Enjoy school breaks, Christmas gatherings, Hannukah memories, Kwanza and New Year’s prep time!
This is a great time for an evening walk to listen for Great Horned Owls. They are hooting away singly and duetting now.
Walks return on Sunday, Jan 4
Join us! Walks are free and open to all levels of birders
Nearly every morning, there is a
FREE Bird Walk in Milwaukee
Subscribe! Each week, you’ll receive an email with where we’ll be birding next. Posts may go to your “Social” folder if using gmail
Milwaukee Birding News
Master Naturalist Training Registration Now Open. Dates and location of trainings: https://wimasternaturalist.org/
Birds in Art at the Yawkey Woodson Museum in Wausau closes January 4. A fabulous annual exhibit of painted, photographed, printed, sculpted, collaged, drawn, and pasteled birds. This is its 50th year! A good stop on a long holiday road trip.
Milwaukee has Redpolls and an Evening Grosbeak. The Finch Forecast team would not be surprised. Read how the Winter Finch season is playing out so far. Still waiting on a large group of Pine Siskins…
Do you use window decals to prevent bird collision? Whether you do or not, Lauren wants to hear from you: My name is Lauren and I’m a high school student at USM. I work at Wild Birds Unlimited in Mequon. For my independent science research project at school, I’m doing a study on how certain information affects a person’s willingness to use anti bird collision window decals. For a more accurate statistical analysis, I need as many responses to my survey as possible. The survey is completely anonymous and takes about 10 minutes to fill out. Any responses would be greatly appreciated and really help my research! The link I’m giving redirects to one of two surveys, one is a control group. Here is the link: https://nimble.li/l9eg5ovm . If that link doesn’t work or show up, please click one of these two links instead: https://forms.gle/qVuRnDxW8A6wSF4r6 or https://forms.gle/Qudf9GbWP6aooFem9. Again, thank you to anyone who participates!
– Lauren Abele
Last Week
Last Sunday, twelve birders met up in the cold to bird at Lakeshore State Park. Katie’s report: 12 hardy soles came out for our bird walk and so did the kestrels!
It was sunny and almost warm behind the AMFAM Arena on the south side of Summerfest. We were greeted by 2 kestrels on the hillside light fixtures. We went counter clockwise around the path checking out the ducks and gulls. There must have been some good fishing out there because the gulls were plentiful and very busy feeding. We had heard of some female long tailed ducks up near Discovery Center. Among all of the other ducks (Buffleheads, Scaup, Mallards and Goldeneye to name a few) we finally found 2 females swimming along happily. Tough to find but so nice when you finally locate them. It was pretty cold and windy on the walk back. The kestrels kept up with us and returned to the original spot we saw them.
eBird list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S289550912
Upcoming Bird Talks & walks:
Have a birding event to share? email us on the Contact Page
JANUARY
NEW YEAR’S DAY EXCURSION AND LUNCHEON
Thursday Jan. 1, 7:30am
The Noel J. Cutright Bird Club is inviting all members of Ozaukee Washington Birding Coalition organizations to participate in their annual “Every Bird Is a New Bird” Field Trip to launch your 2026 list! We will begin at 7:30 a.m. at Coal Dock Park in Port Washington and end at noon with lunch (sub sandwiches, chips, cookies, and beverages) in the Riveredge Nature Center barn. Please RSVP to Carl Schwartz at cschwartz3@wi.rr.com or at 414-416-3272 by Dec 28 so we have enough food.
Trip leaders: Carl Schwartz (you can contact him at cschwartz3@wi.rr.com or 414-416-3272) and Joan Sommer
Milwaukee Lakefront Birding
Sunday, Jan 11 with WSO: Wisconsin Society for Ornithology
Details and registration: https://wsobirds.org/birding-events/eventdetail/22242/-/milwaukee-lakefront-birding
Guided Bird Hike: Observing Winter Survival Strategies
Sunday, Jan 11 at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center
Details and Registration: https://www.schlitzaudubon.org/event/guided-bird-hike-observing-winter-survival-strategies/
Uncovering Bird Behavior
Saturday, Jan 17 at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center
Details and Registration: https://www.schlitzaudubon.org/event/uncovering-bird-behavior/
Bald Eagle Watching Days
Saturday-Sunday Jan 17-18 in Prairie du Sac
Road trip and check out the details: https://ferrybluffeaglecouncil.org/
NORTH TO ALASKA
Wednesday Jan. 14, 7:00pm in person @ Riveredge Nature Center and via Zoom
Karen Etter Hale, who chairs the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Partnership, spent the summer of 2025 traveling north to Alaska with her husband in their camper van. This night, she offers us a photo tour of the wildlife and majestic landscapes from Lake Mills to Anchorage and back again. Zoom info will be provided in subsequent emails.
Owling at Paradise Valley
Sunday, Jan 18
BIPOC Birding Club of Madison and Milwaukee event
Details: https://www.bipocbirdingclub.org/events/2026-owling-joint-event
How to work with eBird and Merlin by Tim Hahn
Sunday, January 18
Join the Benjamin Goss Bird Club at Retzer Nature Center. Details: https://gossbirdclub.org/events
** Follow Bird City Milwaukee on Facebook! for event announcements
Check out Chirp Chat episodes by Xcaret Nuñez. It’s all about birding Milwaukee area on WUWM 89.7 last Wednesday of the month
List of Milwaukee area BIRD CLUBS !
Milwaukee parks that need birding this week
The county needs eBird records throughout the year for every park and natural area. Every week there are priority parks needing eBird lists. A park could be a priority because no surveys have been done for that week. Alternatively, it could be prioritized because there are surveys, but MKE Parks suspect more species might reside there than previously identified.
We can help MKE Parks! Pick a priority park, go bird, eBird it and note time spent there.
For December 22-31
Please tally your birding hours for the parks you eBirded throughout the year and send to Colleen. Message her through Wisconsin Metro Audubon facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AudubonWMAS
- Little Menomonee River Pkwy 2 – no trail. Marshy area. Access usually throgh a field next to Ryder Truck Rental on Heather Ave.
- Hunger Task Force Farm called Root River Parkway in Ebird). Prior authorization to access required as this is an operating farm. Contact Sarah at sarah.bressler@hungertaskforce.org
Based on the needs spreadsheet from MKE Parks, Wisconsin Metro Audubon Society (Thanks Colleen!) curates suggested locations based on accessibility to the property and availability on the ebird hotspots tool. Please track your time spent! At the end of the year WMAS provides hours to the county.
Follow Wisconsin Metro Audubon on Facebook for their weekly park posts.
Note- even if it’s already been birded this week, going another day or even a different time of day helps. The parks department wants a number of surveys for each park. Birding more than once in a week is very helpful!
Find a park and a park map: https://county.milwaukee.gov/EN/Parks/Explore/Find-a-Park
Wisconsin Metro Audubon is also birding for Waukesha Parks…
Bird where you can and share your ebird list with their ebird account: WaukeshaCountyBirding
DECEMBER bird surveys needed at these locations- all are ebird hotspots
- Berg Property – free – address S102W33451 CTH LO should get you there or very close. Small parking area, partial asphal trail and then a mix of grass and dirt. You may want to do a little off-trail to get to the river.
- Fox Brook Park (pass or day fee)
- Menomonee Park (pass or daily fee) – if you don’t have a pass, you can park at Joecks Park on Lannon Rd and walk in through the yellow gate. Note the only open bathroom I found was in the dog exercise area and it’s primitive; so go ahead of time! Some trails are ski only, watch signs.
- Mukwonago Park (pass or daily fee)- nice trails and big park
- Muskego Park (pass or daily fee) – nice trailsnn
Milwaukee Birders 