[wisb] Forest County birds today

From: Peter Fissel <pfissel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Wisconsin Birding Network <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:24:09 -0600
The rowdy group of birders from Madison started out early today on Fire Lane 
Rd. north of Conover in Vilas Co.  While we saw grouse tracks in the snow, we 
saw no actual grouse, unfortunately. Did have our first Ravens of the trip.   
We continued on the road to County E and worked our way over to Alvin in Forest 
County, stopping first at the Brule River campground just north of there (dead 
quiet.)  At Alvin, the northernmost house on Hwy 55 had only a couple of BC 
Chickadees, but a new feeding station at a home on the other (west) side of the 
road farther south had a flock of Evening Grosbeaks and a few Am. Goldfinches.  
The Grosbeaks were flying back and forth between that house and the one up on 
the hill - we estimated 40-50 in total.  Also had close to 20 Mourning Doves, 
Downy and Hairy WPs and a few Blue Jays there. 
 
We drove south on Hwy 55, chancing that we'd be able to get through from the 
east end of the Pine River Rd.   The gamble paid off as we had a small flock of 
White-winged Crossbills feeding in the road (one of which unfortunately got 
picked off by a truck while we watched them.)  Farther south, a larger flock of 
birds took off from the road, but we couldn't get much on them.  Pat Ready 
thought they probably were WW Crossbills also.  Our best find was a little ways 
south of there, where we spotted a flock of a dozen or so Pine Grosbeaks in a 
tree next to the highway.  Great looks were had by all. 
  
We found the Pine River Rd. unplowed but passable (it had been plowed as far as 
Giant Pine Rd. after the most recent snowfall up here a few days ago.)  The 
Pine River bridge was achingly quiet, although once or twice we thought we 
heard some distant drumming, and a few of our party saw a woodpecker fly across 
the road that was a good candidate for Black-backed, but extensive searching 
yielded no good looks at it.  The bog just west of Giant Pine was similarly 
quiet, so we went into Three Lakes for lunch and came back out on Sheltered 
Valley Rd. afterward.  Still nothing at that bog, so we went down Giant Pine 
Rd. to the trail of the same name and hiked in.  Almost immediately, we could 
hear a bird calling insistently, and I finally spotted it up in the top of a 
birch.  It was a female/immature Red Crossbill, the only one we've seen so far. 
 We hiked out a ways into the bog on the boardwalk and tried playing Boreal 
Chickadee calls, but got no response after several minutes and turned around to 
go back to the cars.  We fortunately hadn't gotten far when I heard something 
behind us and turned just in time to see a small bird flit into a spruce.  I 
hurried back to where we'd been and heard a Boreal Chickadee, then another.  
There apparently were three, although I only saw two of them, and I think Dan 
Doeppers and I were the only ones who had a very good look at any of them (they 
were close and calling, but stayed deep in the spruces.)
 
We checked Scott Lake Rd. west of Giant Pine, but had only a few Chickadees, 
although I wasn't entirely certain they were all Black-capped.  Unfortunately, 
we missed seeing or hearing any woodpeckers there, as well (in general, they've 
been hard to come by - think we only have a couple of Pileateds and a few each 
of Downies and Hairies.)   No Gray Jays yet, either.  With luck, we'll be able 
to come up with another species or two tomorrow.
 
Peter Fissel 
(currently)
Rhinelander WI 
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[wisb] Forest County birds today

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