[wisb] Northwoods Today
- From: "Daryl Christensen" <daryl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Wisbird" <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:25:13 -0600
Sherry and I and our son, Steve pulled out of the driveway at 3:30 a.m. this
morning for a day of birding in Vilas, Onieda, Forest and Florence Counties.
At 7:00 a.m. we arrived at the Spruce Grouse spot on Fire Lane Road. For almost
a half hour we scanned the trees, encouraged by fresh Spruce Grouse tracks in
the snow (yes, there is snow somewhere in Wisconsin). At 7:30, Steve spotted
the grouse sitting in a spruce tree about 30 feet off the ground. After good
looks all around, we headed south to Scott Lake Road where we whiffed on the
Black-backed Woodpecker, even though there was ample flaking of trees in the
area. We did have a lone, Pine Grosbeak fly over before giving up and trying
Giant Pine Road. It was very quiet on this road with nothing noteworthy. We
headed north to Sheltered Valley and decided to take it east to 55. Just before
the bridge where SV Road turns into Pine River Rd., Steve had a Northern
Goshawk almost take his hat off while looking for Black-backed Woodpeckers.
There is lots of flaking of dead tamaracks and spruce in this spot, but we
couldn't locate the flaker. From there we went north on 55 to Alvin where there
was a big flock of Common Redpolls at the feeder on the north side of town.
Amazingly, there were no Evening Grosbeaks to be found. On Morgan Lake Rd., we
saw a number of Wild Turkeys and a Bald Eagle. Then the snow started falling.
In a blizzard just west of Newville on Double Bend Road, we had our first
Ruffed Grouse of the day. We also had a Bald Eagle, our 4th of the day.
We ended the day with 24 species including the various town birds. Although we
missed some target species, it was great getting up there and enjoying all of
the bobcat, wolf, fisher, coyote and snowshoe hare tracks. There is about 10
inches of snow on the level in the woods near the state line and it drops about
an inch every 10 miles as you head south. An inch or two of fresh stuff fell
today, however.
-Daryl Christensen
Marquette Co.
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