Marsh Wrens at Horicon Marsh NWR, WI: Sunday, 5-28-17

Marsh Wren

They typically eat insects and spiders

Horicon Marsh NWR, WI: Sunday, 5-28-17

    

Fingernail Moon

Flycatcher

BirdMobile

Mating Dragonflies

                                     Chipping Sparrow

Lupine

Red Trillium

Red-tailed Hawk

Columbine

One way to be the winter cold

Egmont Key Boat Tour: Saturday, 6-17-17 South end of the island

Approximately 90,000 birds utilize this small portion of the island to raise their chicks every year, making it a Globally Important Bird Area.

Brown Pelicans (~500 pairs), Laughing Gulls (~35,000 PAIRS), Royal Terns, White Ibises, and Sandwich Terns

People and dogs MUST be kept out of the nesting area.

Royal Terns with their chicks

As you might expect, the noise is deafening.

Tree Swallows on our journey

By far the most common swallow we saw all along our journey.

Male

Using a natural nest hole though almost every "Bluebird Nest box" we saw on our trip had Tree Swallows in them.

 Preening those all-important feathers

Migrating and wintering Tree Swallows can form enormous flocks numbering in the hundreds of thousands.  They gather about an hour before sunset and form a dense cloud above a roost site (such as a cattail marsh like we saw at Horicon Marsh NWR in Wisconsin), swirling around like a living tornado.  With each pass, more birds drop down until they are all settled on the roost.  Several in the above moon shot were a little late.

Female