Three Stages of Song Sparrows

The Song Sparrow seemed to be my "bird of the week" last week. First, a colleague mentioned that she had a nest in her holly bush with some just-hatched chicks in it. She invited me over to take a look - and a photo. I couldn't tell what they were just by looking at these blind and naked little bodies with gaping mouths but within a few minutes a chirping adult Song Sparrow could be seen perched nearby and then coming and going from the bush. At home I consulted my book on nests, hatchlings, etc. and this nest type seemed to fit the bill for Song Sparrows. This weekend while walking down the driveway a lot of chirping from a tree caught my attention and I spied this juvenile Song Sparrow at the edge of our swamp. This must be a favorite spot for them since I see them here every summer. A little farther down the road, I saw this adult sitting on a branch and realized I had come full circle with this bird. Nest, hatchlings, fledgling, adult. A pretty common little bird but not every week that you see all the stages in their life cycle! Check out more birds and their photographer's stories at Bird Photography Weekly.

Cedar Waxwings

I happened upon a pair of Cedar Waxwings while on a hike in our neck of the woods this holiday weekend. They seemed to be collecting nesting material and I thought they were getting kind of a late start but then read the following information regarding their nesting habits: Late Nest Builders Waxwings generally nest later in the summer than most songbirds since they synchronize hatching with fruit development. Both sexes bring nest material but females do most of the nest building, lay 4 or 5 pale blue or blue-gray eggs with black or gray blotches and incubate them for 12 days. Nestlings spend another 13 days in the nest before fledging. 1 - 2 broods raised. This makes sense since the big pin cherry tree in our yard is full of fruit that is not yet ripe. The cherries usually ripen up mid-July and I've seen loads of Cedar Waxwings feasting there in the past.

Coincidentally, there was a nest visible very near where I spotted these two. I think this nest might belong to a Red-eyed Vireo however. Fly over to Bird Photography Weekly for more bird photos from all over the world.

Golden-winged Warbler Banding

On Saturday, I had the privilege to participate in a Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin field trip banding Golden-winged Warblers. The GWW are being studied by Amber Roth, Forest Science PhD candidate out of Michigan Tech University, as part of her work on cellulosic ethanol. With growing interest and small-scale use of forest waste and biomass for electricity generation and cellulosic ethanol for automotive fuels, it is important that we understand the demands and management tradeoffs this requires of our northern forests. In particular, can we find a balance between biomass extraction for bioenergy and the habitat needs of forest birds?

The first bird in the mist net was a bird Amber had banded in 2007. New data was collected and stats on this bird were updated.

A short while later an unbanded bird hit the mist net. It was banded, had blood and feather samples taken, weighed and greatly admired by all in attendance. It was a new life list bird for me - #146! Find interesting stories and great bird photography at Bird Photography Weekly.

Birds Return to Northwoods

I spent all of last week in the Wisconsin Northwoods and although the weather was just too cold to do much serious birding outdoors, the birds seemed to come to me. I kept a list of all the birds I could see from the deck and came up with 24 species. The highlights were the Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers that were everywhere; the three male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks; the Baltimore Orioles and the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Our loons are nesting nearby again this spring - hope the eagles will leave them alone so they can raise a couple of chicks. Heading back up for the Memorial Day weekend and the weather forecast looks good. Good birding to you!

Bird Photography Weekly - White-winged Crossbill

Hallelujah! I had almost given up hope of seeing these birds this winter. It is a huge year for White-winged Crossbills in Wisconsin. There are reports on our birding network every day of people practically tripping over them on their way out the door and I have spent weeks scanning the top of every cone-laden spruce tree I passed but had not been able to spot even one - until Sunday. On my way home from the northwoods (where I had been doing my GBBC) I saw a flock of birds fluttering around the tops of some spruce. Oh happy day, there they were! I watched and watched (two passing cars stopped to ask if everything was ok) and got the best photos I could considering the distance. Find more bird photos from all over the globe at Bird Photography Weekly.

Great Backyard Bird Count 2009

It was a great weekend to count birds in Northern Wisconsin. Nothing out of the ordinary showed up at my feeders but I finally managed to stumble across a flock of white-winged crossbills - my first! This is the list I submitted to Cornell along with a couple of photos of those counted.

Chickadee - 14
White-winged Crossbill - 12
Blue Jay - 5
Goldfinch - 5
White-breasted Nuthatch - 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 2
Hairy Woodpecker - 2
House Finch - 2
Bald Eagle - 2
Common Redpoll - 1

December 22

Just finished reading an interesting and very entertaining book, The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. The author, a self described agnostic Jew, decides to spend one year obeying the Bible as literally as possible.

From the book jacket: The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes.

I know everyone is going to be cheering for the Packers tomorrow right? And also for Carolina! Retailers in Wisconsin can't keep Favre merchandise on the shelves for Christmas - reports are that Favre jerseys and the new sideline hat are going for ridiculously high prices on ebay. You can read about it at http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/12587236.html

The northwoods is expecting 5-8 inches of snow tomorrow. Looks like we'll have no trouble doing some cross country skiing during Christmas break! I'm anxious to get up to the lake and see if the Pileated Woodpecker is still coming to the deck for suet.

Merry Christmas!