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Last Saturday was the 29th Annual Natural Landscapes Conference, held at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin.  This was sponsored by the Milwaukee Audubon Society and it was an excellent conference with wonderful presenters.

The keynote speaker was Noel Cutright, Ph.D., Senior Terrestrial Ecologist, Scientist, Emeritus, WE Energies; Past President, Wisconsin Society for Ornithology.  Dr. Cutright talked about “Bird Migration: Following the Flyways - Facts, Fiction and the Future”.  It was refreshingly fun to listen to Dr. Cutright talk about some of the false ideas that have been around concerning birds and their migration.

There were three break-out sessions called Natural Landscapes, Avian Connection and Cultural Landscape Heritage.  I chose Avian Connection and I wasn’t disappointed!

The first presentation was “How to Help Birds in Your Backyard and on Your Land” by Vicki Piaskowski, International Coordinator, Birds Without Borders.  Vicki talked about her work at three Wisconsin study sites and the connection those birds have with a study site in Belize.  It was awesome to learn that the birds we see in the summer take up in Belize for the winter.

After lunch, I attended “Creating a Backyard Wildlife Habitat” by Dan Panetti, owner, Wild Birds Unlimited in Mequon, WI.  Dan has a very comfortable style and is very knowledgeable.  I enjoyed the talk very much.

Lastly, Jill Hapner, Ph.D. Washington County Conservationist, gave a presentation called “Avian Response to Restored Wetland Plant Communities”.  Dr. Hapner was cataloging restored wetlands and the effects it has on birds.

This was a wonderful conference and I will not miss next year’s.  It woke me up enough to finally join The Audubon Society.

I stopped by the osprey nest yesterday with one of my kids and we thought we saw the baby peeking its head out of the nest.  And wouldn’t you know it, I forgot to pack my binoculars so we couldn’t get a closer look, argh!

Anyway, both parents started flying around as if they were hunting, one of them went back to the nest, and that’s when we heard the high pitched squeal.  It looked like there were two heads in the nest!

From what I’ve read, the kids could have hatched by now.

We were hoping to catch them doing a little fishing, but after a few minutes we decided to leave them be.  The bigger one, which might be the female, flew to a tree and kept looking our way (or so we thought).

Did you hear the story about the asian vultures becoming extinct?  I heard it on NPR several weeks ago.  Apparently there is a drug being given to cows so they don’t feel any pain when they die.  The vultures feed on the carrion and whammo, it ain’t good for them.  The following story talks about diclofenac, an anti-imflammatory used on livestock.  Here’s the link  

Having to click to several pages instead of scrolling down the story is a little annoying, but the story is interesting.

Okay, I think I could be wrong on the waterthrush.  After checking my Stokes Field Guide to Birds, I may have seen a western Northern Waterthrush!  The western has a white eyebrow, while the eastern is a yellowish buff.  The Louisiana has a white eyebrow as well.  These guys look so similiar that I will need several looks to be certain.

The main difference between the eastern Northern and the Louisiana is the Louisiana’s chin is unstreaked.

Stay tuned…..

Just happened to see a Louisiana Waterthrush in my backyard!

And here I thought I only had cardinals, chickadees, starlings, nuthatches, etc.  I was looking at the ground, under my bird feeder and there he was, a Louisiana Waterthrush.

According to The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds (Eastern Region), this waterthrush was confused with the Northern Waterthrush by early American ornithologists.  This guy arrives much earlier then the Northern.  Southeastern Wisconsin is at the northwest corner of this guys range.  I did get a great look at him and I’m sure he’s not a Northern.

I love finding new birds.  The excitement of seeing a new bird is why I love doing birding.  Just proves that you don’t have to go far from home to keep learning about birding.

I went to the lake around 11:15 am today to spend some time watching the osprey nest. There was only the one bird in the nest still looking like she was sitting on an egg. After 30 minutes, it happened. For a second I thought I saw a great blue heron flying 30 feet above the water from right to left. Then I knew it was the other bird! He swept across in front of the nesting post and then swooped up to the nest. The female stood up in the nest to say hi.

I thought he had some food, but it happened so fast that I couldn’t be sure. They didn’t eat anything right away either. He stayed there for maybe 5 minutes and then took off low to the water, where I lost site of him. I decided I needed to go home, change (I had stopped by after church) and get to the lake shore to see if I could get a picture of him fishing.

Here’s a picture of the lake,

And here’s a closer picture of the nest:

OK, no laughing at my up close photo. I have a digital camera, but the lens is not very powerful. I did try a makeshift digiscope! What do you think?

I put my binoculars right up against my camera!  Is that nutty or what?

I should probably leave the nest alone, although I am quite a bit away from it.  I want to watch them, takes notes by posting and hopefully see the fledglings!

We took a drive to Lime Kiln Park to see our favorite goose and he did not disappoint! I think the reason he attacks my car (a grey Toyota Matrix) is because I’m driving very slow as I pass his lookout post. We watched other cars pass him at a normal speed and he laid back. I like to slow down because he’s right on the road and I don’t want to hurt him.

I’m going back tomorrow to take pictures (didn’t have the camera yesterday, don’t ask) and I’ll post them soon. Hopefully, he’ll be on watch.

I stopped at another pond today to check out the wildlife and I saw a goose sitting on a nest in the water. The nest was about 4 feet wide and a foot high. While I was watching, a mallard jumped up on the back of the nest to preen and the goose didn’t mind a bit. It’s my first goose nest! My camera is not good on long shots, but this nest is close to edge and the pond is not very big.

Technorati Tags: goose, Lime Kiln Park, nesting, pond, wildlife

I just had to get a look at the osprey nest.  It was in the lake I thought, sitting on top of a pole in the middle of a small lake.  I saw it last night and I just stopped by this morning.  I could only see one bird, apparently sitting on an egg because she kept adjusting herself.  It was raining slightly as well.  I stayed for about 15 minutes, hoping to see the other bird, but he never showed up.

I’m keeping this post short because I need to read up on these birds.  Expect another post on Ospreys very soon.

Here’s a link to an article in The Sarasota Herald Tribune about whooping cranes visiting a sod farm in Tennessee.

The article is about land being gobbled up for development and how one farmer refuses to give in to a million dollar offer.  It doesn’t sound hard for Mr. West to ignore the $1.6 million offer.  He says he doesn’t want to see his farm “destroyed”.

Actually, the nesting Ospreys are in Cedarburg, WI! I just read about them in the News Graphic from Grafton WI and I can’t wait to get a look at them. Like most casual birders, I’m trying to become a more than casual birder and I have to go see these birds. I realize that if too many people are hanging around the nest then the raptors might leave. I’m thinking that since the birds are building a nest on top of a pole in the middle of a small lake then they will probably stay!

The only problem is I have a camera that can not take pictures of far-away subjects. So, if the birds aren’t close then it will not be a very good picture to post here. I’ll take the camera and see what I get.

I learned something today from the newspaper article, Ospreys used to be known as fish hawks and they are the only birds of prey that dive into the water to capture fish.

According to the article:

• Ospreys were once among Wisconsin’s most endangered birds
• They’re making a comeback
• There’s an estimated 400 pairs in Wisconsin