Big-Sitting in Milwaukee, WIsconsin

Bird Watcher's Digest Big Sit - 10-10-15

With the tiniest sliver of crescent moon glowing below a brilliant view of Jupiter, Mars and Venus (in an almost straight vertical line); Barbara and I climbed into my truck to drive east.  Today was one of two days that Bird Watcher's Digest had designated for their world-wide BIG SIT team challenge.  I of course chose Saturday, October 10th instead of the day in which all Wisconsinites cherish most; Green Bay Packer Sunday.  Back a few years ago; BWD only gave birders one chance to get in on the competition; that was on a Sunday.  I spent only one of those in 2007 listening to the game on a small transistor radio while standing in a cold rain, on the end of the Black River Marsh boardwalk, conducting an all-day Sit.  No more.  Perhaps there were other football fans that weighed in on making the event a two-day opportunity?  I mean c'mon...a guy has his priorities right?

This year I deviated from my past (regular) location at Havenwoods SF and chose a spot more conducive to having company drop in.  The Birdmilwaukee.com team (17-foot circle) was located on the very northeastern tip of County grass (behind the Lake Park, Gun Club rugby field) near the "magic hedge," tucked up close to the big water of Lake Michigan. Easy to find right?  Well...over the period of the 12 hours I stood there; five other bird watchers found me and also "sat" a while.  Barbara sat with me for the initial two hours of the day.  The sun was just popping it's fiery head up above a horizon of cold water when we sat down to eat a breakfast of Egg McMuffins, while sitting in lawn chairs we had packed. It had taken us a couple of trips to drag the day's provisions over to the edge of the rocky shoreline through the dew-wet grass.  The temperature was in the high 40s, and we had smartly dressed in layers, as the sun was predicted to warm up the air to near 70 degrees some time that morning.

Barbara was standing with her back to the lake when a movement in the water caught her attention.  Near the shoreline; but clearly in the frigid water was a man's head.  No, not a dismembered head or anything cool like that; it belonged to the rest of the man swimming in the lake!  Oh yes, about 30 yards south of us, bobbing up and down was the balding head of some old white dude; obviously enjoying a purposeful early morning immersion.  For some reason this just enthralled Barbara as she stood wrapped in her fleece blanket, over her many layers of clothing.  She kept trying not to look; but was nevertheless surrendered to the bizarre nature of this spectacle of human fortitude.  I admit I "looked" with my camera; as this was indeed something rare and comment-worthy - as I have just now proven.  After about 20 more minutes; the guy disappeared from Barbara's view.  She was flustered and  thoroughly convinced that he was a mere figment of her imagination until I spotted the guy walking, covered in a towel, over the crest of the rugby field towards the parking lot.  Note: I later learned from Judith Huf that she's birded many times in this spot in the early morning, and that the "guy" mostly swims in the buff.  Thank goodness he was wearing his trunks this early morning.

Yellow-rumped warbler

The Big Sit circle was strategically positioned just in front of a small group of young trees; keeping the briskly blowing SW wind at bay.  Ring-billed and Herring gulls were the predominant avian species to count; but when you count from one to two you are done...no more are necessary.  Double-crested cormorants, Canada geese, and Yellow-rumped warblers also made their presence known as the sun made its way slowly higher in the autumn sky.  It was about 8:30-ish when a bearded man in a floppy all-weather hat slowly walked towards us along the shoreline from the south.  This turned out to be Jym Mooney, birder extraordinaire; who decided to join the circle in a response to an email I sent earlier to any bird watcher with time to kill, on this particular Saturday.  I really like Jym and appreciate his incredible birding skills along with his willingness to pretty much "go the distance" for the sport of bird watching.  He came into "camp" carrying his scope and a story of how he was out already this morning, seeking the object of a rare, reported Western flycatcher.  Now that's dedicated bird-watching folks!

Jym Mooney

A Merlin had been sitting in a nearby maple earlier; eating another small bird before flying off.  In fact, Barbara and I had seen a pair of them together at one time flying in different directions.  When Jym arrived; it flew back causing Jym to shout out in a way which I have on so many, many occasions when spotting an unexpected bird.  I swear we (birders) don't even know we are doing it, but we do in fact, make some kind of involuntary inhalation noise, or elicit some other excited gasp that communicates our intense passion and enthusiasm for the sport.  I think the day I stop doing that is the day I have truly seen enough birds.  While that is unlikely; it would certainly and sadly signal some inner finish-line having been crossed.  I rue that day; so until then I gasp onward!

The Merlin zipped back and forth; putting on a great aerial display as we watched and I snapped my shutter.  Finally deciding to buy a decent camera has been so extremely fun for me.  Ask anyone who takes as many digital photos as I do and they'll probably tell you they have no idea why they do it.  It's just a kick to try to get that one amazing image that both you and others will go, "ooh!" over I guess.  Plus; the images don't cost you anything unless you print them.  It was time for Barbara to take her leave this fine morning; so we kissed goodbye and off she went to get some things done, including to help christen the grand opening of the "ROSS, Dress for Less" store in West Allis.  Jym and I kept "watching" for new bird species.

Blackpoll warbler

We both simultaneously gasped and looked up at a fast-approaching squadron of small birds flying directly overhead.  Swifts? no...Swallows! What kind?  Hmm..not Rough-winged, Tree, not Barn...Cliff!  Cliff swallows; six of them even, flying south at high speed.  Now that would be something interesting to report wouldn't it?  I didn't get the camera into position fast enough to prove it with an image, however the two of us seeing them, would have to do the trick.  The two of us were also treated to another somewhat rare sighting of a Blackpoll warbler still in that area; which I did get a photo of to prove it.  Palm warblers, gulls, and butter-butts were still plentiful along with the occasional Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned kinglet sighting.  Jym bid me goodbye and left me around 11:30 heading out over the berm of grass to the west.  I ate a meatloaf sandwich and drank a Diet Pepsi.

Jim Toth and Karen Johnson

The next visitors were a pair of really nice people named Jim Toth and Karen Johnson.  They had also responded to the email and decided to carve out a small window of time to "sit" alongside me. Interestingly, their arrival was filled with excitement as they motioned to the "magic hedge" and exclaimed they had just passed a Great blue heron!  I asked them if I could see it from the 17-foot circle if I tried.  Jim walked back and forth a few times trying to see if that was at all possible.  Nope...not just then; it had retreated into the unlikely (water-less) hedges from which it had come.  Don't worry faithful reader; it emerged from the brush and took flight a bit later, making it clearly (and legally) visible to the eye and camera lens from the "official" circle.  <click, click, click>

An hour later and the latest visiting "sitters" needed to leave the circle.  I said goodbye and sat down to dig around in the cooler Barbara had packed for another snack.  Several girl's rugby games were just barely audible up the berm about 300 yards away and I appreciated that it was still very peaceful where I was stationed.  Occasionally there were casual dog-walking people who would stop and inquire as to what I was doing.  I would give a brief explanation of the function and share whatever bird I had just seen when the invariable question of, "so, what have you been seeing?" was posed.  An experimental airplane flew overhead to the south.  An "arrow-shaped" rear-propeller driven airship that seemed to noiselessly float overhead.  I took a few pictures and then some of the constantly passing gulls when I looked northward from where it had come and noticed a tiny bright light in the distance.  It appeared to be hovering about a mile or so to the north and a few thousand feet in the air.  I swung the camera around and clicked off two shots of it.  I assumed that it was some sort of helicopter or something that would be approaching in the next minute or so.

UFO (inset is a close-up)

The experimental aircraft had apparently turned around and was heading back to the north.  I had set my camera down, so I picked it up again to take a few more pictures.  I looked back north to see if that bright light had gotten any closer when I realized that it had completely DISAPPEARED.  I looked left, right, back, up, down, but it had vanished!  Now I'm not a little green man believer; but that was weird!  The images I took are located within this blog - see for yourself and tell ME what it was.

Judith Huf and Jaime

The last couple to stop by was Judith Huf and Jaime.  Judith is another one of my favorite birding people.  She is a no nonsense, tell it like it is, no B.S. woman who'll tell you what she knows about so many bird species, butterflies and plants; if you're smart enough to listen.  I hardly recognized her because she was out of her usual birding garb and dressed up to look at works of art in the Third Ward of Milwaukee.  Unfortunately for the short time they stayed; birds were almost non-existent. Still, it was very nice that she and Jaime stopped by to pay their respects to the guy in the circle on such a nice day.  A single Red-necked grebe floated slowly north as it alternately dove under the waves then swam above for the next 20 minutes, until it had floated out of my viewing area.

I manned the circle faithfully until the sun began to set behind the trees that lined Lake Park up the bluff across Lincoln Memorial Drive.  The temperature began to drop as I packed up all my gear.  I somehow made it to the truck in a single trip with all that stuff and drove home, completely satisfied with the day's successful Big Sit opportunity.

Here's the list of bird species both seen and heard during the sit:

1. Double-crested cormorant
2. Golden-crowned kinglet
3. Merlin
4. Ruby-crowned kinglet
5. Downy woodpecker
6. Canada goose
7. Hermit thrush
8. American robin
9. American crow
10. Red-headed woodpecker
11. Common merganser
12. Ring-billed gull
13. Black-capped chickadee
14. Brown creeper
15. Yellow-rumped warbler
16. Song sparrow
17. Herring gull
18. Belted kingfisher
19. Cooper's hawk
20. American goldfinch
21. Red-bellied woodpecker
22. Blue jay
23. Palm warbler
24. Cliff swallows
25. Blackpoll warbler
26. Great blue heron
27. Red-necked grebe
28. Broadwinged hawk

Red-necked grebe

Herring gull

Ring-billed gull

Ring-billed gull (Immature)

Merlin

Zoo-zee, zoo-zoo-zee!

With its black bib contrasted against a predominantly (and vibrantly) yellow colored head and face; the Black-throated Green warbler (BTGW) is an eye-catching bird indeed.  

To be clear; only the top portion of its yellow head is actually remotely "green" in a kind of dull olive shade.  It's unique spring song of,  "zoo-zee, zoo-zoo-zee!" is also one that even the novice birder can easily recognize, after hearing it only a few times.  This colorful wood warbler breeds in northeastern coniferous forests and covers a great section of the United States beginning this time each migration. The male actually has two songs it sings: "zee-zee-zee-zoo-zee" and "zoo-zee-zoo-zoo-zee." The individual notes are rather fuzzy, however the last note of both songs ends higher.

Today (May 3, 2014) although still somewhat windy, was apparently the day to find them at Lake Park as at least 15 were tallied by the Lake Park Birders by the end of their spring Warbler Walk.  While I didn't tag along as I often do on these Saturdays; I did enjoy seeing my own BTGWs during my solo walk around the expansive Olmstead-designed park, with an accompanying small (par-3) golf course.  A healthy hatch of fresh insects had spread itself throughout the woodlands, and the many spring avian migrants were taking full advantage of the flying bumper-crop.  My first reaction to stepping from the WPT (White Pick-up Truck for you newbies to this blog)  and seeing all the birds flitting around the leafless vegetation was, "Wow...Warbler Mania!"

Brown-headed cowbird
mad-dogging another male

At every turn of my head there was another FOY (First of year) bird!  Of course I'd rather expected that kind of experience having been at Lake Park at this time of year before, however as any true dyed in the wool birder will enthusiastically tell you, "It's like the first time, each time."  The wind was huffing up from the south and pushing along with it a welcome 50 degree temperature.  One man holding a pair of binoculars I briefly talked to, said he'd "predicted this kind of fall out today."  While I'm no meteorologist and don't play one on TV; I had no quarrel with his logic as the proof was clearly in this natural pudding, at Lake Park.

Lake Park trail renovations

Apparently Milwaukee County had come across some funding for Lake Park trail improvements as the beejeebers was torn out of a great majority of them; large stones, missing asphalt, tilled ground and yellow caution tape were ever present on the southernmost end of the foot bridge.  Joggers and walkers zigzagged as best they could to avoid the debris and construction.  Birders took to the ravine below and the grass areas above to circumnavigate the path and extensive road work.  Thankfully, none of this manmade inconvenience seemed to bother the birds; they were plentiful and varied in species.

Hermit thrush

Chubby solitary Field sparrow

Yellow-rumped warbler

BTGW - Front view of black "bib"

Here is my amazing list, from Lake Park:

1. American robin
2. Black-throated Green warbler
3. Ovenbird
4. Brown creeper
5. Hermit thrush
6. Wood thrush
7. Brown thrasher
8. Louisiana waterthrush
9. Vesper sparrow
10. Chipping sparrow
11. House sparrow
12. Field sparrow
13. Ring-billed gull
14. Herring gull
15. Double-crested cormorant
16. Mallard
17. Spotted (eastern) towhee
18. White-breasted nuthatch
19. Downy woodpecker
20. Hairy woodpecker
21. Black and white warbler
22. Blue-grey gnatcatcher
23. Black-capped chickadee
24. American crow
25. Broad-winged hawk
26. Chimney swift
27. Nashville warbler
28. Brown-headed cowbird
29. White-throated sparrow
30. Northern cardinal
31. Mourning dove
32. Tree swallow
33. Barn swallow
34. American goldfinch
35. Ruby-crowned kinglet
36. Yellow-rumped warbler
37. Common grackle
38. European starling
39. Northern flicker
40. Red-bellied woodpecker
41. Red-winged blackbird
42. Blue jay
43. Song sparrow
44. Eastern phoebe
45. Palm warbler

Nature is Where You Find it (Where YOU Are)

Beauty is all around you...Naturally.

Sorry dear readers of the B-Stud blog (all 8 of you), that I have not written in over two weeks.  Big changes in my life have kept me preoccupied...but more on that some other day.  This installment is dedicated to getting away for the weekend and what (extras) just may be awaiting you, if you care to notice.  If you have read my blog before, you know that I spend a good amount of paragraphs on the subject of keeping your eyes open for nature in the unexpected pleasures that surround each of us every day.  My latest example comes from a trip I took to the Minneapolis area to assist my college-age son move (again).  

I LOVE Priceline.  You'd love it too if you tried it.  I mean, where else can a thrifty guy like myself "bid" 40 bucks on a 3-1/2 star luxury hotel and score amazing accommodations that I'd never be able to afford?  The answer is; no place.  That's the reason I ended up a bit "out of town" while in the Twin Cities area.  All I had to do was drive a bit and voila; instant opulence.  This place was a two room "suite" with two beds, two TVs, and a (fill and drain) whirlpool tub big enough for a party.  

On that note, I must tell you I love irony when I encounter it.  Imagine that on your bed there's this trendy little PC sign card that has the header of "SAVE OUR PLANET" and goes on to explain that washing towels in hotels all across the world amounts to millions of gallons of wasted water and if you could possibly see your way clear to NOT having the staff launder your soiled sheets until later, that the world would thank you, blah, blah, blah.  Great...feel smugly do-gooder-esque and just fill up and drain that giant whirlpool tub once so you can soak your aching joints...that will save a few gallons of water eh?   Ahem...anyway, (he continued) I also had a little coffee maker and a mini-fridge to boot.  I felt like a king and enjoyed every minute of the time away from the heat of my sweltering upper apartment...ahhh sweet AC!  Anyway, give Priceline a try the next time you need a room and you are not too picky about the locale...you may even get as lucky as I did.

So I parked the WPT (White Pick-up Truck) in the outer lot and zoomed the eight stories up to my personal haven with my overnight gear.  The view of the far off Cities was spectacular and even better was the view of the wetlands on the other side of the freeway (94) off-ramp. 

 That little area piqued my interest right away, but would have to wait until morning; Nelson and I had had a big day and he still needed a ride in to work his shift at Annie's Parlour.  That's another place you ought to put in your bucket for someday...their Feature called the "Riverside" is an eating man's meal of hamburger meat-patty and roasted vegetables (onions, mushrooms and green peppers) on wheat bread (open face) with a little pitcher of heavenly mushroom gravy and Annie's signature fries on the side.  Don't forget the jaunty, luscious half peach that festoons the loaded platter either - it's all To DIE for!  But I digress...ahem...back to the wilderness area on the side of the freeway.

I awoke at 7:30 AM the next day and dressed for the warmth of the outdoors.  I gathered my usual accoutrement of paraphernalia (binos, camera, hat, etc.) and journeyed past the (do not walk) signs screwed to the side of the stop lights on the corner of Boone and Executive to the great unknown at the base of the La Quinta sign. 

I walked gingerly in the tall and extremely dewy grasses, moving slowly and purposefully towards the edge of the do not cross this chain-link fence, barrier near the water's edge.  I noticed immediately all the varied and colorful wild flowers, and wild weeds that dotted the landscape as I crept.  The amazing array of insect life too caught my attention; dragonflies of many sizes, colors and configurations alongside beautiful butterflies and moths, crickets and grasshoppers.  It was then that I spotted my first warbler of the later summer; a Palm Warbler in the low shrubbery at the water's edge, pumping its tail in that unmistakable way.  Attempting to get a "better look" at it, I ventured into a waist high patch of grass.  That's when the dual "soakers" happened.  Oh well, I sighed and decided that since I was already good and wet, what the heck...and kept going.  I was rewarded for my efforts and soggy feet with a special view of a Canada Goose nest and several pairs of Wood Ducks in the waters near the freeway.  These stalwart waders seemed quite oblivious to the noise of the traffic, or the close proximity to any potential danger; and unless you went where I just slogged, you'd never ever see them.

Being careful not to disturb their solace, I navigated out and around the edge of the roadway where I stirred up a foraging woodchuck who must have been munching on the plants near the shoulder.  I mutter, "that was cool" and looked in vain into the tall grass for more signs of it.  

The sun was getting higher and the birds in the trees were becoming more active.  I stood with binoculars raised and counted 14 species from where I stood.  There were Cedar Waxwings and Goldfinches, House Finches and Starlings, Mourning Doves and House Sparrows, just to name a few...each one bringing a smile to my (on vacation) face.  I felt alive and rested, ready for whatever the day would bring.  

Which when you keep your eyes open; can be quite a lot. (fin)

MORE BONUS IMAGES BELOW!!