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Report of Bird Walk
By Paul Hunter
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Lake Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

About 12 birders saw and heard about 17 species from 7:30 till almost 10 AM.  The weather was not as cool, damp, or windy as expected, perhaps because of overcast skies and a light southerly breeze.  The arrival of juncos and white-throated sparrows signaled the coming winter, but lingering palm and yellow-rumped warbler showed that summer is not long gone. 

A few brown creepers cooperated briefly in spiralling up the trunks of nearby trees near the baseball field.  Several golden-crowned kinglets aggravated most of us by staying high in the same trees and backlit by bright overcast clouds.  The  2 sapsuckers and couple of Swainson's thrushes frequented the same cherry tree for sap and fruit respectively.  All these birds scattered when a large (female?) Cooper's hawk to a nearby treetop and briefly surveyed potential dinner, before 4-5 crows quietly chases the hawk away. 

A discussion of hawk families led to a game of identify the silohoutte on the inside cover of Peterson's field guide.  The lecture continued with the official terms alternate and basic plumage and how to identify immature gulls.  The dedication and skill of serious birders was apparent as we tried to identify a small group of distant ducks that may have been scoters.  No kittiwakes, jaegers, or frigatebirds were seen, but a Caspian tern flew by North Point.



Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
unknown duck species - possibly scoter - 7
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)
Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia)
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica)  - 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius)
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)
Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa)
Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus)
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata)
Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum)
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)