All along the lake front…

As promised, I joined the Milwaukee Birders this morning in their quest to “go find some birds,” and our first stop was the Windpoint Lighthouse in Racine County. There, we were lucky enough to get eyes on the purple sandpiper (Calidris maritima) that has had folks all atwitter lately. This is certainly a new bird for me, and I read that we need not be alarmed by its seeming predicament because they “breed on arctic tundra[, and] they spend winters on North Atlantic shores, farther north than any other shorebird,” so this scene appears to be right up their alley.

Next, we stopped by the bird feeder at Grant Park in hopes at getting a fresh glimpse of the evening grosbeak for the new year. There was little chance of that happening this morning, however, because there was a pair of Cooper’s hawks perched high in the trees above, and they may have been hoping for something along those same lines.

Finally, as far as the presentable pictures go, we moved a bit north in Grant Park to where screech-owls have been heard and spotted lately, and after a nice stroll through the woods, John Kasper found us this gorgeous creature. “Thanks, John!”

From there we continued north along the waterfront and spotted six bucks beside the road, a wild turkey, a mute swan, a hooded merganser, an American coot, and a pair of long-tailed ducks, but most of them were far beyond the reach of my gear, so you’ll just have to see them in your mind’s eye for now.

Thanks to Donna and Katie for putting together this tour of the lakefront, Donna providing transportation, and John for taking the lead once we were on foot.

I see that the winds will be light and the air will be seasonably warm tomorrow morning, so come on out, if you can, to help us find wildlife in Estabrook Park. We’ll start at 8am in the beer garden parking lot.