Whatever that crazy weather system was that gave us all that fog and rain for days has finally moved on, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky today. It’s also the second Sunday of the month, so time for the Milwaukee Birders to visit Lakeshore State Park, and I thought it might be a nice morning to join them. Finally, daylight saving time started overnight, so the sun didn’t rise until 7:16, and I could take my sweet time getting down there.
The first result of that great confluence of events was spotting this guy, a lesser scaup (Aythya affinis), by the looks of that little peak at the back of his head. I’ve only ever seen his bigger cousin, the greater scaup, in Estabrook so far, and maybe this will be the year one will pay us a visit.
There were also plenty of red-breasted mergansers in the lagoon, a few common goldeneyes, and even a couple of redheads, but we’ve seen plenty of the former, and the latter evaded me today, so here’s a pretty, male house finch I found watching the sun rise as I waited for the rest of the group to arrive.
Once the gang assembled, and we started making our way around the park, the first big surprise was spotting this snow bunting, only my second ever, and the first one close enough for us to determine that she’s a “nonbreeding female.”
I read that “in the spring, the buntings do not moult as many other passerines do; instead the breeding colours come with the wearing and abrasion of the brown fringes to show just the black centres of the feathers.” She’s due to arrive in the arctic in mid-May, 4-6 weeks after the males, and then she can get to rubbing that brown off. Cool.
That sighting was worth celebrating, and this guy got it!
But wait, there’s more! Plenty of gulls were resting on the ice that still covers much of the lagoon, but when I checked, all I could see were herring gulls. As we neared the end of the loop, I asked if anyone had seen anything else, and a birder with far more skill than me, and even works for Audubon, casually mentioned the young glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus) right in front of us. Ha!
I read that herring gulls can weigh up to 3.64 lb, and they tower over the ring-billed gulls that max out at 1.71 lb, but they are both pipsqueaks compared to the glaucous gull, which can tip the scales at a whopping 5.95 lb! That makes “them the heaviest” gulls in the world! Yikes! How could I miss it? “Get your head in the game, Dressel!”
Then it was time for everyone to get on with their day, and I headed back to the north end where I had locked my bike, and on my way, I finally got a nice portrait of one of the dozens of song sparrows we had seen. When I was in Estabrook yesterday, I counted eight, including my first for the year, and it seemed as though a basket of them had been dumped in the park overnight, but that was nothing compared to the multitude we saw along the lakefront. I’ve seen this type of mass arrival before with white-throated sparrows, but this is the first time I’ve seen song sparrows do the same. Live and learn, eh? In any case, “Welcome back, sweeties!”
Lastly, just as I was approaching my bike, I noticed one, nearly all dark bird out on the lagoon, and I wondered who that could be. It’s got that funky bill that I mistakenly thought a young goldeneye had back in January and white patches on its face like those on the surf scoter I showed you a couple of falls ago, but that white patch on its wing makes it the first white-winged scoter (Melanitta deglandi) that I’ve ever been able to show you, and that brownish color makes her a hen.
Now, that’s what I call a morning!
The forecast for tomorrow calls for more clear skies, much warmer temps than this morning, and a stiff breeze out of the southwest, so it should be a good time to see if anyone new rode that breeze into town. Join us at the beer garden parking lot at 8 for our weekly wildlife walk if you can.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 