Bird Walk for One…no waiting

Havenwoods State Forest located within the city limits of the City of Milwaukee…all 237 acres of it.  That makes it one of the most readily accessible woodland natural regions for a large urban city’s population in which to encounter wildlife.  By contrast; New York City’s Central Park is 843 acres however only 136 are woodlands; the rest are open “green space” and water.

I mention this to highlight one of the main differences between a typical “park” setting (of which Milwaukee County boasts an amazing 148 and the City of Milwaukee itself has been blessed with an additional ninety-five Children's Play Areas, Passive Areas, Playgrounds, and Play-fields) and a State Forest such as Havenwoods; usage.  Generally speaking, a park is a place where large numbers of humans congregate to recreate, conduct celebrations, and be near one another in communal proximity; while I have found Havenwoods to be a serene, quiet, and diverse escape from humanity where wildlife and wild-ness abound.  It’s a place where in a few short minutes one can park their car in a generous (free) lot and disappear on foot from the trappings of raucous playgrounds, expansive goose-pooped green space, overflowing trash cans, ugly stray litter, unfortunate piles of doggy doo-doo, and (mostly) annoying crowd noise.

Bird Walk for One?

This particular overcast early morning, I was to lead a two-hour “Adult (more than 12 years of age) Bird Hike” from the front door of the Havenwoods center into the bucolic beyond.  It was raining.  It was Memorial Day weekend.  These two facts pretty much determined I was going to have to go it alone.  I waited an extra half hour standing inside talking over the counter to the delightful Havenwoods Superintendent, Judy Klippel about birds and life…and the weather.  At 8:30 AM I pulled the hood of my rain jacket over my Bird City Wisconsin ball cap and headed out solo anyway.  The rain was a drizzle and not too annoying so I dropped the hood so I could hear better. 

I admit to doing a great percentage of my best birding, recognizing the call and song of the different species even before I get an eyeball on them.  There are times when I never actually do “see” the animal, but that doesn’t (pardon the pun) dampen my enthusiasm.  The first song I heard was a familiar (but new to me at Havenwoods); the “teacher-teacher-teacher” of an Ovenbird in the distance.   The Ovenbird is a smallish olive green bird with a white/brown streaked breast which gets its name from its covered nest. The dome and side entrance make it resemble a Dutch oven.  It sports a jaunty white eye-ring and yellowish stripe on the crown of its head.  Oven bird males will often sing together (one then another) for up to 40 sets; rarely overlapping each other’s song.  The echoing nature of the calls makes it extremely difficult to pinpoint their origin; it is high or low, near or far? Estimates are that nearly half of all Ovenbird migrants die each year during their trek.  Ovenbirds are a distant relative of the wood warbler species and the oldest known survivor was thought to be about seven years when it died.

teacher, teacher, teacher...

This particular Ovenbird was not to be seen this morning.  I counted it anyway as number one.  With the rain steadily sprinkling on my head; I walked through the short (lawn-mown) wet grass along the Havenwoods trails finding and counting.  Crickets, frogs, and American toads could still be heard chirping and croaking in the reduced sunlight as I walked.  Out in the “open” of the prairie regions the rain would soak me a bit more, but when I ducked into the cool, darkened overhangs of the old-growth woods; it had a harder time reaching me.  Almost instantly the haunting sound of a Hermit thrush filled the air between the pit-pat of fat raindrops hitting the leaves of the tall trees.   I walked for two hours in total as the rain picked up in intensity as I finally walked back to the main building, using the overhanging wet branches as cover for as long as I could.  

Over all I was quite impressed with the variety and numbers of birds that morning.  Even though there was no one else along for my walk, I was still pleased with the morning.  I dropped off my birding checklist with Judy, bid her a good day and told her that I looked forward to the next time I would lead a walk - Saturday, September 22, 8:00 - 10:00 am (adults)

1.     Ovenbird

2.     Canada Goose

3.     Mallard

4.     Ring-billed Gull

5.     American Herring Gull

6.     Mourning Dove

7.     Chimney Swift

8.     Downy Woodpecker

9.     Northern Flicker

10.   Eastern Phoebe

11.   Eastern Wood Pewee

12.   Alder Flycatcher

13.   Least Flycatcher

14.   Eastern Kingbird

15.   Warbling Vireo

16.   Red-eyed Vireo

17.   Blue Jay

18.   American Crow

19.   Cedar Waxwing

20.   Black-capped Chickadee

21.   Tree Swallow

22.   House Wren

23.   Grey Catbird

24.   Eastern Bluebird

25.   Hermit Thrush

26.   Wood Thrush

27.   American Robin

28.   House Sparrow

29.   American Goldfinch

30.   Common Yellowthroat

31.   American Redstart

32.   Yellow Warbler

33.   Orchard Oriole

34.   Baltimore Oriole

35.   Brown-headed Cowbird

36.   Red-winged Blackbird

37.   Common Grackle

38.   Song Sparrow

39.   Swamp Sparrow

40.   Indigo Bunting