Fun Fall Birding (FUN) - 26 November 2023

On Sunday afternoon November 26 about 20 bird lovers of various ages and skill levels including some UW students enjoyed a "Fun Fall Birding" Bird and Nature Adventure and the season's first beautiful fresh white snowfall at the UW Lakeshore Nature Preserve with popular bird guide Chuck Henrikson to see awesome Tundra Swans with 8 foot wingspans, Buffleheads, Loons and other colorful migrating waterfowl, and Wisconsin winter favorites like bright red Cardinals, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Tree Sparrows and White-breasted Nuthatch, and gathered for hot cocoa around a Picnic Point campfire after the walk. A highlight was a huge Bald Eagle that soared by creating its own white swirling snow flurry of dozens of scattering Herring Gulls in its wake.

Birds seen during the outing:

35 Canada Goose
7 Tundra Swan
25 Mallard
11 Bufflehead
23 Common Goldeneye
200 American Coot
2 Ring-billed Gull

Total 21 species

​40 Herring Gull
2 Common Loon
1 Bald Eagle
​2 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Pileated Woodpecker
2 Blue Jay
2 American Crow

​1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 American Robin
2 American Tree Sparrow
3 Dark-eyed Junco
2 Northern Cardinal

Report and photos by Paul Noelder