[wisb] Lake Michigan shore - Ozaukee Co. today

From: Peter Fissel <pfissel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Wisconsin Birding Network <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 20:54:52 -0500
Peter Gorman, Jim Otto, Nolan Pope and I had planned a trip to Lake Michigan 
for today, and were kind of nervous about the weather, but things worked out 
nicely.  The storm front cleared out before we got started from Madison and it 
looked like some decent movement right behind it on the radar.

Our first stop was the Lion's Den Gorge preserve south of Port Washington.  I 
had more or less promised Peter G. that we'd get a Merlin along the bluff, and 
one obligingly cruised over not long after I said "This is the spot where we're 
most likely to get a Merlin."  (It or another later cruised by in the other 
direction and made a pass at a Monarch.)  There was a big influx of Swainson's 
Thrushes - they were all over, eating dogwood berries.  We also picked up at 
least one Gray-cheeked (FOY for me) along the entrance road.  We hit several 
waves of warblers, totalling 15 or 16 species.  Blackpolls were especially 
numerous, and there was a big influx of Yellow-rumps and a few Palms.  Also 
lots of Am. Redstarts & Magnolias, a little group of very colorful Cape Mays 
(FOY for me,) B & W, Wilson's, Chesnut-sided, and the highlight, a male 
Black-throated Blue that Nolan and I got a quick peek at before it vanished 
(yet another FOY for me.)  There were also several RC Kinglets and lots of 
White-throats all over.  As we headed back to the parking lot, a small bird 
flew up from beside the boardwalk and dove into the vegetation.  Peter got a 
glimpse of it, and thought it might be a Connecticut, but it flew again and we 
couldn't refind it.

After an unproductive check of the Port Washington harbor, we headed for Forest 
Beach Migratory Preserve, where we ran into some Riveredgers.  Unfortunately, 
the winds had shifted to northeastly, so there weren't many hawks flying by 
there.  We did see a couple of YB Sapsuckers near the clubhouse, and found one 
of the Lincoln's Sparrows that Tom & Joan had told us about by one of the brush 
piles.  We also had another Gray-cheeked Thrush eating high-bush cranberries at 
the bend in the road north of the old clubhouse.

Harrington Beach was pretty quiet, except for a large flock of mostly 
Ring-billed Gulls that walkers flushed off the beach to the north.  We did have 
a flock of 8 or 9 Sanderlings and a Semi-palm Plover just north of the rocky 
point, and a couple of Spotted SPs on the point itself (we had also seen a 
couple of Solitary SPs on one of the ponds at Forest Beach.)

Pretty good day, despite the lack of a raptor flight.  Looks like good movement 
on the radars again tonight...

Peter Fissel
Madison, Dane Co.
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[wisb] Lake Michigan shore - Ozaukee Co. today

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