On a nice ride around the lake, we seen 2 mature bald eagles and 1 youngster, a sandhill crane sitting on a nest and baby geese!
Kentucky Derby party:
The Gaskill's volunteered to help with the food!
Nancy made a game for us to play before the race! its quite a competitive group!
the beautiful ladies
the winners!
fun afternoon.
On Thursday May 12 we had an Indigo Bunting at our feeders
Saturday May 14: we headed out early today for Northfield Mn to attend a wedding. An old friend of Eric's was getting married at Nerstrand State Park. Beautiful ceremony and fun reception. On Sunday we went to Carlton College (beautiful campus)
our next stop was at Frontenec State Park where we finally found a "Warbling Warbler"! we have been looking for this bird for about 2 years! what a wonderful treat. We left our hotel at about 7:30 am, arrived home at about 7 pm... loooong day..
Tues May 17: We headed north to Washburn Wi. about 85 miles to West Thompson city campground for the 10th annual Chequamegon Bay Bird Fest. this is our 6th year attending this fest. As the weather forecast was for wonderful weather we decided to go up a day early. On Tues we got 2 new year birds and 8 month birds. On Wed we headed to Ashland getting 3 year and 7 month birds.
Thurs May 19: The first day of the fest we got 1 life bird, 8 year birds and 11 month birds!!
We heard a Connecticut Warbler
unfortunately we did not see it..
We are not sure if we got another life bird. we found a kingbird at our campground
it could be a Tropical Kingbird or (new to us) Couch's Kingbird.. we will have to wait to see what the experts decide. They determined it was a Tropical Kingbird..
On Friday: For some reason we picked 6:00 am programs. We leave the campground around 5:30. We had a good day at he waterfalls, the afternoon in Bayfield on the Brownstone Trail. No new Life birds but a few month and year birds. The weather is perfect, sunny, 65 with little wind.
Saturday: Again... we have a 6:00 am program.. I must do better next year. Another great morning of walking and birding. It is really a fun experience being with a group of birders. Everyone is looking and listening for the next bird and when a top birder is leading the group it is even more fun.
Our afternoon hike was about 1.5 miles through the woods to a waterfall. Not too many birds seen, the weather was pretty warm, 80ish and sunny. bugs were out in force..
What a great fest! We got 1 life bird, 17 year birds and 37 months birds! We met some new people, caught up with some people we had met at past festivals, walked some new trails, camped on the shores of Lake Superior, ate wonderful whitefish and able to be outside the entire fest!
Memorial Weekend pretty rainy, so we were able to get some projects done. Critter cam got a picture of a black bear at about 9:00 pm walking through the yard. We pull the bird feeders in every night as we don't want her to continue coming into the yard.
We treed a yearling bear on our Monday morning walk:
We finally got the pontoon out for awhile. It has been so cold, windy and busy that we were not able to get out for a ride. Beautiful day on Monday for a leisurely cruise.
May bird count: Life up 2 to 542 year up 47 to 268 month came in at 153.
It is so neat to see bears--if they aren't a threat and the next day you can walk around without worrying. Glad you are having a good springs with lots of birds.
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