Settling in at home

Hey everyone!  Sorry I've been rather absent from the blog world lately. I've been either swamped with birding, swamped with photo editing, swamped with scheduling, swamped with traveling, or just plain swamped.  I'll try to get back into the grind and crank out some more blog posts soon.  I've mentioned this before, but I've been unable to post any new photos lately since my computer hard drive has, inevitably, filled up. I have spent the last several days backing up photos and deleting them from my computer.  Hopefully, I will soon have enough space to upload all the new photos from my trip to California and my trip back home.   I will then be able to fully relate my adventures on the far western coast of the USA.  

As for now, I am settling back into "normal" life back home here in WI.  

After I returned home, my friends and I attended the WSO's Jaegerfest weekend  at WI Point. 

Unfortunately, this year was slower than last year with passerines being almost nonexistent.  We had a good show of Parasitic Jaegers with at least 6 being seen and a single flyby Long-tailed Jaeger.  

Just like last year, the weather was perfect, the lake dead calm and not much in the way of birds except for the thousands of Ring-billed Gulls present.   

Hopefully next year will be more productive. 

Here in WI, we're starting to wind down towards the tail end of migration.  Warblers are still moving through, but in much smaller numbers. Species diversity has also dropped and numbers of Yellow-rumps have increased.  

This weekend, I am attending a banding session at the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee on Sat. Then, I am camping at Illinois Beach State park that night where I am meeting some other young birders and birding the Chicago lakefront on Sunday.  Should be a fun weekend. 

Hopefully, I'll be able to post about my CA adventures sometime soon.  Just as soon as I can upload the photos off my camera. 

Til next time, Happy Birding!