{"id":8834,"date":"2014-06-25T03:34:16","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T10:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/?p=8834"},"modified":"2014-06-28T11:05:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-28T18:05:26","slug":"door-county-wisconsin-day-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/25\/door-county-wisconsin-day-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Door County, Wisconsin: Day Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSCN5584\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The fog made for an eerie morning here in Baileys Harbor, an impression only heightened by the screeches of invisible\u00a0Caspian terns\u00a0<\/strong>over the lake. But nothing can deter birders when they’re in a new place, and after breakfast, Marnie and I met up with Paul for an introduction to some of this long peninsula’s many and varied habitats.<\/p>\n

\"DSCN5587\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We started off on the bayshore of Peninsula State Park, where I was finally able to make sense of that mysterious word “alvar.” A bar far offshore was drifted with\u00a0American white pelicans<\/strong>, and small groups, family groups, of\u00a0red-breasted mergansers\u00a0<\/strong>— a funny bird to see in the summer — dived and flew up and down in front of us.<\/p>\n

\"DSCN5589\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The boggy woods across the road in the park must be great for migrants earlier in the season, and even in late June are surely good for breeding birds earlier in the day. The dominant voices late this morning were red-eyed vireos\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0American redstarts<\/strong>, with\u00a0ovenbirds, common yellowthroats, yellow warblers, <\/strong>and a distant Nashville warbler\u00a0<\/strong>rounding out our parulid list for the site.<\/p>\n

From Peninsula we went on to Mud Lake, approaching along a road that reminded me more of a tamarisk marsh in Maine or New Brunswick than of the Midwest.<\/p>\n

\"Mud<\/a><\/p>\n

Delightful as it was to hear an\u00a0alder flycatcher\u00a0<\/strong>sneezing out in the alders, the roadside orchids were even more welcome a sight.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow<\/a><\/p>\n

We looked for but did not see the rare Hine’s emerald, though a couple of other odonate species were flying; Paul identified a corporal, a darner, and a twelve-spotted skimmer. In spite of the overcast, we found pearl crescents, a white admiral, and several mourning cloaks — and impressively vast numbers of the insects the locals call “mosquitoes.” They seem thirstier than the ones I’m used to.<\/p>\n

We fled the buzzing horde to look for some farmland specialties.<\/p>\n

\"Door<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul knew a\u00a0bobolink\u00a0<\/strong>field, so we spent several enjoyable minutes watching the males sing and dance over the tall grass; I got to see one female fly in and land in the grass with something wriggly in her bill, so maybe they can bring off young before the rest of the field is hayed.\u00a0Savannah sparrows\u00a0<\/strong>shared the hayfield and perched on the wires, and two male\u00a0dickcissels\u00a0<\/strong>buzzed at a frustrating distance before one came closer to the road and sang for us as we pulled away.<\/p>\n

\"Door<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the course of the morning we also found two pairs of\u00a0sandhill cranes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Sandhill<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul had been watching this pair, which, he told us, has a large but still flightless chick. The colt must have been hidden in the grass when we arrive — but no complaints about missing it after such a wonderful and quintessentially midwestern morning in the field.<\/p>\n

Today’s list:<\/p>\n

Canada goose<\/p>\n

mallard<\/p>\n

hooded merganser<\/p>\n

red-breasted merganser<\/p>\n

wild turkey<\/p>\n

American white pelican<\/p>\n

double-crested cormorant<\/p>\n

great egret<\/p>\n

turkey vulture<\/p>\n

osprey<\/p>\n

red-tailed hawk<\/p>\n

killdeer<\/p>\n

ring-billed gull<\/p>\n

herring gull<\/p>\n

Caspian tern<\/p>\n

rock pigeon<\/p>\n

mourning dove<\/p>\n

chimney swift<\/p>\n

ruby-throated hummingbird<\/p>\n

alder flycatcher<\/p>\n

eastern phoebe<\/p>\n

eastern kingbird<\/p>\n

red-eyed vireo<\/p>\n

blue jay<\/p>\n

American crow<\/p>\n

common raven<\/p>\n

purple martin<\/p>\n

tree swallow<\/p>\n

northern rough-winged swallow<\/p>\n

cliff swallow<\/p>\n

barn swallow<\/p>\n

house wren<\/p>\n

eastern bluebird<\/p>\n

American robin<\/p>\n

European starling<\/p>\n

cedar waxwing<\/p>\n

Nashville warbler<\/p>\n

yellow warbler<\/p>\n

chestnut-sided warbler<\/p>\n

American redstart<\/p>\n

ovenbird<\/p>\n

common yellowthroat<\/p>\n

chipping sparrow<\/p>\n

field sparrow<\/p>\n

vesper sparrow<\/p>\n

Savannah sparrow<\/p>\n

song sparrow<\/p>\n

indigo bunting<\/p>\n

bobolink<\/p>\n

red-winged blackbird<\/p>\n

eastern meadowlark<\/p>\n

common grackle<\/p>\n

brown-headed cowbird<\/p>\n

house finch<\/p>\n

American goldfinch<\/p>\n

house sparrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fog made for an eerie morning here in Baileys Harbor, an impression only heightened by the screeches of invisible\u00a0Caspian terns\u00a0over the lake. But nothing can deter birders when they’re in a new place, and after breakfast, Marnie and I met up with Paul for an introduction to some of this long peninsula’s many and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Door County, Wisconsin: Day Two”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,1,183],"tags":[606,186,184,605],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8836,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834\/revisions\/8836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}