[wisb] Milwaukee (and Johnson Creek) today

From: Peter Fissel <pfissel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Wisconsin Birding Network <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:22:17 -0600
A crew from Madison piled into Steve Thiessen's van this morning and headed for 
Milwaukee.  We parked near the kite rental place and walked back south towards 
the Art Museum (I had noticed a bunch of folks with scopes looking at something 
pretty close to shore as we went by War Memorial - seemed pretty encouraging!)  
I set up my scope as soon as we got near the lakeshore and the King Eider was 
literally the second duck I looked at - nice to get an easy lifer for a change. 
 I relaxed on the two park benches nearby, stretching out my balky knee, as the 
other guys went down behind the museum.  Based on how actively that duck is 
chowing down on mussels and crayfish, I'm guessing he thinks he's in heaven and 
may not be inclined to move on anytime soon.
 
After some leisurely "eider study", I started to scan the rest of the duck 
flock there.  The other birders who had been there (probably Anne Straight's 
group) came by and told me there were a couple of White-winged Scoters in the 
flock, but I couldn't pick one out until Steve came back and showed me where it 
was.  I had an intriguing sleeping duck with a long tail that Steve and I were 
really working.  It was smaller than the scaup around it, but the color 
(brownish) was wrong for a Long-tailed.  It finally lifted its head for a 
half-second when I was watching and I realized it was a Ruddy Duck.  I also had 
three Horned Grebes farther south, near the Discovery Center. 
 
We went up to North Point next, where there were three Surf Scoters and the 
Harlequin quite close to shore in a little group.  They stuck together most of 
the time we were there.  Steve asked if I wanted to go look for the 
Broad-billed Hummingbird in Mequon (which the rest of the guys had already 
seen.)  I didn't recall Tina reporting it for two or three days, but we wanted 
to go to Virmond Park anyway, so we gave it a shot.  As expected, no hummer - I 
suspect Tuesday's cold north winds may have convinced it to move along (or it's 
gone in the other sense.)  There was a Cooper's Hawk hanging out in their yard, 
as well.
 
Virmond had thousands of RB Mergansers and hundreds of gulls, all WAY out.  We 
couldn't pick out any loons.  We decided to head back to Milwaukee and went 
under the Hoan Bridge to check the Petroleum Pier for Snowies.  Didn't see any 
there, but while we were watching a Red-throated Loon relocate farther south in 
the harbor, Jim Schwarz suddenly spotted a Snowy Owl out on the rocks of the 
Coast Guard Impoundment.  Looked pretty dark.  Oh, and there were two white 
Snow Geese in the CGI, pretty near the fence. 
 
We stopped at the ponds to the west of the Johnson Creek landfill on our way 
back to check the thousands of gulls.  We had an adult Lesser Black-backed and 
another possible first-year one, plus a first-year Thayer's.  There were three 
Cackling Geese in with the several dozen Canadas. 
 
What a fantastic day (but any day with a life bird is usually pretty good, 
isn't it?) 
 
Peter Fissel 
Madison WI 
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[wisb] Milwaukee (and Johnson Creek) today

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