A wild morning at the lakeshore…

Temps were pretty mild this morning, but the clouds were thick, and the breeze was strong, so it might not seem like an ideal morning to visit Lakefront State Park with the Milwaukee Birders. The wildlife was amazing, however, and I was lucky enough to have packed the right clothing, so I had a fantastic time.

On my bike ride down to the park, I stopped at Juneau Park Lagoon, and as I scanned the water for birds, look who I found on the far shore checking on the Canada geese. It was still pretty dark out, so the picture is grainy as heck, but I believe you can still make out one handsome coyote, and it appeared to be kindly checking on the geese to make sure they were all okay.

Once I made it into the park, I was greeted by the sight of this ring-billed gull devouring a crayfish that it had just caught. Yum! We eventually found dozens of claws scattered around the park, so crayfish appears to be a popular menu item.

The “quiet water basin” was quite full of ducks, perhaps because the wind was kicking up quite a chop out in the harbor, and these three bufflehead drakes were among them.

The most obvious new arrival, however, were the dozens of tree swallows, which were either zooming over the water and the lawn hunting for bugs, or tussling over which couple got to nest in which nesting box. It was quite a show, and I took a ton of pictures, but I got lucky with just this one to catch the meager light hitting the feathers just right for some beautiful iridescence.

Another species out on the basin was the blue-winged teal, and here’s a drake up out of the water for a moment to preen and give us a sneak peek at his namesake teal speculum feathers.

Not to be outdone, here’s a red-breasted merganser drake doing his best crazy-person impression.

The park has prescribed-burned the tall grass and wildflowers, in an effort to preserve the prairie biome, and here’s our first savannah sparrow of the year gleaning seeds out of the ashes.

We eventually spotted 28 to 30 species, depending on who was counting, and then it was time to make my way back north. As I went by Juneau Park Lagoon again, I stopped to see if there was anyone unusual swimming with the Canada geese, and I could barely believe my eyes when the white bird, which I had assumed was a gull, turned out to be only my second Ross’s goose ever. Holy Smokes!

As I stood on the east shore of the lagoon trying to capture the essence of the goose, it and the Canada geese naturally drifted towards the west side, so I decided to hustle over to that side in hopes of a better shot. As I pushed through the bushes that grow there, I inadvertently spooked a bird that must have been perched in the trees above, and look who it turned out to be: our first black-crowned night heron of the year. Sometimes, when it rains, it really does pour!

Well, you’ll be happy to know that I was careful not to clean my shoes when I got home so that some of the magic I must have stepped in this morning might still be on them for our weekly wildlife walk at 8am tomorrow morning. I see that a bank swallow and a Caspian turn was reported in Estabrook today, so come on out, if you are able, to help us find them again.