Rewind to Spring 2019

I'm unearthing this post from the wasteland where it began back at the end of May. I was coming down off the highs of spring migration consumed by getting my yard planted and planning for another hummingbird banding season and never found time to complete this.

So back to April we go...

April started off with this...

Ferruginous Pygmy-owl LIFER, King Ranch, Kennedy Co, TX 10April2019

But was mostly lots of this...

Crafts brews, Craft Beer Week and kindred beer-drinking souls and new friends gathering at my favorite local craft beer cafe continued well into May and beyond.

April was pretty damn wet, cold and dreary. Winter dealt two encores. I missed the first while visiting the Lower Rio Grande Valley but was back in Wisconsin for the second. None of the April 2019 snow was quite so devastating to the birds as last year's was.

Overall April's showing of birds was grim. By month's end, there was no customary drop of neotropical migrants. In addition the shorebirds were weak inland from the Great Lakes where I bird. It seemed as though migration would never come.

Golden-winged Warbler, UW-Arboretum, Madison, Dane Co, 6May2019

But then came May's eternal promise. The Neotrops rocked it on May 6. It was their first good showing in numbers and quality.

American Redstart, UW-Arboretum, Madison, Dane Co, WI 6May2019

I had the great fortune of being off the entire day feeling quite pleased to strike it big on the first bird lottery of spring! Though not my intention, May 6 became a mini-Big Day of sorts. I ended the day at 108 species in my 5MR birding patch with little effort and a incredible rush of enthusiasm to greet the spring migrants.

Magnolia Warbler, UW Arboretum, Madison, Dane Co, 6May2019 

I had been regularly checking Esser Pond for shorebirds in my 5MR patch. It paid off with the discovery of two American Avocets, patch lifer!

American Avocet, Esser Pond, Dane Co, WI 6May2019

Warblers provided a decent showing throughout May. Black-throated Blue warblers appeared to be more numerous and widespread than I recall in recent years.

Black-throated Blue Warbler, Dane Co, WI 13May2019

The coveted Bay-breasted warblers provided frequent crushing views, males and females alike.

Bay-breasted Warbler, Dane Co, WI 17May2019

As usual the season came with misses. The Hooded Warblers did not return to breed in the UW Arboretum and otherwise seemed hard to come by at the haunts I visited during spring.

On the other hand, having missed Cerulean last year, I was thrilled to stumble upon a singing male in the Bock Forest parcel of Pheasant Branch Conservancy.

Cerulean Warbler (doc shot), Pheasant Branch Conservancy, Dane Co, WI 17May2019 

Connecticut Warbler was another 2018 miss for me that I had the good fortune to observe on two occasions in late May, one at Hoyt Park while birding with my pal, Adrian, and another at Pheasant Branch in an unexpected location during my return hike from looking for Red-headed Woodpeckers.

I started off spring pumped to work on my 5 mile-radius (5MR)  patch list. But by the end of May my enthusiasm dwindled to a whimper. By June my urge was silenced, lost in the distraction of insects, hummingbird banding and endless gardening to foster a bird and butterfly friendly yard.

Much the same occurred in 2018 with my effort to bolster my 7.5MR patch annual total. I floundered and lost interest when June rolled around.

Currently I sit at 208 and 200 for my 7.5MR and 5MR patch totals for the year. Miraculously according to eBird I am leading in Dane county for both metrics. However I expect to be surpassed in the 7.5MR arena by ace birder, Aaron H in the coming weeks since I don't expect to finish out 2019 with a bang. But one can never know. Perhaps my mood and interests will shift. As of now I have house projects on my mind and thoughts of returning to the Lower Rio Grande Valley for my usual birthday vacation to see the 'rents, the birds and the butterflies. Stay tuned!

Hello September

Hello September! Where have I been?

Lake Superior, Vermillion, Chippewa Co, 4Sept2019

I never intended to leave this blog by the wayside for so long. But somewhere between the exhaustion of spring migration,

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Dane Co, 20May2019 

over indulgence in craft beer, 

intense gardening at my new home of now two years, 

Front garden, Bittersweet Place, 9Sept2019

Bittersweet Place pre-occupancy circa May 2017

hummingbird banding,

Rufous Hummingbird, Lincoln Co, WI 26July2019 

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Washburn Co, WI 16June2019

and my continuous quest for orchids, butterflies and other insects, 

Small Round-leaved Orchid, Sawyer Co, WI 16June2019

Arctic Skipper, Sawyer Co, 16June2019

Ghost Tiger Beetle, Jackson Co, WI 18August2019

...that is precisely what has occurred. My blog FLAT-LINED.

And then there is the fatigue of everything. I have attempted on many occasions to compose something only to lose the battle with sleep. Mostly though, my active social life involving craft beer has won out as my preferred post-twilight activity.

But I am back. Motivated by own interest in documenting year to year changes, I hope to play catch-up. Time will tell if that actually materializes.

For now I leave you with a few scenes from my recent Labor Day weekend trip to the southeastern shore of Lake Superior.

Whitefish Point, Chippewa Co, 31Aug2019 

Whitefish Point, Chippewa Co, 31Aug2019 

Aurora, Luce Co, 31Aug2019

Aurora, Pike Lake, Luce Co, 4Sept2019

Possum Spring

Be still my beating heart. Spring is upon us in the upper Midwest. It is beckoning me to forgo the impossible tasks, forsaken responsibilities posturing to bite me in the ass when the time is ripe.

Opossum, Middleton, Dane Co, WI 16Mar2019

Breathe.

Gone is the lung paralyzing bitter cold of winter. I want to gulp the cool air of this season until the thawing dog shit reminds me otherwise. E. Coli lurks in those brown puddles you think are mud.

Discipline.

Harness the urge to chase every new arriving migrant. So far, so good. All good things come to those who wait. There is plenty of time to see Wood duck, Eastern Phoebe and Eastern Bluebird. Perhaps not so for Red-shouldered Hawk, another recently arriving species in Wisconsin. They are more challenging to come by in my birding patch. My best chance to find one is increasing my time in the field with the hopes of finding one in migration. However I simply can't afford the time and energy.

Western Red-tailed Hawk, Middleton, Dane Co, WI 16Mar2019

Exercise.

I still need the time outdoors to move, gain strength, build endurance for the impending high intensity field season. I've got bog tromps, Calypso Orchid, hunts for other rare orchids and spring warblers on my mind... and a pile of data to attend to first. But spring is beckoning me to move. So I made a short venture outside this weekend along some easy paved trails. Finding a Western Red-tailed Hawk was the highlight. It doesn't count as a species for my slowly growing 2019 patch list. Nonetheless it has been several years since I've seen this subspecies. Thus I was grateful to cross its path.

Opossum.

A confiding opossum took a close second place in capturing my attention. They sure are ugly little critters. But I have to hand them props for helping to curb the awful tick populations.

And for their mastery at playing dead to foil would be predators. I can relate.

Hail to the Possum!

Not the Cactus!

Who knew joining the House Plant Hobbyist Facebook group would be so entertaining? I was cleaning up image files and came across these nuggets I saved from December:

The screen shot below barely scratches the surface of what was one of the most entertaining threads I've read on FacePalmBook in a LONG time.

I only wish I would have saved more of the comments. The post and its dozens of entertaining comments was unfortunately deleted. 

Hello 2019!

Here we are! 2019!

Governor's Island, Dane Co, WI 1Jan2019

On New Year's Day we woke to a gorgeous blanket of thick snow across the southeast Wisconsin landscape. Despite my body having become acclimated to the warmer temperatures of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, I celebrated Wisconsin's snowy New Year's scenery.

Governor's Island, Dane Co, WI 1Jan2019

In usual fashion, I birded most of New Year's Day. It is the one day of the year I can tolerate a pseudo Big Day. The pace is typically more casual than spring Big Days and it's interesting to compare results each year.

Lake Mendota as seen from Governor's Island, WI 1Jan2019

This year Lake Mendota had an unseasonably large amount of open water, the most I recall in the four years I've been birding Dane County on January 1st. While waterbird diversity was increased from other years when water is more scarce, our overall species total came in second due to low passerine diversity. Results for the past four years are as follows:

YEAR   TOTAL      TOTAL   
           SPECIES     WATERBIRDS

2019     56                20

2018     38                4 (mainly birded UW Arb)

2017     51                 17
2016     65                18

For this year's January 1st count as well as last year's, most if not all birds observed were in my 7.5 mile radius (MR) birding patch. 7.5 miles is the metric that was established in 2014 for the Wisconsin Local Patch Challenge.

With 2018 marking my first full year living in Dane County since 2003, I made a targeted effort to focus my birding on my 7.5MR patch. My official eBird Wisconsin Local Patch Challenge 2018 total came in at 229 species. Unofficially I have 1-2 additional birds I neglected to eBird, bringing my actual total to 230 or 231. 

I believe I could have done better in my patch in 2018 with little additional effort. But when June rolled around my focus shifted to hummingbird banding. Plus the idea of chasing species where I had gaps in my year list did not appeal to me. Easy misses included Peregrine Falcon and Virginia Rail. 

Speaking of birding patches, "5MR Birding" seems to be all the rage for 2109. I'm not entirely sure of the reason for its rise in popularity this year. However recently I read something published by the American Birding Association encouraging birders to adopt this metric for birding locally this year. See #7 birding bastard Seagull Steve's fine discussion of the merits of 5MR Birding.

A few of my friends are doing 5MR Birding, so I decided to join the 2019 birding bandwagon. My 5MR patch is set in eBird. It's mostly for shits, giggles and comparatives. It should be mildly interesting to compare my 5MR versus 7.5 MR circles and see how my results stack up against others adopting 5MR Birding. However my birding focus will remain on my original 7.5 mile radius circle.

Shaded area=5MR Birding; outer yellow outline=7.5 MR Birding
Madison, WI

Adopting a 2.5 mile shrink in radius would come with significant consequences I'm not yet prepared to accept. Most importantly, 5MR excludes my favorite under-birded bird haunt, my beloved "gorge." If I were to confine myself to a single birding objective in 2019, it is to increase my birding effort at "the gorge." Therefore I'm not about to give that up for an arbitrary birding guideline! "The Gorge" is my refuge from other birders. Though I suspect the cat will be out of the bag on this place within the year as Dane County Parks is developing a new park across the street from my secret sweet spot. As it is several dog walkers have adopted the state, county and federal lands in this area as a veritable off-leash dog park. With essentially ZERO enforcement of leash ordinances in Dane County, we naturalists are pretty much fucked. AND THE ASSHAT DOG OWNERS KNOW IT. But I digress...

My beloved gorge, Dane Co, WI 

The second downside of a more compact 5MR is the loss of key shorebird spots in my 7.5 MR patch, Nine Springs and Ashton K Pond. However I still retain the Sub-Zero Pkwy Ponds (formerly known as Lacy Rd ponds) which has yielded 19 shorebird species and 4 tern species in recent years. So all is not lost with shrinkage (remember that guys when it gets cold--nyuk nyuk.) This is a compromise I could live with and am most likely to integrate into my 2019 birding habits. We shall see how my year shakes out. My intentions and choices undoubtedly will evolve as time passes. It would be unprecedented if they did not.

Cheers to the new year! I look forward to change, surprise and perhaps a greater shift toward butterflying more in Wisconsin.