Finches, Woodpeckers and Eagles

The winter finch situation here in Wisconsin has been getting pretty crazy.  Yesterday, I heard a lone Red Crossbill fly over my yard, only to be followed not long after by 18 White-winged Crossbills.  Today, I first heard, and then saw a lone Common Redpoll zinging around the Maple tree in my yard. 

This afternoon, I went out birding and quickly ticked off this Red-headed Woodpecker: 

Last summer I found a pretty reliable location for these birds.  They have been in decline so reliable locations a getting fewer. 

The surprise of the afternoon was this juvie GOLDEN EAGLE!: 

Not the world's greatest photo, but it's good enough to ID. 

Golden Eagles this far south in Richland County are quite uncommon birds. Not really rare this time of year since they do wander but definitely a good find. 

All in all, I was pleased with the day's birding. Who knows what tomorrow will turn up. 

Happy Birding! 

Eagle survey and photo quiz

Well, there you go. The above photo pretty much describes Wisconsin in winter. At least, western Wisconsin anyway.  Snow, cornfields, hills, ect.  One thing it does not describe though, is just how cold it can get here in the upper midwest. Last Sun, the temperatures started out in the usual 15-20 degree range. Pretty normal for Wisconsin this time of year.  Then, on Monday, the temperatures dropped, sharply. The high temperature balanced on edge in the single digits on Monday and Tuesday and then fell off the edge. Tuesday night, the temperature got down to -20. That's a bit of a chilly night for Wisconsin. We get one or two of those nights every year, but not for very long. Usually only one night.  On Wednesday, the temperature struggled to get to the zero degree mark. That night the temps dropped again. This time it was -26. A bit colder. 

Yesterday (Thursday) the temps decided not to break the -5 degree mark, hovering around -6 all day.  Thursday night, we had one of the coldest nights I've ever seen.  36 degrees below zero!  Now that's COLD!  Windchills on Wednesday and Thursday dropped down to 40 below and in some places 50 degrees below zero!   Windchill this morning was about -50.  

Naturally, all the public schools in the state were closed both yesterday and today. Businesses were closed, activities canceled, people just stayed home. I have been told that Minnesota closed all their schools and schools in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio were closed. 

Thus the saying goes "You know you're from Wisconsin if school has ever been canceled because of extreme cold." 

Anyway, enough about cold for now. I will be making one more post about cold sometime soon, that is, if I can get my video program to work right. 

Getting to the subject at hand: 

Today, I completed my section of the annual Golden Eagle survey that is run by Scott Mehus who is program specialist of the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota.

My section covered the area North of US Hwy 14, East of La Crosse, West of Cashton and south of I-90.  

It was a beautiful day (albeit cold) to be out and birding.  I saw several Red-tailed Hawks, quite a few Rough-legged Hawks including one beautiful Dark-morph, one Northern Harrier, one immature Bald Eagle and one beautiful adult Golden Eagle. 

Out of all the eagles on the planet, Golden has always been, and always will be, my favorite eagle. 

I'll leave you with a little photo quiz to bend your brains around.  Time of year and location are in small print under the photo: 

late winter, Wisconsin

I'll post the answer (if it hasn't been answered, otherwise I'll declare a winner) sometime next week.  Good luck! 

Happy Birding! 

Ross's Gull update

Well, it's looking like the Kansas Ross's Gull was another one day wonder. Just like most of the mid-continent records for this species. The bird was found late yesterday morning and refound in the late afternoon. It was not seen at all today.

I'll keep everyone posted if it turns up again.

Meantime, I have a Golden Eagle survey to run tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Happy Birding!

Golden Eagle field trip

Dan Jackson and I went along on the Golden Eagle trip today led by Scott Mehus with the National Eagle center in Wabasha MN.
A total of 8 hardy, or foolhardy I should say, birders met in Cochrane WI at 1:30pm. We quickly headed up into the hills to see the Golden Eagles. Scott quickly pinpointed two adult goldens before a half hour had passed.






Dan and I cut out at about 3:00 to head up to Prescott to look for the Harlequin Duck. Alas though, it was not to be.






This beautiful adult Golden Eagle, 45 mins, one wrong turn and a 4-foot snowdrift later, we ended up right back where we had started.












We finally made our way to 35 to head north, but by the time we got there, it was too late the head up to Prescott. instead, we backtracked and picked up this very cooperative N Shrike:








This pic shows the tail quite clearly:




Across from the National Eagle center, we found these Trumpeter Swans:





all in all, a good day. 23 species despite the frigid cold and 3 new year birds and 1 new state bird.

Mute Swan, Trumpeter Swan and Golden Eagle were new year birds and Trumpeter Swan was a new WI state bird.