The Backyard and Beyond

It’s rainy and cool here this afternoon and some thunder is rolling off in the distance. The forecast says we’re in for some gloomy weather this week. But, the weekend was really nice plus we had time to get caught up on some yard work and get out for a little birding. A few highlights…

On our walk at Fish Camp Park along Lake Kegonsa, we heard a Flicker calling so loudly but couldn’t see it anywhere. Then Annette’s eagle eyes spotted a head poking out of a small hole WAY up in a tree.

I was snapping a few pictures and it flew out of the hole. I happened to click the shutter at just the right moment and got this shot.

Yesterday we explored Hook Lake State Wildlife area. It’s between Stoughton and Oregon. There are trails, which a lot of the state wildlife areas don’t have, and a variety of habitat including extensive wetlands. We saw many of these White-throated Sparrows. They have a beautiful little song that they were singing from the underbrush.

This is the female White-Throated Sparrow. Correction: This is the tan-striped variation of the White-throated sparrow. Here’s some info from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s website: “The White-throated Sparrow comes in two color forms: white-crowned and tan-crowned. The two forms are genetically determined, and they persist because individuals almost always mate with a bird of the opposite morph. Males of both color types prefer females with white stripes, but both kinds of females prefer tan-striped males. White-striped birds are more aggressive than tan-striped ones, and white-striped females may be able to outcompete their tan-striped sisters for tan-striped males”. Isn’t that interesting?

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet. This shows a bit of the red crown which isn’t alway visible.

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher.

Osprey with its catch.

That’s it folks! Have a wonderful week and thanks for looking at my blog!

78 degrees today and a mix of sun and clouds. Isn’t that wonderful?! The backyard is starting to come alive. The grass is greening up, the lilac buds are bursting and the rhubarb is starting to unfurl. We planted 3 bare root currant bushes and cleaned out some flower beds and Annette planted some spinach, radishes, arugula and mixed greens in the raised bed on the south side of the house. Yes, it’s early but there is nothing to lose. If it freezes, it freezes. It was leftover seed from last year anyway. Time to get planting! We also bought a rosemary plant to replace the one we killed last fall. We left it outside and a hard freeze did it in. It was such a nice plant and we’d had it a long time. It had been spending its winters in the kitchen. We’ll try to take better care of the new one.

Everything is still pretty bare around the yard but the grass is getting green and it was a perfect day for sitting out in the backyard.

We started tomato, pepper and basil plants a few weeks ago. Brought the flat out on the deck today so they could get some real sunshine.

Here’s out new rosemary bush.

Is it too early to plant anything outside? I guess we’ll find out.

First of the year Chipping Sparrow showed up yesterday under the feeders.

Here’s another shot of the Chipping Sparrow.

This morning we took a drive over to Lake Kegonsa and spotted 3 American White Pelicans. You really can’t miss them, they are HUGE!

We saw this pair of Blue-winged Teal pair hiding in the reeds along the road in a flooded field today.

Yesterday we went walking at Brooklyn State Wildlife area. It’s about 30 min southwest of Stoughton. We hardly ever see any people there and it’s fast becoming a favorite birding location. But, there are more than birds, there are frogs! Lots of them too.

And this was our prize sighting for the weekend. An American Bittern. Apparently they are incredibly shy and not often seen so we feel very lucky to have rounded a corner and happened upon it. It was very still and trying as hard as possible to look like bunch of cattails.

We had a nice weekend with a couple walks in the woods. Friday at the Robert Cook Arboretum in Janesville and today right here in Stoughton at Viking County Park, which is just 10 min. by car. It’s a nice place to do some spring birding because it borders the river and there is lots of scrubby underbrush that provides cover for birds. Our walks aren’t long and certainly not an aerobic workout by any means as we meander with lots of stopping to listen for bird song and to peer through the binoculars. But, I guess a walk is a walk. Here’s a photo summary of our weekend walks:

Tree Swallow. I love their blue/green iridescent color contrasting with the bright white.

A couple tree swallows wanted in this bluebird nesting box in the worst way. I think the wire mesh keeps them out.

This female Bluebird was keeping an eye on the swallows and when they left the box, she’d fly over and take her turn sitting on top.

Hermit Thrush

Ruby-crowned kinglet. These little birds are so tiny. About the size of a hummingbird.

Here you can see the red crown displayed. It’s not always visible.

Bonaparte’s Gull fishing over the river.

Yellow-rumped warbler, female.

Male Yellow-rumped Warbler. These guys are the start of the warbler spring parade. It really is spring when these birds show up. We saw over 20 of these today feeding on midges along the Yahara River.

Last but not least, an Eastern Phoebe, one of my favorites.

Today felt like spring could really be here and not stringing us along with a semi-nice day here or there. I am sorry for those of you up north that still have snow. Hang in there, it’s going to come your way soon. We took a drive today to a nature preserve in Middleton to do a little birding. It was a good day to get outside with the temperature climbing to about 52 degrees. Here are some of the highlights:

Our first of the year Golden-crowned Kinglet. They are not shy and it’s easy to get pretty close.

Red-bellied woodpecker

A Song Sparrow singing its little heart out.

The ever-present Chickadees. Always willing to pose for a picture.

I took these picture of the Sandhill Crane on March 31st down at the Yahara River here in Stoughton.

Kildeer we spotted along one of our walking trails here in Stoughton.

Greater White-fronted Geese. Summer tundra dwellers that stop here on their way to the north.

This is a really bad photo, but if you look close, you’ll see a pair of Northern Pintail ducks way towards the back.

A Ring-necked Duck swimming with a beaver in the river.

VERY cold this morning. Despite the cold we ventured out to take a last stab at finding a snowy owl. They will be heading back to antarctica very soon so our window of opportunity is closing. Guess what? We saw 4!!!! No good pictures because it was VERY windy—even a tripod couldn’t hold the camera steady and they were very far away—but this blurry picture is proof positive so I’ll post it anyway. We were able to sit in our car in one place and see all four owls at the same time, sitting on the ground in frozen corn fields. They were very far away but unmistakable.

This afternoon we took a walk at Fish Camp County Park which is on Lake Kegonsa. There was some open water and we saw Goldeneye, Common Mergansers and of course Canada Geese. We also saw our FOY (first of the year) Great Blue Heron and Fox Sparrow.

Hold on everyone, spring is coming but she sure is taking her time.

Here it is, our first snowy owl EVER.

Fox Sparrow. They’ll eventually move on to their summer nesting grounds in far northern Canada so we only get to see them for a limited time.

The Sandhill Cranes are back too. I took this a couple days ago at Lake Kegonsa State Park.

It’s SO cold again. The weather seems to be all we’re talking about. Guess the polar vortex is back. 🙁 We needed to get out of the house so on Saturday afternoon we took a drive up to Arlington, WI to see if we could spot a Snowy Owl that had been seen multiple times in the area. No luck but it was a beautiful, sunny, although cold day. We did see an American Kestrel who posed so nicely on a wire for a portrait. Anyway, thought I’d share a few pictures.

The backyard portion of this post. I got a new nut and fruit feeder and it attracted the Red-breasted Nuthatches right away. We don’t see them that much but maybe now we will!

American Kestrel, North America’s littlest falcon. Beautifully marked and colored, don’t you think?

Horned Lark, common and widespread bird of open country.

In this photo you can see the little “horns” which give this bird its name.

Lapland Longspur or Lapland Bunting. Summertime resident of the Arctic tundra, winter resident of Wisconsin.

Female Common Merganser on the Yahara River.

So I know I just posted pictures of a Red-headed Woodpecker but I wanted to see if I could get some nicer pictures with my new camera lens. We went back to Brooklyn Wildlife Area and we found 3 Woodpeckers in essentially the same place as last time in the oak woods. They were busy flying around from tree to tree pounding and picking away finding bugs and grubs to eat. We saw 3 individuals; 2 adults with the red heads and 1 juvenile with a black/grey head. I couldn’t get close enough to get a picture of the juvenile. I’ll have to try again next time. There is a trail through the woods but we hoofed it through some deep snow to get a little closer for some photos. I like my new long lens!

We also saw what I believe is an immature Bald Eagle on our drive between Stoughton and Brooklyn. I pulled over and snapped a couple bad pictures. Even though it was very high up and image quality is poor, it helps with me make an ID looking at my bird books and comparing it to the photo when I get home.

I just got a new, really nice, super telephoto lens for my new camera. It’s a lens that I’ve had my eye on for awhile and finally decided to buy it. I’ve had it for about a week and a half but haven’t had a lot of chances to try it out just yet but thought I’d post a few of my first pictures. The weather hasn’t been great and finding subject matter (birds), this time of year, is a challenge. I did take some pictures last week but was disappointed in the quality of the images and was seriously wondering if it was worth the money. But, after talking to the people at the camera store, changing some settings on the camera, and some experimentation, I’m starting to get excited about using this lens to get some great bird pictures. Here are a few samples shots from my first few days using this lens:

The warmer weather this weekend was very welcome. The so called “Polar Vortex” that had us in its grip this past week brought some pretty extreme cold so having temperatures rise to near 40 was wonderful! We took a drive to the Brooklyn State Wildlife Area on Sunday and hiked up a hillside into an oak forest, perfect for woodpeckers. And there they were, Red-Headed Woodpeckers! A very cool bird and a species in decline because of shrinking habitat.

A bit of a fuzzy photo since I was very far away but still a pretty cool bird to see and photograph.

Later on in our hike, I was peering at a chickadee through my binoculars and out of nowhere, I saw this bird. Can you believe it? An Eastern Bluebird! Being migratory birds, you don’t plan on seeing one of these in January. A few seconds later, the male showed up, flitting around some blackberry brambles. What a nice surprise!

What a nice January surprise! I hope that they can find enough food to make it through the winter.

The red sumac brightened the flat winter landscape.

Fat and fuzzy from eating all my sunflower seeds. Thought I’d throw in at least one photo from backyard.

It’s Christmas Eve but it feels like any other evening, really, with nothing special going on. We had some bonafide sunshine today which we haven’t had all that much of this winter. It’s been so very grey. However, it was COLD. It started out around -13 this morning when I got up but made it up to +13 so all in all, not so bad. I went out for a walk this afternoon on the Yahara River trail. Saw 2 people and 2 dogs and a small assortment of winter birds. That was all. It was good to get out and get some fresh air. Merry Christmas to my family! Can’t wait to see you all next week.

This is where I started my walk.

Not much activity out here. Too cold!

The ice we had last week is still coating the trees and added a sparkle to everything.

Even the cattails were shimmering a bit.

I saw 5 or 6 robins hunkering down in a tree. They seemed cold.

The cardinals were active eating berries and didn’t seem to mind.

The causeway bridge.