Ed Peartree on some of his many birding banding outings
By Rebecca Gilman
WSO Board Secretary
Fall is here and it’s a perfect time to visit our Honey Creek Preserve in Sauk County. The leaves are turning as our summer birds depart. Migrants drop down to refuel and rest before taking to the wing once again and our winter visitors – like the Dark-eyed...
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Jaegerfest 2022 - 24 years!
Sunrise Birding Sept 23, 2022 Photo: Tom Schultz
By Tom Schultz WSO Field Trips Committee
This was another “unofficial” Jaegerfest weekend for WSO, but many members attended – as we have annually since we started this field trip to Wisconsin Point in 1999 – so this was the event’s 24th year!
This report begins on Thursday Sept. 22, since that day provided...
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Bay Beach Field Trip 2022 – Sept. 10
Attendees arrived at Bay Beach wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay under cloudy skies, with a cold front just arriving. Rain heading our way from the northwest, but fortunately the morning remained dry. The temperature was in the mid-60s, and the wind was from the north about 5-10 mph.
7:00 AM was our meeting time, and we gathered along one of the lagoons not far from the parking...
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Visual concert in the night sky to happen soon
Wisconsin Chimney Swift Working Group You are invited to a free evening concert in nature. The performers are the Chimney Swifts, and they will be chittering and twittering above chimneys in the evening sky before they roost for the night this fall. These birds are getting ready to migrate south, all the way to the Amazon, and when they do they become communal. This is where the show begins. Some...
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Big Birding Bash was a big success
By Jennifer Lazewski WSO Executive Director The first Big Birding Bash was a resounding success as a spring migration bird counting effort with fun local gatherings of birders. On May 21-22, over 300 participants in 59 counties observed 244 bird species. This effort included birders through the state with eBird checklists done that weekend. We asked that everyone share their checklists with...
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Horicon Field Trip Report 2022
Birding on the Auto Tour- photo by TOM SCHULTZ
Cloudy skies and occasional drizzle were encountered by birders heading to Horicon on the morning of 8/14, but fortunately our field trip was dry. It was a cool day, however, with the temperatures ranging from 63 – 67 degrees, and a light NE wind. The 25 attendees gathered along Hwy. 49 at 7:00 AM and started scanning the marsh.
The...
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Mid-Summer Rare Birds Brown Booby a likely new state record!
Jim Edlhuber photographed this Brown Booby on Aug. 11 in La Crosse. For more: http://www.windowtowildlife.com/brown-booby-on-the-black-river-in-la-crosse-wisconsin-on-august-11-2022/
By Mark KorduckiIn the days just before this article went to press, Wisconsin birders were flocking to what would be a new state record, pending approval of the WSO Records Committee. On Aug. 9, A Brown Booby was...
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WSO’s Quarterly Journal is in Jeopardy, Needs Volunteers
WSO’s Passenger Pigeon has been the best representation of WSO’s commitment to unite academic avian study with bird enthusiasts ready to assist in scientific research. Since 1939, the journal has been publishing research on Wisconsin’s birds and information on bird studies and sightings throughout the state. That history is longer and richer than the Atlas work that many of you value so...
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5 Cautionary Tips to Document Birds ID'd by Merlin App
By Jason Thiele Wisconsin eBird Team
The Cornell Lab’s Merlin Bird ID app for smart phones is a game changer in the birding world, especially for its sound identification feature. But like any new technology, it’s not perfect, meaning eBirders should be careful not to report birds identified only by the app.
Birding, like virtually every other pastime, has been greatly influenced by...
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Great Wisconsin Birdathon soars, raising $117,000 for birds
The Great Wisconsin Birdathon gave away a copy of Wingspan, the popular bird-themed board game, and the winner was one of our newest family teams from Wood County, the Round Barn Birders! They birded all season long, exploring new places and finding new birds together as a family. Photo courtesy of their team captain, Lisa Kowalski.
By Caitlyn Schuchhardt Outreach Coordinator Natural Resources...
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Summer Rare Birds: Cassin’s Kingbird would be a new state record
Dan Belter photographed what has been identified as a Cassin’s Kingbird in Marathon County on June 5.
By Mark Korducki
The exciting spring for rarities continued into early June. In Marathon County, a trip to search for Dickcissels turned up a much more exciting surprise for a Wausau birder. An unusual flycatcher was photographed and subsequently identified as a Cassin's Kingbird. If...
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