Frosty Morning!
The 118th annual Madison Audubon Christmas Bird Count was held on Saturday. This year I stepped down as captain of Area 21, but headed into the woods sometime before 5:00AM to search for owls. Venus was so incredibly brilliant in the eastern sky that I had to make sure it wasn't bright landing lights from an airplane. It wasn't moving, so it was Venus. Closer to the horizon along the ecliptic I spotted another planet I thought might be Mercury.
Verification:
We tried a few locations for Eastern Screech Owl, Barred Owl, but found only 2 Great Horned Owls just about at the end of our owling time. We warmed up at a nearby Starbucks before embarking on our passerine mission. I needed more caffeine from getting only two hours of sleep on account of a nagging headache.
American Tree Sparrow
American Goldfinch
At present there's barely any snow on the ground and I think this has birds somewhat spread out and harder to find. My numbers were slightly below average and there were notable misses like Brown Creeper, Lapland Longspur, Snow Bunting, Horned Lark, Winter Wren, and Red-tailed Hawk. Only one American Robin was found thurping away atop a tree, perhaps somewhat concerned about a nearby perched Cooper's Hawk. The neatest sighting was watching several American Crows attempting to mob a Northern Harrier, and the harrier turned on the crows with very aggressive swoops and dives.
American Robin
Madison CBC--Area 21, Dane, Wisconsin, US
Dec 15, 2018 5:00 AM - 11:00 AM
34 species
Canada Goose 300
Mallard 22
Bufflehead 3
Common Goldeneye 8
Hooded Merganser 3
Common Merganser 20
Mourning Dove 4
Sandhill Crane 43
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 2
Northern Harrier 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Bald Eagle 2
Great Horned Owl 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5
Downy Woodpecker 7
Hairy Woodpecker 9
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 16
Black-capped Chickadee 14
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 9
American Robin 1
European Starling 3
House Finch 10
American Goldfinch 5
American Tree Sparrow 8
Dark-eyed Junco 26
White-throated Sparrow 9
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 15
House Sparrow 25
I was going to stay home today and do chores, but joined Mark, Dottie, and Sylvia for a life bird mission to our west. I haven't been following any online birding groups lately and don't even know who initially discovered the Hammond's Flycatcher, but I know it's been around for at least a week. Anyway, all of us wanted it for a lifer so I put off laundry, dishes, and other chores to join the westward excursion for the lost little flycatcher.
See how off-course this bird is? This is a veritable vagrant.
I located the bird three times for my birding pals, the third being the best views. I didn't bother to photograph it, as it's been well documented by many other birders who have seen it during the previous week. Some of the best images of the Hammond's I've seen were captured by Jeremy Meyer on Friday. If you don't want to click on the link, it pretty much looks like this other empidonax species, a Least Flycatcher.
Least Flycatcher
The Least Flycatcher is a common empid that Wisconsin birders generally don't give two-shits about once they've gotten it as a year bird. Put a little more gray on its head, shorten up its tail, give it a slightly more pale greenish wash, an interesting migratory narrative, and you've got a bird worth spilling out superlatives over.
Still true, and still funny:
© 2018 Mike McDowell