I just posted this to the Wisconsin birding listserv, and wanted to copy it here since the sightings were in the twin ports. Towards the bottom of this email I have a question about a distant grebe I saw this morning. ----------------
This morning my friend Aldo and I did some birdwatching at sunrise along the Superior Entry (Wisconsin Point, Superior, WI). We found three Snow Buntings bathing & splashing along the rock piling (near shore), in addition to observing five White-winged Crossbills flying overhead. Aldo was only able to stay about half an hour. After he left, I headed to Lot 1, and had some awesome finds this morning! Bird list is below... Mallard American Black Duck Gadwall Northern Pintail Northern Shoveler Green-winged Teal WHITE-WINGED SCOTER - five of them! Common Goldeneye - 6 Bufflehead - 4 Bald Eagle Bonaparte's Gull - 3 FRANKLIN'S GULL - 1 non-breeding adult Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull THAYER'S GULL - 1 Juvenile at the entry ICELAND GULL (Kumlien's Gull) - 1 adult at the landfill GLAUCOUS GULL (not alive, in the talons of a Bald Eagle flying overhead, while I viewed gulls at the landfill!!) Blue Jay Common Raven Black-capped Chickadee American Tree Sparrow Snow Bunting White-winged Crossbill Many pictures to come later on (that I took through my SLR). Below is a description/set of pictures that I digiscoped on my smaller camera of a weird bird. Right now I'm at a friend's house in Ashland, and will be able to post good pictures later on when I am home. These first three pictures are of a very distant grebe (digiscoped at ~45x, and zoomed-in slightly with the camera). The bird was very distant. I called this bird a Western Grebe upon initially observing it, however upon looking at it through the camera now being near a computer, the extra large white face (lacking a well-defined droop in the black cap that goes through the eye) confuses me about this bird. Clark's Grebes will show a white area that surrounds the eye, and their bills tend to be a vibrant, bright yellow. Western Grebes have a dark cap on top of their head that extends through and just-slightly below the eye. The Western Grebe's bill tends to be an olive-yellow color from the individuals I have observed. Comments/feedback on the bird below are welcome as always! *Note that in photography (especially like the poor-quality photos below), white areas tend to "fade" into the dark areas throughout an image, sometimes making the white areas larger than they are and darker areas smaller than they really are. http://www.pbase.com/image/139473320 http://www.pbase.com/image/139473322 This could possibly be a different grebe, but it could also be the same individual as the grebe above. All of the grebe photos were taken in the same vicinity, however due to the distant waves, it was hard at times to consistently see the grebe. This grebe in the photos below has the usual traits of Western Grebes. Throughout North Dakota as well as Oregon, I have seen many Western Grebes, and have confirmed and documented Clark's Grebes on several occasions too. http://www.pbase.com/image/139473324 http://www.pbase.com/image/139473318 http://www.pbase.com/image/139473315 Here in Ashland, WI I scanned Long Bridge as well as Maslowski Beach. Ring-billed Gulls at Long Bridge, and at Maslowski Beach, I had Ring-billed Gulls, Herring Gulls and Canada Goose (including one well-photographed LEUCISTIC Canada Goose)! Good birding, Erik Bruhnke Duluth, MN *NATURALLY AVIAN* - Guided Birdwatching Trips and Bird photography www.pbase.com/birdfedr www.naturallyavian.blogspot.com birdf...@gmail.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
