I had thought to blog about this trip chronologically, but the impressions of the moment have overtaken that intention. I am in Door County, Wisconsin, in between Chicago assignments (University of Chicago last week, Illinois Institute of Technology later this week). I am supposed to be working on the UC files. The birds are proving more compelling.
For someone from the West Coast, the landscape of the upper Midwest is, well, tame. Dramatics are not going to be in the picture, except, perhaps, with weather. It would be nice to see some dramatic weather this trip, so long as I don't have to fly through any of it. But it is breezy and clear.
It is bird migration season, and it could be more dramatic than it is. Bad weather would help. With clear skies the birds fly through all night and don't stop off. Were a cold front to come through at just the right time, say, just before morning, one could see a dramatic fallout of birds. Especially on a lakeshore, and doubly so on a peninsula. That is why I decided to perch myself on one for the duration.
Nonetheless, the birding today was not bad. It was superb by West Coast standards, where we have a barely discernable passerine migration, in contrast to the vast tide of birds that wash across the middle and eastern parts of the continent twice a year. I went to a state park at the tip of this peninsula, and heard a lot of chickadees in the forest. When I would annoy the chickadees with a “pishing” sound, I'd gather the flock around me. Within it would invariably be a warbler or two or three.
As I spied an American Redstart, then a Red-eyed Vireo, then a Myrtle Warbler. I turned and found two other birders watching what I had brought in. Ron and Marianne joined me for the next two hours, they with their superior knowledge of the CFWs (confusing fall warblers) and with patience equal to mine to sort through each flock of chickadees along the trail.
In those hours I logged more warbler species than even exist on the West Coast, it seemed. Bay-breasted, Nashville Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Black and White, Orange-crowned—the list kept growing. Along with a Ruffed Grouse. a couple of Thrushes (they appear to be moving through big time right now), and some Swans on a rocky peninsula across a small bay.
The NWS is forecasting a weak cold front to come through tonight, about 1am. I think I'm going to go to bed early.
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