Chucks, Whips and Le Conte's

Yesterday evening, I headed up to Black River State forest for some night birds. The highlight of the trip was finding the resident vagrant Chuck-wills-widow!! This is the 3rd year the bird has been present. Many Whip-poor-wills were calling throughout the forest and nighthawks flew overhead. It's the only place in WI where you can reliably find all 3 nightjars.
We didn't find any owls at all. Not even Barred.

Mom and I then parked in the nearest campground for the night.
At 5am this morning, I was out running my Kirtland's Warbler survey routes. 2 of the 3 sites were not suitable habitat and the 3rd was only a little better. No KIWAs to be found.
I also searched the area where they were found 2 years ago to no avail. All the indicator species were there (Vesper Sparrow, Br Thrasher, Clay-colored Sparrow, Nashville Warbler, ect) but no KIWAs.

I birded my way back home today after the survey. I stopped at Ball Rd in Wood county and picked up Le Conte's Sparrow! A bird I had missed on migration. No other year birds the entire way back even though I found many good birds.

I haven't been posting regularly because I'm getting ready to leave for the summer. I'm leaving on Mon evening (the 16th) and will be gone until Aug 26th so I have to take everything with me. Check my schedule on the right if you wish to know where I am.

I will try to post as often as possible but I'm sure that I won't have a lot of time and in some places there won't be any internet.
So check this blog regularly because I'll probably be posting at odd hours (like now). lol

Happy Birding!