It’s almost here! Excitement reigns in the Northland. Cuckoo Quest 2023 will be this Friday morning! Yes, your intrepid Northwoods birder will brave the Wisconsin Grasslands in search of the Black-Billed Cuckoo! Is this a quest for a person who is cuckoo? No! My thanks as always to the Wisconsin DNR and their annual Cuckoo Population Survey. The area inside the map has lots of cuckoos, with GPS locations! Thank you Wisco DNR in advance for providing me a great morning of birding. The area has numerous other grassland birds and wildflowers. I look forward every year to Cuckoo Quest. It is a delight for the senses.
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Here is a link to the eBird data. You “may” need an eBird account for the data to load. You definitely will need to zoom in on NW Wisconsin. The data is for Black-Billed Cuckoos seen in June of this year. The “dotted arrows” are my driving route.
Here are three photographs I’ve taken over the past few days … Grassland Birds!
Dickcissel
Bobolink
Eastern Kingbird (and dragonfly)
New World Black-billed vs European Cuckoos? After one of my grandfather’s in Finland became deaf, he told me that one of his life’s pleasures was to dream while asleep of sitting in the farmyard and hearing the call of the Common or European Cuckoo from deep in the surrounding birch and pine forests. luontoportti.com/en/t/605/cuckoo