End-of-year recap

December 29th ended up being my last day of birding, as my cat got sick that afternoon so I've been staying home with him since then (he is fortunately starting to improve now). So the Northern Shrike was indeed my last bird of the year!

A Big Year is all about the numbers, so here they are:

238 species
2136 miles biked
59 miles walked
309 hours spent birding (excluding travel time)
0.11 species per mile (total miles biked + walked)
0.77 species per hour of dedicated birding time
268 checklists submitted to eBird
129,660 individual birds counted
121 days of birding (~1 out of 3 days throughout the year - more than I would have thought I could manage while also working full-time and honoring other commitments!)
Longest trip: 12 days, 547 miles, 18 new species

All birding trips were "green" in that I did all my traveling from home (in La Crosse County, Wisconsin) by bike or on foot - no fossil fuels were harmed in the making of these lists.

In addition to birding, I biked 2250 miles for commuting and another ~200 running errands, which I haven't counted above because I wasn't specifically birding then (but of course I kept an ear/eye out!). I've also excluded the very few non-green trips on which I birded (with non-biking family) from the above numbers.

Here's how my species and birding hours accumulated over the year:

And miles (biking + walking):

There was a big jump in species and hours during May, but not so much of a jump in miles, because I was birding intensively close to home during spring migration (no need to waste time on traveling then, because the birds came to me!). The next big jump in hours and miles, with a small jump in species, was during my late July/early August 12-day trip to Horicon Marsh and many points in between. Aside from that jump, adding each new species took a whole lot of effort after mid-May!

I was disappointed to miss a couple of trips that I'd hoped to take (Buena Vista Grasslands in April or November was foiled by repeated unseasonable snowstorms; Black River State Forest in June was foiled by Lyme disease; Lake Superior in September was foiled when my knee acted up on the first day) but Horicon Marsh was my top priority, so I was thrilled that that trip went so smoothly. Local birding was better than I could have hoped in terms of gulls in the spring and locally rare birds in the fall, and overall my La Crosse County list was respectable (219 species, easily topping last year's 207 and bringing my 2-year county list to 233) - but I was disappointed that the shorebirds did not turn up as they did in spring 2017 (which was apparently quite unusual for this area).

Best birds of the year included a lifer Connecticut Warbler, which is also rare here (this was the only local rarity that I didn't manage to photograph!), lifer Canada Warbler (my most-wanted bird for the year because they are so lovely; my best look was when I was birding with a group and didn't have my camera). Both of those were self-found, which is always the most exciting; as were nine other local rarities:

(Thayer's) Iceland Gull at Airport Beach, 21 March

Ross's Goose at Airport Beach, 28 March

Lesser Black-backed Gull at Black River Beach, 29 March

White-faced Ibis at Halfway Creek Marsh, 6 May

Sanderling at Airport Beach, 2 October

Harris's Sparrow at New Amsterdam Grasslands, 7 October

LeConte's Sparrow at La Crosse River Conservancy, 12 October

Surf Scoter at Lake Neshonoc, 27 October

Airport Beach is the winning location in that lineup - probably because it's just up the road from my office, so I checked it frequently when conditions were good. It surprises me a bit that October was the best month for rarities. But fall migration is much less well-birded than spring migration, and "rarity" is a function of both the true occurrence of birds and the amount of collective birding effort, so maybe that makes sense. Or maybe this was just a particularly lucky October. Other birders were able to see all of the above except the Harris's Sparrow and Surf Scoter, so that's great too. I was also able to chase four species locally that others had found:

Townsend's Solitaire at Miller Bluff, 1 January

Hoary Redpoll at a feeder on Brice Prairie - generously shared by the homeowners, 10 February

Long-staying Red-necked Grebe at the north end of French Island, 1 May

Even longer-staying Long-tailed Ducks in Vernon County, 22 December

All of the 18 species I saw/heard on my 12-day trip were special, too; aside from Black-billed Cuckoo, which showed up later in La Crosse, they were all species that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten this year. But the most exciting species from that trip were two shorebirds at Horicon that others had found in the days before I got there:

Red-necked Phalarope, aka "Nessy"....

Buff-breasted Sandpiper - not super rare in the area, but not a species I had expected to find this year.

(We're still not talking about the state-first Sharp-tailed Sandpiper that showed up in the same spot just 2 days after I left.....)


It's tempting to make 2019 another Green Big Year and try again for those trips that I missed, but I think I'll make time for other things in the coming year. I will definitely still be birding - and still almost exclusively by bike - but I'll focus more on helping out with the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas, which is entering its final year for this round, than racking up as many species as possible. Maybe it will also work out to take one or two of those trips that I missed in 2018.

Overall it was definitely a great year of birding - thanks for following along!

29 December 2018: Nemesis no more!

I left home at 4:45 AM today and went owling up Smith Valley Rd. Screech-owls have been found there in past years, but not this year... including today. All I heard in 1.5 hrs was one Barred Owl! It was a reasonably nice morning (er, pre-dawn) to be out regardless, with very little wind and not much traffic, although I was pretty cold by the time I made it back down the valley.

As the sky lightened, I biked over to Veterans Memorial Park in West Salem, where Gwyn was seeing a shrike early in the spring and thought she heard it again a few weeks ago. I tried for it at least once in the spring and once this fall/winter with no luck, and the same thing happened with the shrike she found at the Mathy Quarry, so Northern Shrike had become a bit of a nemesis for my year list.

Today I spent over an hour in the area where the shrike was supposed to be ("Puppy Lane," as you might recall from the spring), slowly walking the short loop trails and keeping my eyes peeled. Eventually I figured it was a lost cause - maybe there wasn't even a shrike there at all this winter - and started birding my way through the park to the bike trail, which I planned to take home. The bike trail turned out to be a skating rink, thanks to our recent freeze-thaw cycles. I'd already taken a (pretty gentle) fall in the dark this morning on a surprise patch of ice (those linear ruts that result from someone biking on slush will get you every time), and didn't feel like doing that all the way home! So I turned around to head back through the park and out to the main highway, where I could take a paved bike path most of the way home.

Of course, that meant I would have one more shot at seeing the shrike. I walked my bike back through the park, looking and listening carefully. After I'd passed Puppy Lane, I turned around for one last look - last chance for a shrike for the year! Still nothing. But when I turned back around to keep walking, a bird-shape blob in the top of a tree caught my eye. I'd already identified a bird-shaped nest, a piece of white plastic, and a clump of leaves in the tops of nearby trees, and I was pretty sure this blob hadn't been there earlier. That meant it might actually be a bird. I put my bins on it, and yes, it was a bird - it had its back to me, but I could clearly see gray sides and black wings, with a bit of white splash visible even on the folded wings. There's only one thing that can be this time of year! Northern Shrike for #238! A moment later it turned a bit and gave me a great profile view of its black Zorro mask and hooked bill. Lovely bird.

I looked down to pull out my camera, and when I looked back up, the bird was gone. I'm guessing it flew away from me (the direction it was facing) out into the marsh, of which I could never get a clear view. I tried for another half hour, as it would have been great to get a photo of what might be my last bird for the year! Altogether I spent about 2 hours in the immediate vicinity of the shrike, and I saw it for only 15 seconds. I was very lucky to be looking in the right direction at the right time!

As a sad substitute for a photo of the bird itself, here's a view of the spot... 

The shrike had been sitting in the top of the tallest tree on the left. Yes, it was snowing, contrary to the forecast - luckily it didn't accumulate, or I might have had to head home much earlier, as I didn't have my snow/ice tires.

The park was pretty quiet, bird-wise, with only 17 species on my list. I enjoyed watching a Pileated fly around and forage on dying ash trees and a few Red-breasted Nuthatches twittering at each other. I checked the pine trees for owls, too, but with no luck. 

When I'd initially given up with no screech-owls or shrikes for the day, I decided that I was still glad I'd gotten out to give it a try. Lack of sleep, bone-deep cold (only for an hour or two), and tired out-of-shape muscles (darn flu) were all worth it. I might not see anything if I go birding - but I certainly won't if I don't go! Of course, it all seemed much more worth it (and I felt much less tired) after seeing the shrike! 

The forecast looks decent for the next two days, and it sounds like my colleagues and I will still be on furlough on Monday (and beyond) - so we'll see if I can scrounge up any more FOGYs for the end of the year...

Mid December 2018: CBC and a great winter FOGY

It's been a while since my last post! Birding (and biking) has slowed down due to bad weather and flu. I managed to cover my small section for the Christmas Bird Count by bike, though. We had by far the best weather out of the three years I've participated in the CBC here, so it was a nice day to be out. Most unexpected for my small, suburban section were a Red-tailed Hawk and American Kestrel - neither is at all rare in the area, but I don't usually see them in my section. I was also pleased to find a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatches at the Onalaska cemetery, which is full of various conifers.

Red-breasted Nuthatches are irrupting south this year in a big way, due to poor food availability farther north, but this is one of the few areas in the count circle where I've reliably found them (they were even there last winter, pre-irruption). This guy was trying to find somewhere to cache a small seed.

One of the small parks in my section - a fishing access area that isn't an eBird hotspot but is my favorite hidden local gem, and just a few blocks from home - yielded all five woodpecker species in the space of a few minutes, so that was fun: Red-bellied, Downy, Hairy, Pileated, and Yellow-shafted Flicker. There's an outside chance of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker here in winter, but none were found this year. Other birders in the count circle found several very late-lingering migrants, including our CBC's second-ever record of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet (common during short migration windows, but not now), and the Baltimore Oriole must have been similarly unusual.

Otherwise, I did very little birding for about three weeks! I caught the flu despite having dutifully gotten a flu shot, and while it wasn't too bad (and not as bad as Lyme disease!), I was really low on energy for a surprisingly long time. I think I'm finally recovered now - just in time to do some birding yesterday before leaving for a holiday trip today. 

I decided to head south into the next county, where two Long-tailed Ducks had been reported on the Mississippi two weeks ago - a very unusual species to find around here. The two previous reports were by two birders whom I don't know, and while the descriptions sounded pretty good, there weren't photos - so I wondered a bit if the identification had been correct in the first place. (The fact that I don't know those birders means my doubts were definitely nothing personal!) Two weeks would be a long time for any bird to stick around, too, but I knew my chances of finding them would only get smaller as the winter progresses and the water freezes further. Waterfowling is fun in any case, and I would have some options to stop and scope at additional places on the way back if the Long-taileds didn't turn up where previously reported, so it seemed like a worthwhile outing.

Unfortunately, getting there meant biking all through the city of La Crosse (from my home in the northern suburb of Onalaska). There's no direct route through the city that's safe for bikes, and while the indirect route is (mostly!) signed with directions for bikes, there's a couple of annoying intersections and plenty of opportunity to lose the route. That's why I've never actually gone birding south of town before - despite Goose Island, the county's most diverse hotspot, being <15 miles from home.

Yesterday's trip took me a couple of miles past Goose Island - so I've still never birded there! - to a few parking areas on the side of the highway. The parking areas are well separated from the highway, and I could even get entirely off the pavement in all three places, either on the grass or on this convenient platform:

I love having overcast skies when scoping waterbirds - no glare, no backlight, and less thermal distortion off the water. There was only a light breeze, which was enough to keep me on the cold side (temperatures were in the upper 20s F and I always freeze the moment I stop biking - but I put on my down suit and warmed up after about an hour of scoping), but not enough to interfere with birding, so conditions were pretty ideal - especially for winter. (No snow on the roads, either!)

There was plenty of open water to scope, as perhaps you can see in the above photo, but not a whole lot of ducks. The Long-taileds had been reported with Common Goldeneyes, so I was checking those small groups carefully. However, the previous reports had also noted several dozen Canvasbacks - which were no longer present... so I wondered if the Long-taileds might have left too.

But within a few minutes at the second overlook - there they were! Long-tailed Duck for #237!

I couldn't believe they were still there! They were pretty distant from the second parking area (my scope is pointing at them on the platform pictured above), but identifiable. I was happy to find that they were much closer to the third overlook, where I took the above digiscoped pictures (which are clearly nothing to brag about - the ducks were still pretty far out). Long-tailed Ducks are accomplished divers, and when these two were foraging, they dove together and stayed underwater more than above. That made them tough to keep track of, especially when trying to get my camera on them through the scope. But I was thrilled to get photo documentation of this local rarity - not to mention my first FOGY in six weeks! This is only the second time Long-tailed Ducks have been recorded in Vernon County in eBird, and there are only three records in somewhat-more-frequently-birded La Crosse County just to the north.

The end of the year is looming near, especially as I'll be out of state most of this week. Fingers crossed that the weather allows for a couple of birding trips next weekend, and I might take Monday the 31st off work for a last-ditch effort (or maybe, as a federal employee affected by the current shutdown, I will still be on furlough then...). I'd love to try for Eastern Screech-Owl, which would be a lifer - but I can't safely bike to the place that is currently most reliable for them, so I'll have to try my luck somewhere else. Hopefully I can also try again for Northern Shrike, which seems to be my nemesis for the year! I might have a chance at finding a Golden Eagle, and maybe I'll really luck out and come across a flock of Snow Buntings along the way... but otherwise, the remaining options for the year are pretty sparse. But you never know what will turn up until you get out there and look!

11 Nov 2018: Pipit surprise

I've been out waterfowling a couple of times since my last post, including a long day (or as long as you can get from sunrise to sunset this time of year) biking to, through, and back from Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge. That refuge is a nice spot for ducks, with a variety of other habitat. Much of the refuge is accessible along several dikes where you can walk or bike, but not drive, and they're each a couple miles long, so a bike is a perfect way to bird there. Alas, there were no Snow Buntings on the dike that hosted two for at least a week at this time last year. I didn't bring enough food with me that day, and by the time I got home (56 miles later), I was beat! I seem to need a regular reminder that calories are crucial...

Today I headed to another area of Trempealeau County - the agricultural fields north of the town of Trempealeau. It's the biggest stretch of open, flat ag land around here, presumably providing the best chance of birds like Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs, and maybe a chance of a Northern Shrike in the shrubby edge stuff. Snowy Owls should also be possible at this time of year, and maybe Short-eared if I'm ever there late enough in the day for them to start foraging. Pipits seemed possible there, but it's getting toward the end of their migration through the area, and they are always sparse at best around here. So all of those species would be pretty long shots. I'd covered this area last fall and this spring without finding anything of note, so my expectations were low for today. It was a good day for that route, though, with a forecast for a tailwind both ways! I also wanted to put on some miles to test my knees and cold-weather gear in case the weather and my schedule allow a longer trip in the next few weeks.

Winter is definitely starting to make itself felt here. We had a dusting of snow the other night, which resulted in slick-ice roads the next morning (three cheers for studded bike tires, bright lights, and bike lanes or a wide shoulder throughout my commute!), but the roads were dry by the end of that day. It's still chilly, though, with temperatures 30-35 F today (several degrees colder with wind chill, but biking with a tailwind takes care of that!). I was glad I'd brought a thermos of hot water today, and my down jacket/pants for when I was biking slowly and stopping frequently to look for birds.

The ag fields typically don't have a lot of bird activity, which means that every bird spotted in that area is a nice surprise. I enjoyed the flocks of American Tree Sparrows, a couple of Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks, a Hairy Woodpecker that I initially tentatively ID'ed by the flight silhouette and was pleased to have it confirmed when it called (I'd already seen/heard several Red-bellied but something about the silhouette seemed wrong for that species), and noisy Blue Jays. A couple of fields were freshly tilled or manured, so I stopped at those to give them a careful look, as those seem to be the most attractive to birds. The roads out there are so quiet that I usually didn't even have to move off the road when I stopped, and I had plenty of warning when a car was coming so I could move over.

Toward the end of the route, I stopped at a freshly tilled field, but couldn't see or hear anything in it. As I started off again, though, three birds popped up and then back down at the edge of the field. The usual suspect in a place like that would be Horned Lark, which can be abundant here. But those calls did not sound quite right for a Horned Lark! I'd studied up on pipit calls and these sure sounded good. I grabbed my brakes and got my binoculars on them as quickly as I could. American Pipits for #236!

I'm still figuring out how well my new camera deals with various settings, and learned a couple of things not to try today... but at least the birds are identifiable. Definitely need to bump up the f-stop (I have many photos like the above but worse, where only a thin layer of cornstalk debris is in focus), but not so far that the shutter speed goes down to 1/40, unless the bird is sitting still (like in the photo below).

I was especially glad for the quiet roads while I was standing there trying to get a clear photo of these guys! 

Today's ride totaled 42 miles, which seems like a lot for one new species - and a pretty sparse overall species list (just 21 species on my checklists, plus a few more en route). But getting out is always worth it for the experience, fresh air, and exercise, even when I see nothing new at all. The pipits were definitely a nice bonus, though!

late Oct 2018: The waterfowl are here!

On 14 October, a Pomarine Jaeger was reported about 100 miles northwest of here. No, I didn't go haring off on a 200-mile bike ride to find it (birding is not my only job this year, after all!). But I did tour around the north end of French Island the next day to scope out Lake Onalaska, just in case the jaeger was moving down the Mississippi. Alas, no jaeger. While birding that day, I saw perhaps 200 ducks around the lake, and I was wondering when fall waterfowl migration was going to get going.

Well, the next morning, I went to one of the same spots I'd visited the previous day... and about 100,000 ducks had arrived overnight! I counted (roughly) 30,000 of them that were within scope range, sampled that group for species IDs, and estimated the numbers of the rest based on the blurry smudges that I could see way out on the lake (no hope of identifying most of them). It was quite a spectacle. The majority were Canvasbacks, with a good variety of other divers and dabblers as well. Incredible to think that they had all arrived in just one night - a night when the radar was showing relatively low migration activity! There are still tens of thousands on the lake as of this morning, though there's been some turnover in the species.

Photos can't really do justice to something like that, especially when the birds look like a long line of black specks on the water... but here are some views from when a Bald Eagle (or two, or twelve) was flushing flocks on 18 Oct.

I've been waterfowling at least a couple times per week since then, but most of the ducks stay too far out for really good scrutiny. They know exactly where the no-watercraft/no-hunting zone is!

But I did FINALLY find my FOGY Horned Grebe (#234)!

(...with apologies for the terrible photo.) I'd been shocked that I hadn't seen one this spring. However, eBird tells me that this is the first one I've ever recorded in La Crosse County, so I must have only seen (or at least reported) them up at Trempealeau last year, despite my impression that they are fairly common around here during migration.

But the best duck was definitely a Surf Scoter (#235) last weekend!

Also bad photos, but identifiable, especially if you're willing to take my word that there was no white in the wings when it stretched a couple of times. This is only about the 8th Surf Scoter ever reported to eBird in La Crosse County. I actually lucked into one last year, too - I was slightly less shocked this time, but it still wasn't something I could count on finding this year. This bird was among only about 65 ducks on Neshonoc Lake, which was a much easier group to pick through than the tens of thousands on Lake Onalaska! But no sooner had I seen a "scoter sp." than the whole flock took off, and I was so upset! But then I looked again, and no, it hadn't been the whole flock that had left. Five Ruddy Ducks were still there with the scoter sp. that proved to be a Surf (and then a few dabblers came back). It was a great relief to be able to get a positive identification, because a "sp." doesn't count on the list!

Meanwhile, there were Dunlin on the Upper Mississippi bird cam yesterday. I can see the webcam's solar panel from shore, but there is no hope of getting an identifiable Dunlin in my scope from there... and no other shorebird habitat to be found (except maybe that tiny beach by my office). Sigh...

Waterfowl migration continues for the next month or two, and you never know what will turn up here. I'll be looking for more rare seaducks, any loon other than Common, and Snow Geese whenever I can get out. Plus, it's the right time of year to start searching for those darn Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs, Northern Shrikes, and Short-eared Owls again!

12 Oct 2018: Persistence pays off... at least halfway!

This morning I went back to check that marsh with the previous Nelson's and LeConte's records. I'd been pessimistic about the current habitat conditions, but I couldn't just give up, it was relatively convenient to stop there before a midmorning appointment.

We've had more rain lately, so there was even more water to slog through this time. An old leak in one of my boots sprung open, and temperatures were hovering just above freezing, so I was wondering if I would end up with only frostbitten toes to show for the morning!

Then, as I finally slogged out of the water onto a drier patch of trail, a very small brown bird flushed off the edge of the trail in front of me. It came out of much shorter grass than the vegetation inhabited by the other sparrows I've been seeing in that marsh... and it flushed at a remarkably close distance... and it sure was small... so that sure was interesting!

Much to my relief, the bird flew into the base of a stand of forbs where I could see it, just barely. LeConte's Sparrow for #233!

It was fidgeting a bit, but sat in that spot long enough for me to pull out my camera, convince it to focus past all those sticks, and get some identifiable shots. Here you can see the white crown stripe that helps distinguish LeConte's from Nelson's.

Eventually it hopped deeper in to the forbs and I went back to retrieve my gloves from where I'd dropped them on the trail to better handle my camera (just as well that I was out of the flooded part by then!). I walked slowly back toward the patch of forbs, saw a couple of birds flush, walked around to try to get a better look at them (they turned out to be Song and Lincoln's Sparrows)... and then looked up to see the LeConte's in clear view on a tree branch, just above eye level, maybe 15 feet from my face!

That's awfully cooperative for a skulky grassland bird! I couldn't believe my luck. Here you can clearly see the nape, which has fine brownish (Sibley calls them "purple") streaks over a pale gray base. Nelson's would have a plain gray nape. The yellow face with gray cheek patch is also obvious and eliminates any other sparrow; Henslow's has a greenish yellow face but only brown marks (including a dark brown "mustache" that's totally absent here), no gray cheek, and a bigger bill.

I left the bird alone then (it really couldn't get any better than that last photo!) and walked a short distance down the trail before time ran out and I turned around. On my way back through the spot where I'd originally flushed this bird, I again flushed something small and brown off the trail, twice. Both times it flushed at close distances but dove right back down into the short grass, so quickly that I couldn't tell anything more than "small brown sparrow," and there was no way I could see it when it was in the grass. I'm sure it must have been this same bird, and I was SO happy that I'd gotten much better looks the first time!

Here's a view of where it was the first time. It flushed out of the grass in the foreground (short, fresh green stuff that has just recently grown small seed heads), went into that first big stand of forbs in the mid-ground (is that a word?), and then up into the tree on the left.

This is only the second LeConte's to be found in La Crosse County in the history of eBird, so it's extra exciting! (Probably no one really looks for them in most years, though. I only checked this spot once last year.) I put the word out on eBird and Facebook, and several other people went out this afternoon and apparently got nice looks at the bird in this same spot. It's always fun to be able to share a good bird with others!

I would have thought a Nelson's Sparrow would be more likely in this habitat, especially under the current wet conditions, but the best thing about birding is that you never know exactly what will happen next. It's getting to be a little late for Nelson's to be moving through here, but I'll keep looking!

7 October 2018: A very good non-orange sparrow!

The hunt for LeConte's and Nelson's Sparrows continues... unsuccessfully. Yesterday it brought me through the quarry on the bluffs above La Crosse, where there is some interesting and varied habitat. There are lots of grassy bits, most of which turned out to have been mowed recently (hopefully after the Henslow's Sparrows were all finished breeding!), and a few marshy bits, so I focused my efforts in those areas. No luck, but it was a nice morning with several first-of-fall sightings: Sharp-shinned Hawk, both kinglets, Hermit Thrush, and White-crowned Sparrow. A few warblers are still passing through (Nashville, Tennessee, three American Redstarts all together, two Palm, and of course oodles of Yellow-rumped), so there was a nice variety for the day.

Today I headed up to New Amsterdam Grasslands, which is the most extensive grassland in this area and reminds me of a place in Kansas where LeConte's were regular in the fall. I walked around the property and followed a deer track through one section. It's an interesting place - several old fields strung together into one protected area, with each field having its own character (amazing variety on the theme of "grassland") with thicker or thinner or taller or shorter grass, more or less forbs, and no shrubs to many shrubs. Here's one section with a few shrubs that are coming nicely into fall color:

The old fence lines host several varieties of fruiting trees (wish I could tell you more than that!) that are absolutely loaded with berries, like branches-drooping-to-the-ground loaded. Here's a pic from last year, when the light was much better, of a Field Sparrow modeling some of the berries:

I saw lots of Field Sparrows today, along with 10 other species of sparrows. By far the best was a Harris's Sparrow (#232)!

The light was dim and gray, it was drizzling, and there's a branch in the way... but it's a Harris's Sparrow! Not quite as rare here as LeConte's or Nelson's, but still a bird that I did not expect to find this year (even while secretly hoping that I would). Harris's Sparrows are pretty sparse throughout Wisconsin, and my best chance at this species would have been at Wisconsin Point if I'd made it to Jaegerfest. I don't think anyone there saw one during the official field trip, though - so it's extra special to have seen one just 10 miles from home.

Eleven species of sparrows is pretty good for the La Crosse area, so I tried to document a few more of them despite the on-and-off drizzle:

Vesper Sparrow

Shy Lincoln's Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow in winter plumage... and the rain

Hopefully I can get back up there soon to check for LeConte's again, in between checking marshes for Nelson's and scoping the lake for Snow Geese, scoters, that darn Horned Grebe that somehow eluded me in the spring despite being common here during migration, and possibly a very lost jaeger!

2 October 2018: No orange sparrows, but a surprise Sanderling!

I've been looking hard for Nelson's and LeConte's sparrows, because it's that time of year. The first time I went out with Gwyn, and we were pretty sure we saw one - it certainly looked like an orange sparrow - but it was distant and we never got a better look at it, so we couldn't call it to species. What a shame! 

Nelson's Sparrow habitat... maybe? It's pretty flood-damaged this year.

I've been back to that same marsh a couple of times since then, and have checked another promising marsh a couple of times, but no luck. There are only 3 eBird records for Nelson's (two of which were two days in a row at the same spot, so that's basically the same record) and 1 for LeConte's in La Crosse County, so it seems like a bit of a long shot. But maybe we just need more birders out there looking. I plan to keep trying...

Swamp Sparrows are super abundant in those marshes, so at least I have something to look at!

Meanwhile, I added a FOGY today with a lucky run-in with a Sanderling (#231)! 




I've been checking the little scrap of beach near work on a regular basis, mostly because it's so convenient, but occasionally something good turns up there. That's where I happened across that group of Willets in the spring - also a very good bird for La Crosse - and I've occasionally seen other shorebirds there, but usually just something ubiquitous like Spotted Sandpiper or Semipalmated Plover. But, you never know. We'd had some rain yesterday and last night along with not-very-good migration conditions, and sometimes that means the migrants are getting a little desperate, and a scrap of beach might look pretty good to a tired shorebird. Still, I nearly didn't check this morning because I was tired and there was a thick wet fog in the air, which sticks to my glasses and does a good job of blinding me when I bike through it (I carry a cloth to use as a windshield wiper, but it's still annoying). But there I was, with binoculars and even my camera, and there was the Sanderling!

Arctic birds, and especially juveniles (like this one), can be quite nonchalant about the presence of a potential predator. So I stood about 12 feet from the water's edge at one end of the beach, hoping my bright yellow bike jacket wasn't too scary. The bird finished its bath (yes, it was bathing, never mind the wet fog - clearly an arctic bird!) and started foraging toward me, ultimately going right past me. It looked up a couple of times when I moved more than my shutter finger, but otherwise didn't seem at all worried. The light wasn't great, but it's hard to avoid getting a decent photo with the bird that close!

Sanderlings are rare in La Crosse (no sign of any last year), and this was one of the species I'd hoped to find if I'd made it to Jaegerfest but otherwise thought I would miss, so I was very pleased to see this bird!

16-17 September: Attempted trip north - cut very short!

One of the big trips I wanted to do this year was 240 miles north to Superior, WI, where the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology has a "Jaegerfest" field trip the second-to-last weekend of September. A bunch of birders spend three days standing on the beach and scoping for jaegers, gulls, terns, scoters, and anything else that flies by. It would be one of my last remaining chances to add a bunch of new birds to my Wisconsin year list.

I had some travel in August and early September that kept me from biking as much as I would have liked, and I didn't think I'd be able to make the trip either fitness-wise or time-wise. But a week beforehand I decided I would give it a try anyway. My trip to Horicon had gone so smoothly (with only a little better fitness at the start) that I thought I might be able to pull it off. I planned 4.5 days to bike up there, with the half-day somewhere in the middle depending on weather and my energy levels. I'd spend three days at Superior, then bike back over 6 or so days to do a bit more birding in the Northwoods. It seemed doable, and it would have been great to make it to Jaegerfest.

I left home Sunday morning and had my first FOGY at 8am, just 8 miles from my house! It was a random flyover by a flock of Brewer's Blackbirds (#229), which are around in the fall but pretty sparse. I thought I might have to work pretty hard to find them. Nope, no trouble at all!

For my last trip, I'd packed everything into my bike trailer, and was surprised by how much it slowed me down! At least, I thought it was partly the trailer (two extra wheels) and not just the weight itself. This time I packed everything right onto the bike, and my average speed was about 12% faster than the first day of my last trip under similar conditions. That's substantial if I can maintain it over a whole trip! The bike still handled well; I'd previously had trouble on uphills when using only rear panniers, but adding front ones helped a lot. It was much harder to leave the bike standing up, though, either on the kickstand or leaning against a low object, so that was a little annoying (I hate laying it down and risking water leaks, junk in the drive train, etc). Overall, though, the pannier system definitely wins out.

Front panniers: food, bike cleaning and repair stuff, and more water. Improvised handlebar bag = camera bag. Top tube bag: binoculars, notebook, phone, wallet, misc. Rear panniers: camping gear, scope, tripod, clothes, misc. Top of back rack: tent and drying laundry. Total = 61 lbs (including water but not bike).

Unfortunately, I started having some knee pain after ~40-45 miles on the first day, and by the time I made it to my intended campground (53 mi), it was quite painful. I'd gotten there very early (2pm), so I had plenty of time to rest that afternoon and overnight. The campground was on a lake (which was the only good thing about that campground!) and I made use of the time to play around with my camera a bit. One of the subjects I captured was another FOGY! There were about 10 Franklin's Gulls (#230) hawking insects high over the lake. They migrate down the Mississippi and I was sure I would see some this fall, but it was good to add them to the list.

It's amazing how much earlier the sun is setting these days than during my last trip - I was in my tent by 7:30pm as dusk fell and the voracious swarms of mosquitoes emerged. I was pretty sure I heard two Snow Geese, which would have been another FOGY, in a flock of Canada Geese that flew right over me. But I decided I couldn't confidently rule out weird-sounding (possibly juvenile) Canada Geese, so I decided not to count it. I'll just have to keep looking for them over the next few weeks. I don't have an amphibian list for the year, but a toad kept hopping up against my tent to catch the mosquitoes that were trying to get in!

Camera test at sunrise

The next morning my knee felt stiff but not immediately painful, so I headed north... but had to turn around after about 4 miles because it was getting pretty bad again on the uphills. I was a little worried about how far I'd make it towards home, but I had a couple of backup campground options on the way (there was NO way I was going to stay at that same one again), and I ended up getting all the way home with no problem. Ibuprofen took away nearly all the pain, especially when I was going slightly downhill, which was most of the time (following the Mississippi downriver). If I'd already been taking ibuprofen for some other reason, I might have made it all the way to Superior as planned - but I also might have ended up with permanent knee damage without realizing it!

The worst part of biking home that day was the heat! 96 F heat index! The breeze was light and usually a tail wind, which I appreciated for my knee, but didn't help cool me off. By 11am I was taking frequent breaks to cool down, rather than for my knee. Luckily there were lots of little parks and waysides along that route.

One wayside provided a chance to test out macro mode.

When I was about 2 hours from home, the clouds starting getting DARK. I checked the radar and saw that a storm was approaching, but there weren't any severe weather warnings yet, so I kept going. The Brewer's Blackbird spot (<1 hr from home) is next to a bathroom, which I figured I could use for shelter if I needed it, but when I got there, I was thinking the storm might pass behind me. Well, about five minutes later, a wall of wind hit! So much dust! So many flying leaves! The temperature dropped 20 degrees from one second to the next! That bike trail has a row of young trees on either side and otherwise is surrounded by open fields, so wind is scary there. When that first wall hit, I was able to wait it out in a slightly open area where there were no trees upwind of me (there was very little lightning then, and plenty of taller trees not too far away to attract any that might decide to strike). I kept going when I thought the wind had started dying down, but it turned out there were plenty of additional gusts on the way. I never saw anything larger than a small branch fall, but it was pretty terrifying. Luckily the wind (sustained ~30 mph, gusting to 50) was pushing me along, so I made great time! (But never took the time to glance at my speedometer to see exactly how fast I was going!) 

As I left the trail for the residential streets that would take me the last 2 miles home, the wind died a bit and the downpour and lightning started in earnest. It's pretty much continued raining and thundering over the three days since then, which has helped me feel a little less sad about missing my trip...

Of course it was AFTER I was out of the storm that I realized that my phone was still in airplane mode (to save battery on long trips), so I hadn't gotten the Severe Thunderstorm Warning that came through right about the time that I decided not to take shelter in the bathroom building!

I've got big plans for local birding, though. Waterbirds are starting to move in (maybe I can even find my own jaeger! There's essentially no chance of that, but you never know!) and I'd love to find a Nelson's or LeConte's sparrow this fall (very sparse around here). My knee feels perfectly fine now after one rest day and a couple of commutes, though I'll pay closer attention to stretching my strong muscles and strengthening my weak ones before I try any long rides again. I worked with a physiotherapist when I had a different knee problem about 6 years ago and learned all about how my leg muscles tend to get out of balance with one another, pulling my joints out of whack, but I'm not always good about doing my exercises because they're not always necessary to keep me on my bike. I'll consider myself duly reminded! I also had this same knee pain in the other knee when I started riding a new road bike 4 years ago, and worked with a good bike fitter to fix that by turning my toe out slightly (which also means I need to stretch my calves!) and adding wedges under my insoles (which most humans apparently benefit from - biking isn't really ergonomic). I just ordered a new pair of those wedges because I'm sure my old ones have gotten a bit squashed over the years, which might have contributed to the problem. Anyway, I'm optimistic that it'll be an easy fix, but also kicking myself for not being more diligent about preventing the problem! Well, maybe next year...