[wisb] High Cliff State Park-4/5/11 (including Purple Martin)
- From: Andrew Reimer <andrew.reimer21@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Wisconsin Bird Network <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2011 12:16:04 -0500
As winter is slowly relenting its death grip on the Fox Valley, enjoyed a
walk through High Cliff this morning including the Butterfly Trail and the
Forest-Management trail with the songs of birds filling the air. Probably
for the next week, the paved trails are being covered with meltwater by day
which then freezes at night making for some very treacherous walking early.
The non-paved trails are snow-covered, yet, and were traversible but noisy
in the morning. I would guess, though, that by the afternoon they will be a
slushy-muddy mess.
At any rate it was a great day with lots of first of the year sightings for
me including at least 20 Turkey Vultures about half of which were sunning
themselves on the roofs of picnic shelters. Tree Swallows are reclaiming
their nesting boxes and I had a fly-by of a Purple Martin near the
cemetery. Clearly identifiable by its field marks, but then it gave me a
series of four or five warbled call notes to confirm. Strangely, though,
this was not an adult male. The martin houses at the park are not up, yet,
but there is a tower for martins at a private residence next to the park
which I checked over after my walk. Did not relocate the first Purple
Martin and no other martins were present. Other highlights included first
Wood Ducks of the year which are restricted to the margins of meltwater
along the edges of frozen ponds, two soaring Cooper's Hawks, my second Great
Blue Heron in as many days, Golden-crowned Kinglets which I have not seen to
this point since last winter, an Eastern Phoebe, and six large tom turkeys
strutting behind a single hen along the edge of the cliff. Lake Winnebago
is still very frozen, with no signs of the ice turning gray or spongy, yet.
But there are some larger cracks out a ways holding flocks of gulls.
Complete list below.
Location: Calumet County, WI, US
Observation date: 4/5/11
Notes: Observations made at High Cliff State Park except Horned Larks
were on road en route.
Number of species: 37
Canada Goose 12
Wood Duck 2
Mallard 8
Wild Turkey 7
Great Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 20
Cooper's Hawk 2
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Killdeer 2
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Red-bellied Woodpecker X
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay 2
American Crow X
Horned Lark 3
Purple Martin 1
Tree Swallow 20
Black-capped Chickadee X
White-breasted Nuthatch 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
American Robin X
European Starling X
American Tree Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco 12
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird 7
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow X
Andrew Reimer
Darboy (Appleton), Calumet County
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