Listing Through Life

empidonax (from empidos, mosquito, and anax, king) alnorum (alders)

Sunday, May 30, 1982 — 11:00 am

Three Lakes, Wisconsin — off C.T.H. A, near town

The book, Wisconsin’s Favorite Bird Haunts, sent me to this place to look for Boreal Chickadees. The location consists of a massive, wet black spruce bog. A track leads back from the highway though the bog with a thick stand of spruce on one side and an open boggy area with scattered spruce on the other. I hiked all the way through this area without seeing much, then entered a wetter area covered with brush about five feet high.

I heard the Alder Flycatcher from quite a ways away and knew what it was, but I had difficulty finding it because the brush was so high, thick and close the road. I finally spotted it perched in a small tree. It flitted away to the top of a bush, then down out of sight into the brush. Its song was a burry, three-syllable “fee-bee-o” accented on the last syllable and repeated every 10 to 15 seconds.

litellus tridecemlineatus

May 30, 1982 — 8:15 am

Manotowish Waters, Wisconsin — Powell Marsh Wildlife Refuge

I saw this squirrel along the edge of the road on the levy through the marsh. It was standing straight up, with its paws to its mouth. As I approached, it disappeared into the brush along the road. It was approximately seven inches long with short legs. Its fur was buff and gray with stripes, alternately solid and dotted, running down its back.

botaurus (bittern) lentiginosus (freckled)

Sunday, May 30, 1982 — 7:30 am

Manotowish Waters, Wisconsin — Powell Marsh Wildlife Area

I was walking along the causeway that cuts through the marsh. I spotted some Canada Geese standing on the roadway about 100 yards ahead of me. As I was looking at them through my scope, a coyote popped out of the reeds and stood in the road about 50 yards away, between me and the geese. The coyote stood there, looking at me, then looking at the geese for about 15 seconds before disappearing back into the marsh.

A little further on I heard the weird “onk-a-gonk” of a bittern from the nearby reeds. I spotted it standing motionless in the thick, two-foot-high grass. Its bill was pointed straight up, and it occasionally moved its head from side to side. A short time later, it hunched down and walked through the grass out of my sight. It reappeared at the edge of a large area of open water. It resumed its bill-up position and began calling. It hunched down, stuck its neck out forward, and swelled up its body as it called.

canis latrans

May 30, 1982 — 7:30 am

Manotowish Waters, Wisconsin — Powell Marsh Wildlife Refuge

I was walking out toward the center of the marsh on the levy when I saw the Coyote. It was standing on the dirt road on the levy about 100 yards in front of me. It divided its time between watching me and watching two Canada Geese and an American Crow that were standing on the levy beyond the Coyote. It walked into the brush, returned to the road, looked at me again, then disappeared into the marsh. It looked like a skinny, medium-sized dog with a long skinny nose. It had a busy tail with a black tip. Its fur was grayish with rusty highlights, especially noticeable on the nose and ears. It had a very bouncy gait when it walked, and its tail hung straight down. It looked rather lethargic.

contopus (from kontos, short, and pous, foot) borealis (northern)

Saturday, May 29, 1982 — 1:30 pm

McNaughton, Wisconsin

My wife and I spotted an Olive-sided Flycatcher on the top of a tall, dead birch trunk in a horse corral. It flew to the top of a dead birch near a barn, then off out of sight. I next saw it in the top of a birch in front of the barn with a large dragonfly in its bill. It swallowed the dragonfly with difficulty, looked around for a while, then took off over the nearby woods.

I didn’t hear it sing, but I did see the white tufts below its wings. It was larger than an empidonax, with a dark gray/green back and head, and a large bill. It had a white throat and a smeary gray chest with a white streak down the center.