Wi South | 365 Days of Birds

I am down in Fox Point, Wisconsin from Duluth to meet my new grandchild (#7). I decided to take some time this morning and drive over to the Broughton Drive jetties in Sheboygan. I had heard there were two Harlequin Ducks in this area, including a mature male. Once, seven years ago in Duluth I saw a female … not near as pretty. After several passes walking back and forth along the jetties without seeing the Harlequins amongst hundreds and hundreds of mallards, guess who came swimming right up to the shoreline and allowed me to watch them feed from about 15 yards?!

These ducks don’t belong in my sandbox! Take a look at their range. There are Harlequins which breed in British Columbia and Alaska, and basically winter in the same area. Some of their cousins call Greenland home summer and winter, and finally there is a population in extreme northern Quebec (read Arctic tundra) which winters in the Atlantic waters off the Canadian Martimes down through Maryland.

Harlequin Duck (video link for email subscribers)

It’s been a while since my last “Boats and Birds” post. However, last night while studying my marine shipping app I realized the Michipicoten (one of my favorite lakers) would be arriving just off the Superior entrance to the harbor shortly before sunrise. Thus, I got up at 5 am and drive to Wisconsin in time to walk the beach and welcome my favorite ore boat. These photographs resulted.

The birds portion of the post comes from our trip down to Madison this past weekend for a wedding. Sunday morning I wanted to go birding, but I did not know the area. In an instance like this I do two things:

Check eBird for nearby hotspots
Peruse Google Maps looking for green spaces

Google Maps provided the winning location when I realized that the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Research Station was only five minutes away by car. Ag means a farm, which at this time of year also means food for birds. There was a gorgeous garden and small apple orchard. The birds did not let me down.

House Finch eating apples