Lakeshore

Today, I birded with a friend, and we heard my BIGBY barred owl around 3pm! I was a little surprised, since it was broad daylight, but we were happy with the sound. (Now, please comment if you were somewhere near picnic point entrance hooting...)

RUBL Spring Blitz

Do you eBird your BIGBY sightings? (Hint: you should!) Once you get on board with submitting your records electronically, it's just as easy to contribute to the RUBL Blitz! Again, a green effort to count these birds helps double: not only does it give much-needed migration data, but we're also making a minimal impact by not using fossil fuel to find them. So, if you can search for rusty blackbirds on your BIGBY, this vulnerable species will thank you!

RUBL Blitz

It's time again to start thinking about the rusty blackbird blitz, which you can easily (and even preferably) do "green!" Last year was the first migration blitz year, so this year will have an additional goal. Now that we have identified hot spots, are they really hot spots? What I mean is: will rusties return to those places this year? Please revisit the places you found RUBL last spring and see if they come back!

My List So Far

Winter has brought me...

• Canada goose
• mallard
• bald eagle
• Cooper's hawk
• red-tailed hawk
• herring gull
• rock pigeon
• great horned owl
• red-bellied woodpecker
• downy woodpecker
• hairy woodpecker
• American crow
• black-capped chickadee
• white-breasted nuthatch
• brown creeper
• American robin
• European starling
• cedar waxwing
• American tree sparrow
• song sparrow
• dark-eyed junco
• northern cardinal
• house finch
• American goldfinch
• house sparrow

Willow Creek

As mentioned in the prior post, here is the lack of ice cover along this small sliver of Lake Mendota. I don't think it's been frozen since I returned from winter break.

Lakeshore

Still no new ducks, but I try to check it every day!

Kickoff

We're out of the gate for this year's competition. This year already looks quite different from last, due to the unseasonable warm spells and ice melt. Right now, there's a bit of open water at Willow Creek, which I'll be keeping an eye on this month. There has been nothing spectacular there yet, but some of the other competitors have gotten a few ducks already. So far, I've just seen mallard and Canada goose there. It would be nice to see some different waterfowl this month!

Yesterday morning, I found "the Nat's" great horned owl surveying the University Creek mounds. Today, I found my song sparrow not far from U.Bay, and a flyover rock pigeon. The latter is a weird one to write about, but they can be "patchy" in the vicinity of campus.

Migration

Well, it's that time again! My warbler list so far...

• orange-crowned
• Nashville
• northern parula
• yellow
• chestnut-sided
• magnolia
• cape may
• yellow-rumped
• black-throated green
• palm
• pine
• bay-breasted
• black-and-white
• prothonotary
• American redstart
• northern waterthrush
• common yellowthroat
• Wilson's