{"id":8843,"date":"2014-06-29T03:28:45","date_gmt":"2014-06-29T10:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/?p=8843"},"modified":"2014-06-28T11:06:03","modified_gmt":"2014-06-28T18:06:03","slug":"door-county-wisconsin-day-four-north-by-midwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/29\/door-county-wisconsin-day-four-north-by-midwest\/","title":{"rendered":"Door County, Wisconsin: Day Four — North by Midwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Sometimes you hold all the stars in your hand. Sometimes the cards are aligned just right. And sometimes you get to be in Door County, Wisconsin, on the most heartbreakingly beautiful day of the summer.<\/p>\n

\"Ferry,<\/a><\/p>\n

Better yet, I got to spend most of the day on Washington and Rock Islands, just off the northern tip of the long peninsula, birding. Melody showed me some really lovely spots and some really exciting birds, and my appetite is decidedly whetted for another visit.<\/p>\n

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

It seems like every would-be birding destination in the world touts its “diversity of habitats,” but Door County lives up to the boast. What’s more, those habitats — from hay fields and woodlots to boggy spruce forests and hemlock groves — unite the two great ecological systems that dominate the center of the continent. Here, the dickcissels<\/strong> of the midwestern prairies sing to the black-throated green warblers<\/strong> of the boreal forest.<\/p>\n

The meeting of north and west is especially obvious out on the water. Not that long ago,\u00a0American white pelicans\u00a0<\/strong>were rare birds on the Great Lakes, even in migration. This week, it has been hard not to see these huge, magnificent birds, ones and twos sailing majestically on the waters of the bay and the lake or larger groups — up to 130 at a time — gliding and sailing with equal serenity across the blue skies.<\/p>\n

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

These classic birds of western prairie lakes and swales share the blue waters with surprising numbers of\u00a0red-breasted mergansers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Red-breasted<\/a><\/p>\n

Most seem to be males, suggesting that the waters of Door County are a “molt migration” site for this species; while the females and young linger around the nest, the drakes, their work done for the year, take off for open water and shed their flight feathers in safety. Nearly every bit of shoreline — as here, on Washington Island — seems to have its mergansers, but the biggest flock Melody and I encountered was a whopping 310 birds, loafing and feeding just off Rock Island.<\/p>\n

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

The wooded habitats, too, harbor a piquant mix of species. This enormous hemlock is the playground of a\u00a0pileated woodpecker<\/strong>, a surprisingly common bird in Door County; in fact, with the exception of the ubiquitous\u00a0northern flickers<\/strong>,\u00a0I heard and saw more pileateds than any other picid this week.<\/p>\n

Just a couple of miles away stands a dark, wet deciduous forest, the home of a family of\u00a0red-headed woodpeckers<\/strong>. Quiet and furtive on a warm afternoon, the birds eluded us on our quick stop, but just knowing they were there, somewhere, made the peninsula a richer place to my mind and eye.<\/p>\n

As a slender hint of just how rich Door County is for the birder, have a look at our day list, and note the enticing mix of northern and western and eastern birds you can find there — even in summer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Canada goose<\/p>\n

Mute swan<\/p>\n

Mallard<\/p>\n

Hooded merganser<\/p>\n

Red-breasted merganser<\/p>\n

Wild turkey<\/p>\n

Common loon<\/p>\n

American white pelican<\/p>\n

Double-crested cormorant<\/p>\n

Great blue heron<\/p>\n

Great egret<\/p>\n

Black-crowned night-heron<\/p>\n

Turkey vulture<\/p>\n

Osprey<\/p>\n

Bald eagle<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s hawk<\/p>\n

Broad-winged hawk<\/p>\n

Red-tailed hawk<\/p>\n

Sandhill crane<\/p>\n

Killdeer<\/p>\n

Ring-billed gull<\/p>\n

Herring gull<\/p>\n

Caspian tern<\/p>\n

Common tern<\/p>\n

Rock pigeon<\/p>\n

Mourning dove<\/p>\n

Chimney swift<\/p>\n

Ruby-throated hummingbird<\/p>\n

Northern flicker<\/p>\n

Pileated woodpecker<\/p>\n

Great crested flycatcher<\/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

Bank swallow<\/p>\n

Cliff swallow<\/p>\n

Barn swallow<\/p>\n

Black-capped chickadee<\/p>\n

Red-breasted nuthatch<\/p>\n

House wren<\/p>\n

Blue-gray gnatcatcher<\/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

Black-throated green warbler<\/p>\n

American redstart<\/p>\n

Ovenbird<\/p>\n

Common yellowthroat<\/p>\n

Eastern towhee<\/p>\n

Chipping sparrow<\/p>\n

Clay-colored sparrow<\/p>\n

Vesper sparrow<\/p>\n

Savannah sparrow<\/p>\n

Song sparrow<\/p>\n

Northern cardinal<\/p>\n

Indigo bunting<\/p>\n

Dickcissel<\/p>\n

Bobolink<\/p>\n

Red-winged blackbird<\/p>\n

Eastern meadowlark<\/p>\n

Common grackle<\/p>\n

Brown-headed cowbird<\/p>\n

Purple finch<\/p>\n

American goldfinch<\/p>\n

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

Sometimes you hold all the stars in your hand. Sometimes the cards are aligned just right. And sometimes you get to be in Door County, Wisconsin, on the most heartbreakingly beautiful day of the summer. Better yet, I got to spend most of the day on Washington and Rock Islands, just off the northern tip … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Door County, Wisconsin: Day Four — North by Midwest”<\/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\/8843"}],"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=8843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8845,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8843\/revisions\/8845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/birdaz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}