[wisb] Hustisford CBC - more good birds

  • From: Peter Fissel <pfissel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Wisconsin Birding Network <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:50:41 -0600

Today I did the Hustisford CBC - I have the section between Hustisford and 
Juneau in Dodge Co., including the area around Lake Sinissippi (Eileen Worman 
did Hustisford and immediate environs.)  The cute little wispy layers of fog 
between Madison and Columbus became thicker layers the closer I got to 
Hustisford, and were down to the ground by the time I got east of Hwy 26.  I 
was pulling in to the Tri-Par gas station as the rest of the counters were just 
pulling out.  Eileen and I coordinated who was doing what roads, and I went to 
the east edge of the circle, since the sun was burning off the fog in that 
direction.  Got off to a good start with a flock of Snow Buntings and Lapland 
Longspurs, but had only the usual suspects for most of the rest of the 
farm-field country and small rural subdivisions.  

Finally, while driving down Wildcat Rd. off County E northeast of Hustisford, I 
spotted a very reddish bird flit out of a bush to feed on the roadside where 
grass had been scraped by a snowplow.  It had a spotted breast, and my first 
thought was Brown Thrasher, but I couldn't see it well and it flushed back into 
the bush when a car came by.  I parked my car and got out to wait.  A Song 
Sparrow came out to feed, and then the Br. Thrasher came back out and fed for 
quite a while, giving me great looks. (Naturally, my camera was back in 
Madison.)

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful - saw pretty much all the species I 
had really expected (although the Kestrel was a nice bonus.)  The last road I 
hadn't been down yet was Eagle, which runs parallel to and north of Hwy 60, 
between Counties DJ and E.  Right away, I had a nice mixed flock by a small 
poultry(?) farm, including a male "Oregon"-type DE Junco.  A little farther 
west, I thought I finally had the Swamp Sparrow I had been hoping for, but it 
had no rufous tones anywhere.  It was ahead of me and the sun was low and 
quartering behind it, so I was having trouble with field marks.  I remembered 
that I had the scope along and set that up. The bird flushed a few times and 
moved farther away, but I finally got on it again.  After much indecision and 
consultation of the big Sibley, I'm reasonably certain it was a Clay-colored 
Sparrow.  I still have to look at some photos online to be sure - little bugger 
was really puffed out, but had a very strong auricular mark that curved up to 
meet the back of the eye stripe, forming what looked like a crescent below the 
eye.  I made a bunch of field notes.  I'll get it into eBird eventually - too 
much other CBC-related stuff to do right now.  (And more to come!)  I'll be 
counting Juncos and Tree Sparrows in my sleep...

Peter Fissel
Madison, Dane Co.
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  • » [wisb] Hustisford CBC - more good birds - Peter Fissel