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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!

While traveling to Minnesota last weekend we saw 2 bald eagles.  One near a lake, low in a tree and the other flying high over the St. Croix river, which separates Wisconsin and Minnesota.  I could immediately identify the flying eagle.  I rarely see one, so it looked so different it was easy to see it was an eagle!  We also saw 25 wild turkeys, several dozen deer grazing on the non-snow covered farm fields and plenty of red-tailed hawks.

I know this is a short post, but it’s late and I at least wanted to get the eagle story on the site.

Last weekend I saw two pairs of redtail hawks about a mile from each other.  I haven’t researched it yet, but I’m guessing it’s getting close to mating season and they’re getting ready.  The hawks were hunting of course, but they were sitting about a foot from each other on the same branch.  I watched the first pair for about 15 minutes, drove around to the other side of the tree and watched them for another 10 minutes or so.  I was far enough away not to disturb them.

I was actually looking for that dark morph hawk I saw several weeks earlier, trying to figure out exactly what type of hawk it was.  Haven’t seen the dark morph again.  The last time I saw him he was being chased away by an adult redtail.

Switching gears…..

I thought I saw a rather large chipping sparrow at my backyard feeder.  After careful examination and a quick look at my Audubon Field Book of North American Birds, I realized it was a tree sparrow.  This guy is about an inch bigger than a chipping sparrow, and the markings are very similiar.  The tree sparrow lives in upper Canada and winters in the midwest, as well as other places across the U.S.  I’ll follow-up this post with some information from the book.

Have regularly seen a red-breasted nuthatch at my suet and of course, chickadees, cardinals and finches at the feeder.

The Great Backyard Bird Count got me back into birding!  I stopped putting food out about 2 years ago because we had a problem with mice, although I would provide the occasional suet.  Well, the mice are always going to be around.  Our backyard is always active with cardinals, robins, chickadees and more, but without the feeder going I would only catch glimpses of them.  Now I can watch as different birds jockey for position at the black oil sunflower seeds.  I’m planning on putting out some thistle this weekend.

I tried to get a picture of the immature dark-morph redtail (not sure if it’s a redtail, but it’s a good bet).  Driving around near the highway and we spotted him.  He was being chased by an adult redtail and flew out of view.  Hopefully he wasn’t chased from his territory and I can get a picture this weekend.

I think we have a fox that cruises through our yard.  I saw tracks in the snow and I don’t think it’s a cat.  I’ll have to put a bell on him!

Being amazed by birds, I’ve always wanted to learn more about them. What better way than to create a blog where I can read, watch and listen and then post what I find. And hopefully, learn something from other birders in the process.

I participated in my first Great Backyard Bird Count yesterday and hope to count more birds today. I stayed in my yard and counted the usual cardinals, dark-eyed juncos and finches. While driving around I spotted a dark morph hawk and I couldn’t decide what it was. It looked like a broadwing. I need another look and I’m going to try to take a picture.

I found an excellent site by Patrick Belardo called The Hawk Owl’s Nest. Check it out. I hope to be spending some time there and maybe I’ll even contribute.

Time to get counting!