

The light was quickly dropping, so I headed back to my burger :) but on the way I spied a little bit of movement in a bush.

Wilson's Warbler

I saw a bit of yellow hopping around, so switched to manual focus and tried to snap a decent picture. I kept getting pictures of his feet and body :) but the 4th shot finally was of his head! Woo-hoo! A Wilson’s Warbler. My first of the season.

All in all it was a fantastic trip to my favorite little birding spot. Combined with a perfectly gorgeous calm evening, and my favorite chicken bruschetta sandwich, I couldn’t have asked for more. Except maybe for the sun to stand still. :) ##

Sunset over Weborg Marsh, Sept 25, 2008

I can drive the whole park and see nothing noteworthy, unusual, particularly special, odd or new (not counting the park’s inherent beauty, of course — and I’m not at all discounting that!), but get at least one treat, for sure, on a drive through Weborg Marsh. It is incredible, the power of that one little spot to deliver.

In however many years I’ve been frequenting the park, I cannot think of the last time Weborg Marsh let me down. I’ve seen everything you can imagine… Bald Eagle, Osprey, Red-Tailed Hawk, this year’s very first … Killdeers and Red-Winged Blackbirds, Tree Sparrows, spring’s most amourous Canada Geese,

Sandhill Cranes at Weborg Marsh

whole families of ducks (with fluffy little ducklings in tow), teeny-tiny baby Killdeers,  a late-season family of 3 Sandhill Cranes quietly feeding in the grasses, a Spotted Sandpiper, Red Breasted and Common Mergansers, Buffleheads, Goldeneyes, and migratory Lesser Scaups….. migratory Tanagers and warblers like-you-cannot-believe (really and truly amazing varieties in a single day!)……… rodents of every shape and color :) and flowers literally dripping and flowing from the trailside along Hemlock Trail.

One night in winter, it was the deafening silence and inky darkness, overwhelming my senses… there was a nearly-suffocating, and isolating, blanket of nothingness. Another morning it was a delicate, beautiful hoar frost which decorated and sparkled every grass, sedge, and cattail in the rising golden sun.

Sparkly Hoar Frost covering Weborg Marsh, Winter 2009

The raucous and cheery chatter of red-winged blackbirds can surely uplift anything :) seriously, they never stop. They are like Energizer Bunnies with feathers.

Tonight, however, was different. Tonight’s gift, in the dimming twilight, was the faint but unmistakable dark silhouette of a Great Blue Heron fishing in the shallows of Weborg Marsh. The season’s first Great Blue! Wahoo!! And of course, how fitting to see it there. The place that never disappoints.

I also was finally able to get to Svens Bluff, the very first visit since early December. Skyline Road was clear the whole way — no downed trees, and just a little ice and snow (far less than what we’ve been driving on all winter up here!) What a wonderful, beautiful moment! The sun had long-since set, and it was nearly dark of night. The distant lights of Marinette-Menominee glowed clearly across the still-ice-covered bay. Below me, though, the ice had cleared from Fish Creek to Chambers Island, so I watched the wind dance and roughly ruffle the cold, dark wintry water. Ahhhhhh, water. Svens Bluff!!!! A good day indeed.

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However, flowers are pricier this year, and I haven’t been able to get to the retailers to pick up what I’d like, anyway.

I’ve always wanted to grow plants from seeds, but had limited success over the years. And yet greenhouses do it every day! ;) So this must be an achievable thing. Practice makes perfect, right?

So I will have pots full of late-blooming plants this year. I’m going to plant my seed-started plants separately so I can bring them inside this fall and enjoy their full life cycle after the world turns to brown-and-gray, rather than losing them “early” in October.

The seeds I planted today included:

Giant Violet Zinnias
Thunbergia (black-eyed susan vine)
Balsam (not the tree!)
Profusion zinnias
Mixed sunflowers
Four o’clocks
Sweet Basil
……. and, Italian Oregano

I also have a couple packets of nasturtiums that I’m going to plant up at my Mom’s house… as well as some multi-colored Columbines for her yard, too. :) We love fragrant butterfly- and bird-friendly flowers. And unlike my deck, she doesn’t have bird predators (cats) to eat our little feathery friends.

With the exception of the Four O’Clocks, which as I understand are quite fragrant (and might end up up at Mom’s as a result if they attract too many moths and flutterbies), I have tried to pick flowers this year which are not attractive to hummingbirds particularly. One of my cats is quite adept at catching the little things, and she likes to bring them in the house and eat them on my bed.

YUCK!!!

Let me tell you, there is nothing quite as nauseating as discovering a little bird leg and 50 teeny-tiny feathers in a little pile on your bedspread.

Hopefully through better flower choices this year, I’ll attract fewer hummers (because it is very upsetting to me to know they are getting murdered on my porch) and then all the cat will have to dine on is cicada bugs. Yes, cicadas. In my bed. Headless.

*barf*

The first nest activity I witnessed was on April 4th, which I thought was a little early? and it was definitely very cold for those poor things to be back. But by April 6th both the Fish Creek and Gills Rock nests were occupied and being repaired/redecorated by fastidious females.

Where the Fish Creek and Gills Rock pairs have been rather flamboyant in appearances (they don’t seem to care who sees ‘em coming or going), the Ellison Bay pair has been very low-key. Honestly I thought there wasn’t even a pair at the Ellison Bay nest this year, until last week … I hadn’t seen any nest-building activity, and I’d only seen an osprey perched out on the tower two evenings since early April. (Vs. the Fish Creek male, who seems to spend the majority of every day perched atop his Tower, overseeing his Kingdom, LOL)

Well, finally last week I drove my mobile bird blind (car) up to Tower Storage, and watched the Ellison Bay nest for a good 15 minutes through high-powered binoculars. After about 10 minutes of nothin’, the female osprey poked her head up and looked around. :-P So she’s there; she’s just not one of these “let’s stand out on the edge of the nest and screw around with stuff” types, perhaps. :)

I read online that often the same pair returns to a nest year after year. The Fish Creek and Gills Rock ospreys, I would definitely believe that is the case … they seem very familiar and comfortable with their surroundings. However the Ellison Bay pair, I’m not so sure. While last year’s pair wasn’t excited about human presence, they were nowhere near this low-key. I saw them perched out on the tower, or moving around in the nest fixing it up, a lot more (daily). This year it’s nothing like that.

Without tagging them, of course, we’ll never know. And no, I’m not calling for tagging them either. No need to stress them out like that. I’m perfectly content to watch them from afar and leave them be. ##

I did, however, draw the line at rainy days :) neither I, nor you, need to see pictures of gray-brown muddy blah.

New entries will be filed by their actual date, which means they won’t appear at the top of the page, and you might miss them. So, I will post a “Spring 2008 Journal” table of contents, which will stay at the top. As I add new articles, I will link to them in that post! Then you will be able to quickly see what’s new.

In the meantime, let’s play “count the white-crowned sparrows” :) — click on the pic to make it larger. They’re easier to count that way. :)

It felt great to hear the terns’ hoarse screeching again. It’s not a pretty call, but it is part of the backdrop that makes a Door County summer.

I peeked out my 2nd-floor bedroom window and saw a few little brown birds with black-and-white striped heads hopping around on the trees and in the grass. I thought they were white-throated sparrows (which are very common around here), but in the back of my mind it seemed rather odd that they were so noisy. I didn’t remember the white-throats being that ……. obnoxious?

Later in the day I Googled the white-throated sparrows, and realized that I didn’t recall seeing any yellow on these little birds’ heads. Hmmmm. I listened to the white-throats’ calls online, and they did not match. Not even remotely. And yet Cornell didn’t list any similar-looking species; to hear them tell it, the white-throated sparrow was the only sparrow with that obvious black-and-white striping on it.

Now I was obsessed. :) What were those birds???? I grabbed my camera and went outside. I tried to creep gently, quietly, unobtrusively to the side yard… no matter, all the birds spooked and flew off, sort of in a brown wave. *grin* Except for one brave little soul in a tree. I took his picture.

There were several more in a tree below my porch, so I took their pictures, too. After a few minutes, another puffy little fellow hopped out of a bush and onto the grass. He was particularly photogenic. I snapped his pic and he flitted away.

Good pics in hand, I ran back upstairs and cracked open my trusty, worn copy of Peterson’s. I downloaded the pictures, although I didn’t really need to, I had gotten a really good look at the little guys out there. A-ha! There they were, no question: white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys).

They hadn’t been here the day before. They were here all day Wednesday. Literally, they were yammering from sun-up to sun-down. And when I awoke this morning, they were gone.

This morning my Mom wrote to tell me that all 3,000 of the white-crowneds were at her house today (11 miles north of me, as the crow flies) … and that yes, their song was definitely different than the white-throated sparrows. See? I asked … now you know why I was obsessed with them yesterday!!

Nothing like a new bird on a bright spring day. :)