March into April

Well that's a wrap for March. We are off and birding into the second quarter of the 2018!

My local birding patch statistics. I completed March with ninety-nine species in my local birding patch which is centered around near west Madison, WI.  Forty-two of those species were first seen in January, only seven in February and the remaining fifty were seen in March. As of today, April 1st, my local birding patch total sits at 102 species for the year. Per eBird, my days of checklist streak stands at twenty one. My best streak is only twenty-nine days. I’m going for 100!

I had no plans to bird much yesterday, March 31st due to the weather forecast looking like more of winter with 20-30 mph winds, gusts to 40 mph and a mixture of rain and snow. Yes it was windy and cold but the day turned out to be more tolerable than anticipated.

Song Sparrow, North Fork Marsh, Middleton, Dane Co, 31March2018

This Song Sparrow looks about as happy I was to be out in the blustery conditions. Have I ever mentioned how I annoying I find birding in the wind?

Being a fair-weathered spirit as of recent, I slept in late and planned to work around the house most of the day. However, I was enticed into what was supposed to be a 15-20 minute walk to breakfast. Of course we went with binoculars in hand. It is spring after all and we live in a decently birdy neighborhood. Our route to breakfast took us through Kettle Pond which revealed increased sparrow activity including an influx of Fox Sparrows and a smattering of singing White-crowned Sparrows. Following breakfast we noted Golden-crowned Kinglets in the Spring Harbor neighborhood where we dined, more evidence of new arrivals. Given we were only 5 minutes from Lake Mendota we decided to check for waterfowl. The wind was gusting and the birds were moving. Turkey Vultures, Bald Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks, Pine Siskins and Great Blue Herons flew overhead. On the water we found multiple Horned Grebes mixed in with the same waterfowl I had been seeing for the past week. Horned Grebe had been my nemesis species for a good two weeks. So I was quite happy my relatively incidental birding effort yielded a new year bird in my patch. I surmised there must have been an influx of Horned Grebes overnight as well. Scanning the lake, it appeared the ice on Lake Mendota had finally gone out. As of the day before I could see still an ice edge lined with gulls in the southeast corner of the lake where none seemed present on March's final day.

Merrill Springs Parks with view of Lake Mendota in background, 31March2018

I was tempted to bird some more on Saturday but remained disciplined in getting chores done around the house. However, an early evening run to Costco found me on some quick birding detours which yielded my last two patch species for March, a lone Pectoral Sandpiper and two Snow Goose at Ashton K pond.

So here we are on the day of fools, April 1st. I worked the morning then headed out in the afternoon for some brisk weather birding. A brief stop at the Confluence Ponds yielded an unexpected Sharp-shinned Hawk and an exciting but somewhat concerning encounter with a bat.

I spotted this bat flying from one of the wood duck boxes. It crossed Deming Way to land on the ledge of a window at the business across from the pond. It rested for a spell, flew a short then landed on the building, scaling the concrete wall. It appeared to be gleaning insects from the textured surface. It crawled all the way down to the ground, proceeded along the building edge until it finally found a small hole between the mulch and foundation where it absconded to what was hopefully a warm refuge. It seemed a bit exhausted. Good luck little buddy! I seem to be on at least a 5-year streak of seeing bats in late winter/early spring.

We returned to Spring Harbor Beach where the waters were much calmer than the day before. A similar number of Horned Grebes continued from the day prior. Red-breasted Mergansers were plentiful.



Seeing the mergansers engaged in a courtship dance made this unplanned stop well worth it!

Finally we arrived at our planned destination Frautschi Point which we found quite lively with an impressive number of Golden-crowned Kinglets (38 estimated!), my first-of-the-year Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Barred Owl, Cooper's hawk and an assortment of common woodland birds.

Golden-crowned Kinglet, Frautschi Point, 1April2018

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Frautschi Point, 1April2018

At the nearby Eagle Heights we scoured the terrain looking for sparrows. American Tree Sparrows were present in the dozens, followed by less numerous Song Sparrows, a few Fox Sparrows and my final FOY patch bird of the day, a somewhat disheveled looking White-crowned Sparrow.

American Tree Sparrow (after it heard a good joke about 2 more weeks of winter),
Eagle Heights, 1April2018

White-crowned Sparrow, Eagle heights gardens, Madison, Dane Co, 1April2018

It may be frigid outside, but hope certainly abounds! I'm ecstatic with my new birding digs, with rediscovering old haunts from when I formerly resided in Madison and uncovering lesser known pocket's of birding goodness. Nature's surprises never cease to amaze me!