[wisb] Crawford and Grant Counties

From: Alexander R Stark <starkal@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 15:08:44 -0500 (CDT)
Hello all,
What a fantastic morning to be birding!
I started with the Wisconsin Crane Count at 5:30 AM, pretty close to a little 
town called Stueben. There's good news and bad news though, I heard and saw 
more owls in 30 minutes than I did on my 2 hour Owl Survey! A pair of Great 
Horned Owls were really vocal and the Barred Owls were actively flying around 
during sunrise. While I was there I found FOY birds like winnowing Wilson's 
Snipe and drumming Ruffed Grouse. 

Afterwards I decided to spend the rest of the morning at Wyalusing State Park. 
On my way there I found Hooded Mergansers, Blue-winged Teal, Pied-billed Grebes 
and Canada Geese along the Wisconsin River. Wyalusing seemed to teeming with 
Chipping Sparrows and American Robins! Everywhere I looked there was either one 
of those two species, I got pretty annoying after a while. I birded on the way 
in and found Eastern Towhee's, White-throated Sparrows and Tufted Titmice. I 
made a few stops making my way over to the lookout finding Red-headed 
Woodpeckers and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. There wasn't a ton of action by the 
time I made it to the lookout at 10 AM but I did find 2 Northern Rough-winged 
Swallows flying about, and of course close encounters with Bald Eagles and 
Turkey Vultures. 

If you've read my post this far...you've finally got to the good part! I should 
mention that I found a grand total of 6 YELLOWTHROATED WARBLERS throughout the 
morning. After the lookout point I drove down to where the road forks to either 
the Passenger Pigeon Monument or the Boat Landing. In the stand of pines I 
found my 1st YTWA singing very loudly. In fact, all the YTWA's were all 
singing! A little farther down the road to the Boat Landing I found the 2nd 
YTWA (and Myrtle Warbler's) and the third was by the Passenger Pigeon Monument. 
At the monument I decided to take a small break of about 15 minutes on a bench. 
In that 15 minutes I counted 10 Turkey Vultures, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 2 Bald 
Eagles and 1 BROAD-WINGED HAWK. Needless to say I was pretty excited. 

I then headed to the Southern most section of the park hoping for a Hermit 
Thrush, but first I stopped at the prairie next to the observatory where I 
found my FOY HENSLOW'S SPARROW and other species like Ring-necked Phesant and 
Brown Thrasher. The southern most section of the park produced nothing but 3 
more YTWA's in a stand of pines next that little park (the one after the south 
loop camping area). 

I then headed to Bagley Bottoms and found nothing of interest, except for 6 
Bank Swallows still inside Wyalusing State Park. 

And lastly I went to Patch Grove to find Eurasian-collared Dove's and struck 
out. To prove to myself that I CAN find these birds I went to Frenchtown Road 
in Prairie du Chien and found 1 bird. 

GREAT birding!
Alex Stark, Platteville
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[wisb] Crawford and Grant Counties

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