Saturday, April 3, 2010

A little late...

Had a chance to get out and bird quite a bit Thursday afternoon. Definitely a major change from a few days earlier. Started at Lakeshore State Park where a pair of Blue-winged Teal (63) flushed by an aggressive Mallard led me to a flock of 13 more individuals hidden amongst the rocks (WW Scoter was still present as well!!!). Veteran's Park gave me my first Northen Flicker (64) of the year. I got a later start than I had hoped, so I passed on a lakewatch, though still small numbers of most of the divers around. Lake Park was very active, with good numbers of Eastern Pheobe (65), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (66), and GC Kinglet. I also had a couple of Winter Wrens (67), including my first bird at the first wooden footbridge north of Ravine Road... interesting personally as I have had my first Winter Wren of the year at this exact bridge 5 out of my 6 springs in Milwaukee. We'll see if my 'Blue-headed Vireo Tree' can make it four years in a row this year. Also found the head of a young crow on the trail here, assuming it is the work of a Great Horned Owl. UEC was fairly birdy as well, and felt more 'noisy' in my opinion. Spent a lot of time working the East Bank trail as it grew dark, but no luck with any herons/owls.

Great day to be out!!! I'm hoping eventually I'll run into some of you out there, we are certainly working a lot of the same locations!

3 comments:

Owen said...

Do tell about this "Blue-headed Vireo tree!"

Robin said...

Yes, me too! (RDS)

Sam C said...

Ha. It is just east of the feeders at the north end of the park where the ravine takes a 90 turn to the south. Probably has something to do with this spot being one of my first Lake Park spots, but after making it three years in a row last year I started to get amused.