Weekend at the beach. Literally. (Pt 1)

This weekend was the first major birding trip I've taken since I got home.  Fri evening, I drove to Riverside Park in Milwaukee where I camped for the night. Arising at O'dark thirty the net morning, I walked down to the Urban Ecology Center to meet the banding crew for that morning. We loaded up as people slowly trickled in. Then we walked down to the banding site. 

The area around the center was loaded with White-crowned Sparrows. As we walked down to the banding site, we heard good numbers of White-throated Sparrows calling.  

Arriving at the site, we set about setting up the nets. The mist nets consist of two metal poles staked to the ground with the net stretched between them.  Placed against a backdrop of woodland, they are nearly invisible when viewed straight on. 

After the nets were up, we sat down to wait. We would check the nets at 20 min intervals to see if anything had flown into them.  The trees around us were dripping Kinglets but not very many birds appeared to want to fly into our nets. In all, we caught only 4 birds that morning. 1 Swamp Sparrow (that we caught twice), 2 Song Sparrows and 1 Winter Wren. 

After the banding concluded (due to the wind picking up), I birded my way back to the car. Coming up almost empty handed, I hopped in the car and headed over to Lake Park. 

Lake Park proved to be the most productive of the entire day.  Keeping the wind in mind, I walked along the edge of the hill. I finally succeeded in finding a mixed flock. It was mostly Kinglets of both species but I did manage to pick out an Orange-crowned Warbler and a Gray-cheeked Thrush.  

Dropping down into the ravine, I found another flock. This one more diverse. 

Fitting among the leaves low in the ravine, I spotted a Redstart, Nashville Warblers, Tennessee Warblers, 2 Winter Wrens skulking in the creekbed, a lone Blue-headed Vireo, Chestnut-sided Warbler and another host of Kinglets.  

Arriving back at my car, I headed south along the lake.  Warnimont park was dead and the lake was empty so I moved on. Sheridan park was also just as dead. It only picked up a bit when I reached Grant Park. Despite the city surrounding it, Grant park was easily the largest park I've visited along the Lake Michigan shoreline.  Birding was slow here too but I did manage to find a flock of White-crowned Sparrows as well as both Swainson's and Hermit Thrushes.  Scoping the lake was, again, useless since the only birds in view besides Ring-billed Gulls were Cormorants. 

Wind Point in Racine provided my 4th species of warbler for the day. A lone Palm Warbler hunting insects in the long grass.  

A little frustrated, I again turned south. This time right into the dark rain clouds that were looming ever so close.  By the time I arrived at Winthrop Harbor, it was drizzling.  I decided to call it quits for the day and headed to Illinois Beach State park for the night.  

Arriving at the park, I set about finding a campsite. 

In all, everywhere I went, there were Kinglets dripping off the trees but almost nothing else. 

It was one of the slowest days I've had for quite a while. 

Continued in part two.  

Whirlwind Birding Pt 3: Nogales to Phoenix, a nine lifer weekend

California Gulch

After the Five-striped Sparrows, our next stop was nearby Sycamore Canyon. 

Sycamore Canyon also runs to the border and doesn't get birded a lot so the potential for rarities is greater.  However, the rarest bird we found was our 3rd Thick-billed Kingbird of the weekend:

Since we had dipped on Flame-colored Tanager the first time, we decided to head to Madera Canyon to find it.  Madera was only a 30 minute drive north to we arrived rather early in the morning. As we drove in, a Botteri's Sparrow flew across the road and I spotted a Rufous-winged Sparrow sitting in a bush as we drove by.  We drove up to Madera Kubo, parked and got out. Less than 30 seconds later, Jacob spotted the Mr Flame as he came down to the jelly feeder. I managed to get a shot of him a minute later: 

A minute later, this Hooded Oriole also posed for his portrait: 

Having nothing left to do in Madera, I called my friend Tyler to see what he was up to. He said that he knew where there was a Common Black-hawk nest.  Tyler lives in Tempe but we had the whole day so we drove up to pick him up.  It was then that we found out that the nest was another hour's drive away.  We drove out to Sunflower, AZ where Tyler managed to pick out the nest. The hawk was sitting on it, in plain view:  

It was my 8th lifer of the weekend. 

After seeing the hawk, Tyler also mentioned that he knew where to find some Gray Vireos. Gray Vireo was a lifer for me so I readily agreed. 

We drove out to the vireo spot and stood listening.  We heard many Black-chinned Sparrows singing. I managed to get a few decent photos: 

The Sparrows were great, but our real target was the vireo. After listening and pinpointing one down the slope, we were able to get him to come in: 

Lifer #9 for the weekend! 

There aren't many places that I can get 9 lifers in one weekend. Southeast Arizona (until now) was one of them. 

We drove back to Phoenix and dropped off Tyler at his house. Then, Jacob and I continued on to Tucson where he had left his truck.  

As we drove along the road to the house, I spotted two hawks sitting on the wire. They didn't look quite right for Red-tailed though. I did a U-turn and went back. Sure enough, there were two Harris's Hawks sitting on the wire. While not a lifer for either of us, it was a decent year bird: 

I dropped off Jacob and drove home to Portal. I arrived home shortly after midnight, exhausted, but exhilarated after an amazing weekend of birding in Southeastern Arizona. 

It was quite possibly the best birding weekend I've ever had.  Jacob and I managed to actually see every rare or uncommon Mexican species known to exist in Southeast Arizona at the time! 

I never expect to have luck like that again any time soon. 

Anyway, til next time, Happy Birding!