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Activities in Lake Park
BIRDS
OF LAKE PARK
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Reports of Walks in
2003:
May 24
Sept
6 Sept 20
Oct 4
Reports of Walks in
2004: April
24 May
15 May
22 Sept
11
Oct 2
Oct
9
Reports of Walks in 2005: April
23 May
14 May
28
Sept 10
Sept 24 Oct 1
Report of Bird Hike
October 4, 2003
Lake Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Seven birders saw twenty-five to thirty species of birds on this clear
cool day with gentle northwesterly winds.
Warblers, sparrows, thrushes and woodpeckers enlivened Locust Ravine
near the Warming House. Yellow-rumped Warblers were
ubiquitous. Georgia Lukitsch identified a Blackburnian Warbler
drinking sap from the holes just drilled by an apparent family of 3
adult and immature Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. One of several
White-throated Sparrows sang once. A cooperative thrush showed us
its lack of eye-ring and whitish spotted breast, so we called it a
Gray-cheeked Thrush. I (Paul Hunter) saw a white-breasted,
wing-barred, unstreaked, small, greenish warbler the could have been a
Chestnut-sided Warbler. Cathy Dermody got a good look at small
fluttering passerine she identified as a Golden-crowned Kinglet.
At the base of the grand staircase (at the intersection of Ravine Road
and Lincoln Memorial Drive) a few Palm Warblers and Chipping Sparrows
joined a dozen or so Yellow-rumped Warblers on the grass and in the
bushes. After long looks in good light, we decided that the
small, grayish Empidonax flycatcher with no yellow on its belly (that
was flitting between low branches and occasionally perching on tall
flowers) was a Least Flycatcher. The tail-wagging Eastern Phoebe
with its dark bill and without wing bars was a bit easier to reach a
consensus on.
The lakeshore was relatively quiet. Most of the party turned back
to the Warming House, since it was already almost 9:30 AM. The
Girls Scout Ravine was also quiet. Georgia Lukitsch saw a small hawk
dart out of a small tree just as we reached the golf course. We
presumed it was a Cooper's Hawk. It was also quiet near the
Wolcott statue, so we walked toward a noisy group of American Crows at
the east end of the North Lighthouse Ravine that we presumed had
located the hawk. Thanks to Georgia Lukitsch's sharp eyes we
found instead a Great Horned Owl being given fairly wide berth at the
top of a very leafy oak.
As we crossed the golf course on the way back to the warming house,
Cathy Dermody located and identified a Great Crested Flycatcher and
Eastern Wood-Pewee that we all got good looks at. More
Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers flitted on the lawns and
evergreens. Chimney Swifts circled in increasing numbers
throughout the morning.
Paul Hunter
25 species identified with relative certainty
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)
Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)
Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius)
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens)
Least Flycatcher (Empidonax minimus)
Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe)
Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus)
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
Brown Creeper (Certhia americana)
Gray-cheeked Thrush (Catharus minimus)
Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Dendroica coronata)
Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens)
Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum)
Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina)
White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)
Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)
Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
5 less certainly identified species
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus)
Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa)
Chestnut-sided Warbler (Dendroica pensylvanica)
Blackburnian Warbler (Dendroica fusca)