Wow, we’re already heading out of January and into February!! The past few weeks have flown by and since I’ve been focusing on reviewing my 2015 goals, setting 2016 goals, and the Costa Rica trip reports, I haven’t posted any local updates. I’ve been out birding quite a bit this year and next week I plan to post about my species number and days out birding this January compared to the past few years. It’ll be interesting to see how my new work schedule has affected my birding. But for now, here’s some of the birds I’ve seen so far in 2016.
Earlier in the year I joined Todd, Stuart, and Ross on their weekly Wednesday morning birding trip. Like me, Todd works second shift, but has Wednesdays off. For the past 4 years, he and Stuart have been birding Wednesdays and making me very jealous while I was stuck at work watching them post their findings. Well all of that has now changed and I’m able to join them!
We found a few Red-headed Woodpeckers knocking around. The photo below is heavily cropped in order to show the remaining brown head feathers indicating a immature.
Red-headed Woodpecker – Wolf River Bottoms in Outagamie County, WI 1-6-2016
The following Wednesday, in 0 degree Fahrenheit temps (that’s -18 degrees Celsius for most of the world) we headed for the Buena Vista grasslands. We each added some first of year species, but I had to head back earlier for work and missed on the Greater Prairie Chickens. Oh darn….guess I’ll just have to go back out there this spring!
Buena Vista Grasslands, WI 1-13-2016
Spent some time working on my Calumet County year list – need all the birds I can get if I’m going to keep up with Dar!
A good size flock of Snow Buntings in a tree. Calumet Count, WI 1-11-2016
On January 9th, the Northeast Wisconsin Birding Club was treated to a fascinating presentation on the banding and track of Golden Eagles in Waupaca County. The following weekend, January 16th, was our club field trip where we searched for Golden Eagles in the same county. Although we missed on the Goldens, we did find this immature Bald Eagle feasting in a snow covered field.
NWBC field trip. Bald Eagle – Waupaca County, WI 1-16-2016
Bald Eagle – Waupaca County, WI 1-16-2016
On January 19th, Stuart and I headed down to Oshkosh. Found a nicely perched Northern Shrike and a flock of Cedar Waxwings getting fat on berries.
Northern Shrike – Oshkosh, WI 1-19-2016
Cedar Waxwing – Oshkosh, WI 1-19-2016
Cedar Waxwing – Oshkosh, WI 1-19-2016
Cedar Waxwing – Oshkosh, WI 1-19-2016
The following day Stuart and I did some gulling down in Jefferson County.
Iceland Gull – Jefferson County, WI 1-20-2016
The day after I was working from home – yes, this is why I decided to work from home full-time – when a Cooper’s Hawk visited to hunt sparrows on my brush pile! The photos below were taken while I was on the phone working with a client – working from home and birding will definitely improve my multitasking skills!
Cooper’s Hawk – Menasha, WI 1-21-2016
Cooper’s Hawk – Menasha, WI 1-21-2016
Took two trips to find the worlds fastest animal in Oshkosk, but it was worth it!
Peregrine Falcon – Oshkosh, WI 1-22-2016
So there you have it – a quick recap of some of the birds I’ve seen to date in 2016. Next week I should be back with another Costa Rica Trip Report and a summary of my January birding. Until then, Bird It Up!
Some days on a tropical birding trip are just more memorable than others, and this day happened to be one of them. That’s not to dis any of the days – they were each memorable, productive, exciting, and fun. This day was just kicked up a notch due to an unexpected sighting and the phrase “Forget the horses,” which none of the tour participants will ever forget. But, I’m getting ahead of myself…….
We woke for the last time at the Celeste Mountain Lodge; today, March 21st, 2015, we would be saying goodbye to heaven. If I haven’t made it clear yet, Celeste Mountain Lodge was a place I wanted to stay. So much so, that I did inquire with the owners about a job. But alas, I’m back in Wisconsin. Our guide Richard had tried to reserve rooms for a third night at this lodge, but they were already booked. So after some morning birding and one final delicious lunch, we’d be headed 15 minutes down the road to Heliconias Lodge.
Day 7 – From Celeste Mountain Lodge To Heliconias Lodge 15 minutes down the road.
After some coffee and a bit of birding at the lodge feeders, we headed back across the street to the properties reserve for a pre-breakfast walk where we got excellent looks at a Dull-Mantled Antbird and fleeting looks at a Gray-chested Dove.
Dull-Mantled Antbird – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
We returned to Celeste for breakfast and as would be expected, some birding at their feeders.
Green Honeycreeper (female) at the Celeste Mountain Lodge feeders – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Golden-Hooded Tanager at Celeste Mountain Lodge feeders – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
After breakfast we returned to the nearby road which we birded the day before. When we went to board the bus, an extremely tame White-Nosed Coati was wandering around the driveway. Michael learned just how sharp their claws are as it stood on it’s hind legs and put it’s front paws on his leg, like a friendly dog would. Quickly backing away, Michael let us know just how sharp they were, and he had the small hole in his pants to testify to it!
Michael & Tom investigating a White-Nosed Coati….or was the coati investigating them? Celeste Mountain Lodge – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Keel-billed Motmot on the left, Broad-Billed Motmot on the right. Near Celeste Mountain Lodge – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Your’s truly watching a Blue Morph Butterfly. Can you see the brilliant blue of the butterfly? Costa Rica 3-21-2015. Photo courtesy of Nancy at Bluestar Enterprises.
Although Michael & Nancy spent most their time birding, they were also on a family vacation as Nancy’s husband Lance and daughter Amanda were along for the tour. Most days while we were birding, Lance and Amanda would be off on their own excursions like visiting waterfalls, ziplining, or simply lounging around the lodge or pool. On this morning they were off doing a horseback ride, but little did we know they’d be following the same road we were birding. Around the bend comes Amanda and Lance – with Lance in a memorable pink helmet. Most of us were watching them when Richard uttered those now famous words – “Forget the horses!!” Those words were followed by Umbrellabird and immediately the horses were forgotten.
The Bare-necked Umbrellabird is endemic to Costa Rica and western Panama and is officially listed as endangered. According to Birdlife.org, the breeding population in Costa Rica is estimated at 190-330 mature individuals. Along with Panama’s population, the global population for the Bare-necked Umbrellabird is placed at 1,000-2,499 mature individuals. Stated another way – this is a hard bird to see and likely the rarest I’ve ever seen if global populations are below 2,500 individuals!
Forgetting the horses was easy as this usually hard to see bird sat content in a nearby tree for a good 7-10 minutes. Everyone in the group got excellent looks and Tom shot some amazing video through his scope. This bird deserves some love…..
If Elvis was a bird, he’d be a Bare-necked Umbrellabird. Costa Rica 3-21-2015Bare-necked Umbrellabird – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
I was also able to capture some video through my camera:
With smiles all around after getting killer looks of the Bare-necked Umbrellabird, we boarded the bus in route to another nature reserve. Along the way we found one of my target birds for the trip – Bat Falcon.
Bat Falcon – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Bat Falcon – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
Bat Falcon – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
Bat Falcon – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
Bat Falcon – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
We also crossed a river where the water runs blue…….
Costa Rica 3-21-2015
Once at the nature reserve we were treated to some great looks at a host of birds and flowers. Although I didn’t get a photo of it, one of the highlights was hearing and seeing a nearby Laughing Falcon!
Summer Tanager – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
White-collared Seedeater – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
White-collared Seedeater – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
Banaquit – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Social Flycatcher – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Flower – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Flower – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
It’s kind of fun traveling with the guide that everyone wants to have!! Multiple times throughout the trip Richard stopped to autograph copies of his book – and not just for birders, the other guides were also after signed copies!
Need a guide? Look no further than Richard Garrigues!!!
After saying goodbye to the Celeste Mountain Lodge for the last time, we were off down the road to Heliconias Lodge.
Heliconias Lodge – Costa Rica 3-21-2015A few from our room at Heliconias Lodge – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
One of the benefits of lodging at Heliconias is the hiking trails located right on the property. We spent the afternoon exploring these trails, which includes three suspension bridges – one of them a double bridge which wraps around a large tree.
Dar enjoying some birding near the canopy level on one of the suspension bridges – Costa Rica 3-21-2015I apologize for the crappy, heavily cropped photo, but you can still make out the Black-throated Trogon in a nesting cavity – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
I know the photo below doesn’t do the bird justice, but at Heliconias we ticked off our 7th trogon in 7 days! And with the Resplendent Quetzal it was our 8th species from the Trogonidae family in the first week! Could we complete a trogon slam? Although there are two other trogons found in Costa Rica that we had yet to see, one was out of range from our tour, so that left just one more to find over the next 7 days. If you’re one of those inquiring minds that wants to know whether we got it, well you’ll just have to keeping following these trip reports to find out.
Trogon species #7 – Lattice-tailed Trogon – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Plant – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Flower – Costa Rica 3-21-2015
I thought it would be nearly impossible to compete with our bird of the day – the 10 minute looks of a very cooperative Bare-necked Umbrella bird – but Richard found a way to try; ant swarm #2!! Some tours never come across a single army ant swarm and here we were enjoying our second. A couple of the birds brought in by the swarm:
Spotted Antbird right where you’d expect to find a bird with “ant” in it’s name, at an ant swarm – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Spotted Antbird – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Zeledon’s Antbird – Costa Rica 3-21-2015Your’s truly surveying the canopy on one of the Heliconias suspension bridges – Costa Rica 3-21-2015 Photo credits: Thanks to Dar (I think???) for this photo.
Bare-necked Umbrellabird, a second ant swarm, Laughing and Bat Falcons, if there is one thing this tour didn’t do, it’s disappoint! Spoiler alert – we’ll be leaving this area of Costa Rica in the next trip report; whole new terrain, lots of photos, and some magnificent birds! Bird It Up!
Since I’m sharing only a small portion of my photos, and since those only represent a small fraction of what we saw, below is a list of other notable species from day 7:
Tundra Swans at Jefferson Park – Menasha, WI 1-10-2016
I bet you didn’t expect me back with another post this quick and based on my recent negligence in posting I completely understand. But, we’re already 13 days into the new year so I need to get these out and start working towards them. So, let’s start with my 2016 goals and then we’ll move on to where exactly this blog is headed. And as always, I’ll scattered some photos about to help feed your birding addiction.
2016 Goals:
250 year birds for the state of Wisconsin!
Yes, this is my same goal from last year, but since I failed to reach it in 2015, I’ll keep it for the new year. Further down in this post under “Where this blog is headed in 2016” I’ll explain why I believe I’ll achieve it.
4 county big year with Michael – 235 species!
Although I didn’t have this as a goal last year, Michael and I did a 4 county big year in Wisconsin. We combined our species list for the four counties surrounding us (Outagamie, Calumet, Waupaca, and Winnebago). It was the first time we did this and we set a high goal of 250 species! Although we came up short at 222 species in 2015, I still think we had an impressive year. Well, truth be told Michael carried us last year and picked up a number of species I couldn’t get out to. This year I think we have a legit shot at our goal.
Lead Calumet County in species seen as reported byeBird!
Last year fellow NWBC member Dar crushed the Calumet County big year by coming up with 178 species (actually over 180, but he didn’t get all his checklists in yet – 180+ is even more impressive)! For reference, my high in 2013 was 144 species. Hopefully I can get out in Calumet County more this year – last year I failed to make a single trip to Killsnake which is a great birding spot in the county. Hopefully this goal will help get me back to some county areas I failed to bird last year.
January 100 species mini-goal!
Stuart and I were talking recently and he mentioned something about a 100 species January and I thought that was an interesting goal. This one is going to be really, really tough – especially because I don’t chase to many birds more than an hour or 90 minutes away. However, it sounded like a fun way to get off to a fast start and a goal I could see trying for each year.
Improve my bird songs/calls recognition!
This year I’m focusing on making a big leap in my song and call recognition. For non-birders, learning songs might be even more important than learning field marks. Obviously if a bird is calling but hidden, you can still “recognize” the species by the call. Plus, you can hear calls from a distance and if you can recognize the call, you know what habitat to search and where within that habitat (down low in the scrub, mid-level, top of the tree). I was originally planning on an hour a day working on bird songs, but that might be a bit tough…especially once migration starts. So I’ll divide that in half and shoot for 183 hours of study this year. I’m hoping to track and do a monthly recap throughout the year. I’ll explain more about what tools I use in my January recap.
North Dakota birding trip!
One of the NWBC club members, Neil, has been birding North Dakota for a number of years. He’s offered to take a small group of us out to bird at the end of May and I will be joining him! It’s an exciting opportunity to pickup some life birders and tour the state with someone who knows the area well. Trip reports will follow.
Complete the Costa Rica Trip Reports!
Yes, I realize I’ve been slacking on my trip reports, but fear not – I still have the resolve to complete them. My plan is to have all trip reports completed by May 1st at the latest. That way when I get back from North Dakota I can focus on my 2016 trip.
Finish planting flowers for my hummingbird/butterfly garden!
I have about half my garden to go and I want to finish it off this year! Columbine, Cardinal Flower, Bee Balm, etc… still to be added.
Winter Wren – one of two I found at Heckrodt Wetland Reserve in Menasha, WI 1-10-2016
Where this blog is headed in 2016:
A few posts back I noted that I had made some personal changes that I would elaborate on at a future date. So, here we go…. At the end of November I accepted a new position with my company. Before I took a job with this company in August 2014, I had a lot of flexibility as a technical writer with my former employer; as long as I got my 40 hours a week in, they would allow me to come in late (could bird the mornings) or leave in the middle of the day to do a bit of chasing. When I left that company I went to a straight 7am-3:30pm shift which didn’t have the flexibility to leave in the middle of the day or come in late (hence, one of the reasons my 2015 WI year total is quite low).
Well, all that has been remedied! My new position hours are 3pm-11pm. This allows me to get out early in the AM during spring migration and will allow me to make runs I couldn’t under my old schedule, such as a run to the Lake Michigan shoreline. But working 3-11pm isn’t the only benefit! Now, I will be birding from work as I’m officially working from home fulltime – WOOHOOO!! This is a dream job for me. My desk is setup overlooking my backyard so even when I’m working I can still bird. Some other benefits of this new position – it’s a straight 8 hours (no half hour break included) so I gain 2.5 hours per week right there. Add my average commute time of 2.5 hours per week and I’m now saving 5 hours per week!! And if that isn’t reason enough, how about birding the parks and nature preserves during weekdays when everyone else is at work – to me, this is a huge advantage! No teenagers to deal with who just got out of class and are running around screaming in the parks or having to deal with the massive influx of people with wagonloads of props getting family photos taken. Ahhh yes, life is good!!!
My new office!
So what does all this mean for the blog in 2016? Well, I’m hoping to post more, but with less text. I subscribe to a lot of bird blogs from around the world and the thing I most like is seeing photos of all the birds I don’t get to see; it’s an interesting way to learn about what birds are out there that I’ve never heard of. So although I’m going to have more time for birding, I’m also going to be focusing on other things like enhancing my bird songs recognition and posting more on the NWBC Facebook page. I still plan to do “write-ups” with many of my posts, but I’m hoping to keep them more terse (“hoping” being the operative word here as I can ramble with the best of them). I’m also planning on doing some galleries which will be images only. This will hopefully keep me more active in the blogging sphere and allow you to see more of what matters – birds!!
Ring-necked Pheasant – Calumet County 1-11-2016
So there you have it – my goals for 2016 and where the Bird It Up! community is headed for the next 12 months. Now get off the computer, get out there, and Bird It Up!
Well, 2015 is now in the rearview mirror and we’re full speed ahead into 2016. I thought I’d take this opportunity to look back and review my goals for 2015 and see how well, or poorly, I did. You’ll also find some blog stats below – some of which I found pretty interesting. Barring any serious battles with laziness, I’ll be back in the coming days to post my 2016 goals and discuss where this blog is headed. Oh, and if you needed a reason to stick around, I’ve thrown in a few photos like this Snowy Owl from Outagamie County on 1/4/2016:
Year list (for Wisconsin) = 250 This will be a tough goal to hit, but one I hope to accomplish! Well, I fell abysmally short of 250 in Wisconsin. It’s almost embarrassing to share my true number, but it is what it is. So without further ado, I came in at 204 species for 2015 in Wisconsin (shakes head). My consolation is that combined with my trip to Costa Rica my complete year list stands at 550.
Lead Calumet County for the year
Well, I’m 2-for-2 in missing my goals so at least I’m 100% at something! I should note that this goal is based on eBird sightings as I know some birders who do not eBird, but still tally impressive numbers. In this goal I finished 4th with 122 species. My good friend and fellow NWBC member Dar led the county with a whopping 178 species! Congrats to Dar on an impressive county tally in 2015!!!
Continue planting flowers for my hummingbird/butterfly garden
Well, this one I nailed. Ok, not nailed, but I need a win after failing on my first 2 goals. I did add to my hummingbird/butterfly garden by adding 5 Milkweed plants, 3 Butterfly Weed, another Joe Pye Weed and some more Coreopsis. Still have about half the garden to plant so even though I made progress, there is work to be done!
Costa Rica – I will be going on my first birding specific vacation; two weeks of birding, birding, and more birding (more info to come, hopefully, in the following weeks).
Completed! What a great trip – you can read all my trip reports here: Costa Rica 2015 Trip Report
Most importantly, spending time with the birds and not rushing to “tick” them off my year or life list.
I think I did a much better job with this, but I see it as a lifelong goal. So this will be something I will continue to work on year after year.
Tree Sparrow 1-4-2016
Two key blog statistics I’d like to share:
Although most my sites visitors were from the U.S., Canada, and England, I did have visitors from 54 different countries in total!
I finished with 39 posts in 2015! My target was one a week for a total of 52 so I officially did not meet my goal. However, I was pleased that I kept at it, although sporadically at times, throughout the year.
Red-breasted Nuthatch – Outagamie County, WI 1-4-2016
Finally, let me thank ALL of YOU for stopping by, reading, and commenting!!! It’s a lot of fun blogging when you know others are reading or at least viewing the photos and it’s even better when the discussions occur. So thank you for making 2015 a fun first year of blogging. I hope you each have a healthy, birdy 2016!! I should have my 2016 goals along with some updates posted in a few days, but until then, Bird It Up!
Bird It Up! 