Friday Feathered Feature
Showcasing a different bird species each week
Bouncing and scuttling up tree trunks, the Red-breasted Nuthatch might closely resemble the related White-breasted Nuthatch, but the Red-breasted is much smaller and contains its namesake red breast along with a bold black eyeline which the White-breasted lacks.
Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
Nelson’s sparrow photo by Mike McDowell
Mike McDowell, along with two other birders, reported in an eBird checklist a high count of 12 Nelson’s sparrows on October 10th, 2020 at Goose Pond Sanctuary. His report from The Vera & Marshall Browne Prairie stated, “There were easily more”.
Prior to 1995, Nelson’s sharp-tailed sparrows and saltmarsh sparrows were considered the same species. Sam Robbins wrote in 1991 in Wisconsin Birdlife that sharp-tailed sparrows were uncommon fall migrants from late August to mid-October. Sam wrote that “A. W. Schorger found them near Mazomanie (Dane County) regularly from 1926 to 1929, with a sighting of as many as 20 birds on 24 September 1927.” It would have been interesting to know what the high count of Nelson’s sparrows and how many individuals stopped in fall migration at Goose Pond.
Nelson’s sparrow range map by Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology provided an excellent description of this secretive wetland sparrow, “A richly colored sparrow with a saffron-yellow eyebrow and whisker marks framing a grayish cheek. The interior-breeding form of Nelson’s Sparrow, this yellow color continues strongly onto the throat, breast, and sides, with streaking on the breast and flanks.”
Steve Theissen from Stoughton is one of Wisconsin’s best in locating fall migrating Nelson’s sparrows. This sparrow is difficult to find in migration. In addition to knowing the identification you also have to know their fall migration habitat.
Steve wrote on October 9th that, “Jim Otto had mentioned large numbers of pine siskins in the prairies at Goose Pond. I walked some of Browne Prairie and was treated to a few large flocks of siskins. As usual, I headed for sparrow habitat. I was trying to see a probable Nelson’s sparrow, which flew, and I happened to check out a song sparrow. In the same bush there were two Nelson’s. Besides these two, I’d say there were three more small sparrows in the area. There were lots of savannah, song and swamp sparrows. This area would have a lot easier viewing, early, with low winds. Quite windy, today.”
Other birders reporting Nelson’s sparrows were Deb Turski (2 on Oct. 10th), Cicero Stewart (2 on Oct. 11), Aaron Holschbach (4 on Oct. 18th), Logan Carlton (1 on Oct. 18), and Tim Fenske (1 on Oct. 21). Nelson’s sparrows were on the 1978 Goose Pond Bird List. While Steve’s Nelson’s sparrow observations were the first ever reported at Goose Pond on eBird.
There were other sparrow species found in the same area. On October 10th, Mike McDowell found one LeConte’s sparrow, a first eBird entry for Goose Pond. Also reported on eBird were 44 savannah sparrows (high count for Goose Pond), 18 song sparrows, and 38 swamp sparrows reported by Aaron Holschbach. Mike also found two Lincoln’s sparrows and Dennis Casper also reported two on October 20th. All the sparrows were feasting on seeds in this diverse habitat.
The sparrow habitat that Steve was searching was in Jill’s Prairie about 1,000 feet south of the Browne Prairie bench along the trail with tallgrass prairie on the west side and a weedy food plot and wetland habitat on the east side of the trail. See satellite photo. The star is the Browne Prairie bench. The photo shows the “flat” covered by water. Along the west side is where the sparrows were found.
In most years the 20-acre “flat” is leased to a local farmer and cropped. In addition to providing funds for habitat management the harvested cropland provides a place for waterfowl to feed on waste corn. On average the flat is cropped nine times in ten years.
The basin filled with water in March of 2019. Water levels dropped last summer and annuals such as smartweeds, barnyard grass, and water plantain along with other moist soil forbs, grasses, and sedges germinated.
Photo by Arlene Koziol
Annuals are quick to grow and set seeds. This is the habitat that Steve searches for Nelson’s sparrows. Steve mentioned that he frequently sees Nelson’s feeding fresh green grass and sedge seeds, and other annuals. He also mentioned that, ideally, the moist soil is not covered completely by vegetation.
In addition to the moist soil habitat Nelson’s were also found in the adjacent food plot dominated by foxtail grass and sorghum and in the prairie restoration. If the flat was planted to prairie the prairie species would die out in high water years and overtime the area would be dominated by reed canary grass.
Nelson’s sparrow, photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
Steve also wrote “In Dane county there are two public areas where birders have had fair success, in finding Nelson’s sparrow. The Swan Pond Waterfowl Production Area; about one mile northwest of Oregon, south of Highway M and just west of Lake Barney and the Brooklyn State Wildlife Area. The time to look is the third week of September to mid October.”
About 75% of the flat is covered with water and if water levels drop next summer birder watchers may again be able to view Nelson’s sparrows. Hopefully birders will be able to find 12 in one million. At least three-quarters of North America’s one million Nelson’s sparrows breed in Canada.
Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers
Columbia, the snowy owl that Madison Audubon assisted in banding with help from ProjectSNOWstorm, is back on the radar and in the United States. Will she head back to Wisconsin? Follow her journey here. Photo by Monica Hall
We were delighted to receive an email from Project SNOWstorm on November 28, 2020 titled A New Season Amid Unusual Challenges by Scott Weidensaul. Scrolling quickly through the blog we spotted a photo taken by Monica Hall of “Columbia” being banded and fitted with her transmitter by Gene Jacobs in our residence laundry room on January 28th, 2020.
The text read:
“We got full data uploads from Stella and Columbia, both of whom checked in for the first time within minutes of each other on Nov. 12. Columbia, you may recall, was an adult female tagged in January by Gene Jacobs at Madison (WI) Audubon’s Goose Pond Sanctuary. She headed north in April, following the western edge of Hudson Bay to the Melville Peninsula, crossing to Baffin Island, then veering west and eventually reaching Prince of Wales Island in the central Canadian Arctic of Nunavut by mid-June.
Gene Jacobs holds Columbia. Photo by Monica Hall
There’s no indication from the tracking data that Columbia nested, though as a two-and-a-half-year-old bird, she might still have been a little young to breed. (The age at which snowy owls usually become sexually mature is still unclear.) She had several areas where she spent weeks at a time, but never showed the singular focus on one spot for six or seven weeks that would indicate a nest.
Columbia began moving south in mid-September, again following the western coast of Hudson Bay to Cape Churchill, where she headed southwest across Manitoba. By Nov. 19 she was near Canora, in extreme southeastern Saskatchewan.”
It is amazing to be sitting at a computer and being able to look at over 7,600 hourly locations of a snowy owl that was last held by Graham Steinhauer at Goose Pond on a cold winter night last January.
You can browse through an interactive map of Columbia’s journey here. Zoom in on the map to take a closer look at the many, many locations she visited on her journey. Screenshot from Project SNOWstorm
Mark could spend hours looking at the data and exploring more about Prince of Wales Island (Canada). For Columbia to reach Prince of Wales Island she flew northwest from Goose Pond to eastern North Dakota then north. A distance of about 2,500 miles, about the same distance across the United States, but Columbia does not fly in straight lines. We wonder if a computer could calculate her miles in one year from her hourly locations?
Prince of Wales Island is Canada’s 10 largest and the 40th largest island in the world. The island is about 12,870 square miles and 20% of the size of Wisconsin. Wikipedia states there are no permanent residents.
She crossed the Gulf of Boothia on June 4 and 5th flying about 70 miles from Baffin Island and “summered” on Prince of Wales Island from June 14th to September 18th before heading south.
Prince of Wales is a great place for an owl to spend the summer looking for arctic wildlife and enjoying the scenery. In mid-summer she was treated to 24 hours of daylight. What a change from last winter at Goose Pond when she only experienced nine hours of daylight on the winter solstice.
This map shows the approximate range of snowy owls throughout the year. Mark and Sue have annotated the map to show where Columbia spent her summer! Range map from Cornell Lab’s All About Birds
Other birds of Prince Wales Island
Earl Godfrey in The Birds of Canada reported 34 nesting species on Prince of Wales Island: Yellow-billed, arctic, and red-throated loons; brant; snow geese; long-tailed ducks; king eiders; rough-legged hawks; gyrfalcons; willow and rock ptarmigans; American golden and black-bellied plovers; ruddy turnstones; red knots; pectoral, white-rumped, Baird’s, and buff-breasted sandpipers; sanderlings, red phalaropes; Pomarine, parasitic, and long-tailed jaegers; glaucous, Thayer’s, and Sabine’s gulls; arctic terns; snowy owls; horned larks; common ravens; water pitits; Lapland longspurs; and snow buntings. It is interesting that common ravens nest about five miles north of Goose Pond and that horned larks are probably the most abundant bird nesting in Arlington Township.
Mammals of Prince Wales Island
The list of mammals is not long but very impressive with marine and upland mammals including arctic fox; arctic hares; arctic wolves (subspecies Canis lupus arctos); Baleen and beluga whales; caribou; lemmings; musk oxen; narwhals polar bears; and ringed seals.
On November 28th Columbia was sitting on the hard water of Morrison Lake in North Dakota within one mile of her March 30 stop. Columbia on December 6th was 311 miles from Goose Pond near the small town of Vesta in western Minnesota and had been heading southeast. Last year she was seen and photographed at the UW Arlington Agricultural Research Station on December 11th. We hope to see her on the prairie this winter. However, time will tell if she returns.
Columbia, photographed in the fields near the UW Agricultural Research Station near Arlington that she loved to frequent. Photo by Rich Armstrong
Links below are the January 31, 2020 Friday Feature, November 28, 2020 blog and a link on the Project SNOWstorm website to Columbia. When you click on the dots you will notice yellow for daylight locations, gray for the blue hours and black for night. You will also see her flight speed, degree heading, and altitude (a resting location provides the land elevation and a flight location gives you an idea on her flying elevation. One time she was flying 51.9 miles per hour, probably with a tail wind and at 240 feet high.
“We Named Her Columbia” — January 31, 2020 Friday Feathered Feature
“A New Season Amid Unusual Challenges” — Project SNOWstorm blog
Columbia’s Project SNOWstorm profile page, where you can follow her journey
We hope you check out her winter travels along with other owls. Due to the Covid-19 virus no owls will be trapped and transmitted in Wisconsin this winter.
Arctic wildlife and people are greatly impacted by climate change. We hope that everyone does what they can to reduce climate change impacts.
Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers
