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Bird Walks in Lake Park

Cancelled if thunderstorms.


Meeting Place West side (away from parking lot) of the Warming House (Lake Park Friends Office) map
Enter the parking lot from the north off of Lincoln Memorial Drive just east of the corner of Lake Drive and Kenwood Ave.
Leaders:  The group by consensus should follow the leadership of a willing, more advanced birder.  That leader should ask for suggestions from birders who may be more familiar with the geography of the Park.  Large groups should split up into multiple parties.

Checklists:   Please assign one birder to leave a list of birds seen at the office of Lake Park Friends at the Warming House and / or email that list to Paul Hunter at phunter1@wi.rr.com  and / or post the list on WisBirdNet

Expect climbing up and down the equivalent of a two-story building.  The best birding sometimes is on Lake Michigan at the bottom of the bluff.

Dress appropriately.  It's usually "cooler by the Lake".  The ravines can be muddy and slippery.

Equipment:   More advanced birders, please bring extra labeled binoculars and field guides to share with beginning and casual birders.  Please also bring scopes to view waterfowl on the lake.

Paul Hunter's Advice to Hike Leaders

My first priority when I lead is to make sure that beginning birders get a chance to see every species seen by the group.

My next priority is to review basic identification principles, especially if birding is slow.  The following link is similar to what  I try to discuss, especially size and shape (silhouettes in Peterson's  guide).  See Wayne Rohde's Birding 101 essays on Bill Mueller's website:
http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eiltlawas/id9.html

My third priority is to promote upcoming birding events at Lake Park and Urban Ecology.  I like to give the chairs of the Nature Committee of Lake Park Friends, Dolores Knopfelmacher and Gil Walter, the spotlight to discuss projects they and the county parks dept are working on.

Assign someone besides the co-leaders to keep count of individuals of each species.  Write a brief description of your the most interesting species seen, your route, group and topics discussed.  Email both of these to me if I am not one of the co-leaders, so I can post a report. I can do the data entry in eBird, but would appreciate someone else doing it on the days I am not co-leading.

Don't be in a rush to get started on time.  I have learned to curb my enthusiasm and chit-chat till 15 minutes after starting time outside the Warming House to give people time to gather and get comfortable.  Now, if there is a large group, or a subset of enthusiastic people itching to get going, by all means, split off one of the co-leaders and start a longer route early.  In a large group it is likely that some people will want to leave early, so one group should plan to get back to the warming house 15 minutes BEFORE the ending time.

Generally, I walk slowly and focus on Locust Ravine just south of the Warming House.  For a really sedate walk, I go north and west of the tennis courts to the North Ravine and follow the inside edge of the ravine clockwise around to end back up at the warming house.  Usually time would allow extending that sedate walk south to the footbridge over Ravine Road just north of the Pavilion (restaurant).

For a more vigorous walk, I push through Locust Ravine, cross the Ravine Rd bridge and walk down the Grand Staircase east of the Pavilion.  If winds are from the west, migrants will cluster on the bluff below the Pavilion and west of the running track, out of the wind.  I like to teach the difference between Ring-billed and Herring Gulls at the lakeshore, but CROSS LINCOLN MEMORIAL DRIVE VERY CAREFULLY!!  Then I like to walk up Girl Scout Ravine, entering at the south end of the running track and exiting at the south end of the Pavilion's parking lot. Then I take a quick look at the lawn bowling greens on the way back to the Ravine Rd bridge and the Warming House. Usually I end 20-30 minutes late with this route.

Other places to consider:  the thicket behind Dr Wolcott's statue for winter wren and sparrows, the western edge of the golf course for waxwings and flycatchers, Bradford Beach in early AM for sandpipers.   I haven't found much in North and South Lighthouse Ravines, except a Great Horned Owl once.