Warbler Walk on Saturday 5/2/09, Lake Park, Milwaukee

Wisconsin and Lake Park Birders:

3 Warbler Walks down and 3 to go at Lake Park this spring. Beginning
birders are especially welcome. The trees in the ravines at Lake
Park tend to leaf out almost a week later than in western Milwaukee
County, so it can be easier to see warblers in later migration.

--- Paul Hunter,
http://home.roadrunner.com/~phunter1/lakeparkbirds.html
=====================================================

Highlight of the Warbler Walk on Saturday 5/2/09 was

About twenty-five birders gathered near Locust Ravine at 8:30 AM on
Saturday, May 2, 2009, as dog owners again occupied the west side of
the Warming House in Lake Park. Jym Mooney, Judith Huf and Sam Corbo
reported on their early morning sightings in the park. I (Paul
Hunter) promoted other local birding events including:
- Wednesday mornings bird walks at Havenwoods led by Gordon Zion,
zzzzmail@aol.com, http://www.friendsofhavenwoods.org,
- Thursday morning bird walks at Urban Ecology Center and Tuesday
morning banding there by Tim Vargo, http://www.urbanecologycenter.org
- MCAMMP: Milwaukee Avian Migrant Monitoring Project which includes a
transect in Lake Park, coordinated by Bill Mueller, http://
home.earthlink.net/%7Eiltlawas/id16.html
- Purple Martin housing also coordinated by Bill Mueller
- WiNGS: Wisconsin Night Guardians for Songbirds, coordinated by
Scott Diehl at the Humane Society, http://www.wihumane.org/wildlife/
preventcollisions.aspx

We again split into two groups, with Jym Mooney and Judith Huf
leading a larger group of more experienced birders and beginning
birders joining me. Both groups walked south from the wooden Rustic
Bridge along either side Locust Ravine, then over Ravine Road on the
footbridge. At the Pavilion, Jym and Judith's group proceeded
straight to the Wolcott statue, while my group went down the Grand
Staircase and south along the foot of the bluff, where we were joined
by Bill Mueller, then back up Waterfall Ravine to the Wolcott
statue. We returned to the warming house via the Indian mound near
the baseball field. We enjoyed sunny skies, a light northwesterly
breeze, and seasonable temperatures in the low 60s.

2 Canada Goose
3 Mallard
70 Red-breasted Merganser
2 Great Egret
6 Turkey Vulture
2 Cooper's Hawk
25 Ring-billed Gull
2 Herring Gull
25 Caspian Tern
40 Chimney Swift
2 Red-headed Woodpecker
2 Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
3 Downy Woodpecker
2 Northern Flicker
2 Eastern Phoebe
1 Great Crested Flycatcher
1 Blue-headed Vireo
12 Blue Jay
3 American Crow
2 Tree Swallow
5 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
2 Barn Swallow
6 Black-capped Chickadee
3 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Brown Creeper
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
20 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
16 Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
4 Hermit Thrush
20 American Robin
4 Gray Catbird
1 Brown Thrasher
4 European Starling
20 Cedar Waxwing
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Northern Parula
20 Yellow-rumped Warbler
2 Black-throated Green Warbler
5 Black-and-white Warbler
35 Palm Warbler
2 Northern Waterthrush
1 Common Yellowthroat
4 Eastern Towhee
15 Chipping Sparrow
2 Clay-colored Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
4 Savannah Sparrow
2 Grasshopper Sparrow
4 Song Sparrow
2 Swamp Sparrow
70 White-throated Sparrow
12 White-crowned Sparrow
8 Northern Cardinal
2 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
30 Red-winged Blackbird
12 Brown-headed Cowbird
6 House Finch
10 American Goldfinch
3 House Sparrow