I saw a recent report of the Canada Jay and Boreal Chickadee species in Forest County Wisconsin. I had the urge to try for these species once again to get them on my Wisconsin life list. An earlier winter trip a couple of years ago for these species was a bust. Mike Wanger wanted to join me as he needed the Boreal Chickadee. We met at 2:30 am in Milwaukee and made the run up. Arriving at 7am, it was 48 degrees, clear as a bell, quiet as a mouse and it pretty much remained like that for that till noon. We birded up and down Sheltered Valley and Pine River Roads, known areas for these species to be seen. Every 5-10 minutes or so we would park, get out and walk up and down the road quietly for 10-30 minutes, look and listen. After and hour or so we found a Canada Jay in a Tamarack tree a little ways off the road. It only hung around for a second after spotting it. I got a horrible shot of the Canada Jay, but was enough for a ID. We came across some Red Crossbills eating cone seeds on a Tamarack tree. Two juvenile Broad-winged Hawks put on a show at one location, they were looking for food. We saw a few small flocks of warblers feeding, they were moving around. It was amazing that we both could walk a ways out on a bog on a possible deer trail and there were no mosquitoes or flies! It was a exciting day for the both of us! No Boreal Chickadee was seen or heard, I guess it will be another trip another day. I have attached Mike’s ebird report for species at that location (below).
It just was not a great day for photos, but the photos show some of the species seen.
Broad-winged Hawk, juvenile
Broad-winged Hawk, juvenile
Red Crossbill, male
Canada Jay, doc shot
Broad-winged Hawk, juvenile
Black-billed Cuckoo 1 (heard)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Common Loon 1 (heard)
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Broad-winged Hawks 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 4
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 3
Canada Jay (Northern) 1
Blue Jay 6
American Crow 2
Common Raven 1 (heard)
Black-capped Chickadee 12
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
Hermit Thrush 2
American Robin 6
Red Crossbill 2
American Goldfinch 5
Song Sparrow 2
Lincoln’s Sparrow 1
Nashville Warbler 5
Common Yellowthroat 2
Cape May Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 3
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 2
Indigo Bunting 2
Nice list of birds as summer winds down. Thanks for sharing the photos.
For me, it has been much more difficult to find the northern (boreal) species these past few years. Even though your Canada Jay didn’t cooperate for photos, I think you were lucky to see even one! Twenty years ago, that was a species you could count on every trip.
Glad you were able to photograph the Broad-winged Hawk and Red Crossbills.