[wisb] Southwest Wisconsin today

From: Peter Fissel <pfissel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Wisconsin Birding Network <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 22:05:09 -0500
A group of birders from the Madison area went to Wyalusing St. Park today.  We 
stopped first at Thomson Prairie south of Blue Mounds in Iowa Co. - saw at 
least two Upland Sandpipers before we even got out of the vehicles.  Also had 
Grasshopper Sparrows singing, and had a nice look at one sitting on a weed down 
the hill from the parking area on County F.

At Wyalusing, there were several RT Hummingbirds at the entrance station 
feeders.  Our group heard a Henslow's Sparrow just before that, but the others 
were too far ahead.  However, we found several more Henslow's to the west of 
the Observatory parking lot.  Also had several Blue-winged Warblers 
"bee-buzzing" around the periphery  of the open areas there.

At the Lookout Point parking lot up top, we had a small flock of warblers, 
including at least one Cerulean.  Also saw a Red-headed Woodpecker near the 
campground entrance.  We drove a little ways down Long Valley Rd. and hit 
another warbler flock - I believe there was another Cerulean in with that one.  
We stopped at the intersection with the road up to the Passenger Pigeon 
monument and heard a Yellow-throated Warbler singing as we exited the vehicles. 
 We had outstanding looks at two of them, very near the road.  About halfway 
down Long Valley, I heard a Kentucky Warbler singing.  We finally got a bead on 
where it was, and Peter Gorman suddenly spotted it sitting out in the open on a 
branch near the road.  I think almost everyone got a look at it.  The whole 
length of Long Valley was just lousy with singing Ceruleans, and we also 
witnessed an interesting incident.  Some of the guys were watching a female 
Cerulean foraging on the road almost at their feet, when it got into a
 tussle with another small bird.  We assumed it was another Cerulean, but it 
turned out to be a Chipping Sparrow.  The heated disagreement went on for at 
least a minute or two, while a male Cerulean looked on.  We don't know that the 
spat was about, but the Ceruleans eventually flew off.  At the boat landing, we 
had great looks at a Prothonotary Warbler in the small tree by the fishing 
pier.  As we ate lunch there a bit later, there were two foraging in the woods 
to the south.  A couple of Cape Mays were in one of the big trees in the middle 
of the parking lot.

A stop at the Blue River Wildlife Area west of Muscoda on the way back to 
Madison didn't yield too much, although some of us saw a small flock of Black 
Terns fly over.  We also had two American Redstarts which were singing odd 
songs that sounded somewhat similar to Blackburnian Warblers.   We checked the 
flooded fields west of Spring Green, but only saw a few ducks and shorebirds 
(Pectoral & Least Sandpipers on Peck Rd.)

Our final stop was Spring Green Preserve.  We walked out towards the bluff and 
saw a couple of Lark Sparrows sitting on shrubs.  Grasshopper Sparrows were 
singing all over.  As we walked east on the main trail,  I saw a bird with a 
long tail and white wing patches fly up and perch in a shrub well to the south 
of us.  While we were trying to get the rest of the group to come up and see 
it, they were beckoning us to come and look at something in the other 
direction.    It turned out that they were looking at a different Northern 
Mockingbird than the one we had!  So there are at least two of them there.  Jim 
Otto also saw an Orchard Oriole in the small trees by the old turkey farm (the 
rest of us went to check the oak scrub to the west.)

Hope this is coherent - I'm dozing off.  Time to turn in.  May is Sleep 
Deprivation Month for birders.

Peter Fissel
Madison, Dane Co.

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[wisb] Southwest Wisconsin today

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