Andy Raupp photography

04/16/2026

An Eastern Bluebird Nesting!

Some exciting news today, it looks like for the 2nd year in a row we have TWO pairs of nesting bluebirds here on the property!

While there is numerous bluebird nest boxes throughout the property, we generally only see 1 or 2 pairs of nesting bluebirds here per year (although they do have 2-3 broods per year).
The rest of the nest boxes generally get taken up by Tree swallows, or the occasional chickadee or house wren.
This is the first year where we’ve had a few invasive European house sparrows hanging around, and we do not want them nesting here as they can cause problems with the native ecosystem & native birds.
So I have been keeping an extra good eye on the nest boxes lately to make sure the house sparrows do not nest in any of them. They are unusually aggressive towards other native nesting birds and are know for killing nesting adults, their eggs, and even their fledglings. Therefore we are working on removing these birds from the property.
On a more positive note, there has been a pair of bluebirds I have seen going in and out of a nest box by the property entrance numerous times, and I’m assuming they are using this box.
I went to check a few other boxes today in a different location, and to my surprise this female bluebird was in there, laying on her eggs! A full clutch of 5 eggs.
After seeing this (and watching that she safely returned to her nest), I drove down to the other bluebird nest box previously mentioned, and saw the other pair of bluebirds there! Leading me to believe once again there will be 2 nesting pairs 🙂.
The female bluebird does most of the incubating, and in about 14-15 days the eggs should hatch! 🐣 

04/15/2026

Wildlife in the woods!

Here are some recent photos of a spring peeper (frog), painted turtles, blue spotted salamander, and a short tailed weasel!

While this may seem like a random selection of photos, I took these photos all last weekend, and all at the same location (probably within 30 feet of each other). The location was along a vernal pool (Also called a woodland pond) in our woods.
This section of woods has numerous vernal pools, which are shallow seasonal bodies of water that form from spring snow melt and rain, then they usually dry up during mid to late summer.
This is a crucial ecosystem for a lot of wildlife,  especially things like amphibians and invertebrates.
Due to the seasonal nature of these ponds they do not support fish as they eventually dry up. Which allows many species of things like frogs and salamanders to reproduce successfully as their eggs aren’t predated by fish. 
I was pretty excited this weekend to get these photos as it was my first time ever seeing & photographing both the spring peeper frog as well as the short tailed weasel!

04/13/2026

Barred Owls hooting at the Nest Box!

Here is a short 30 second video of a pair of barred owls hooting back and forth at their nest box. Over the past few years we have had a pair of Barred owls nesting in this box we installed in the woods.
For those who may remember last year, we installed a nest box camera and were able to watch this pair of owls successfully hatch and raise two owlets in this nest box.
Earlier this year back in February before the owls start nesting I checked the camera to make sure it was still working inside. It appeared to be working, however when March rolled around (which is when the owls start nesting) The camera went offline and I haven’t been able to get it to work since. Which has been a bit of a bummer.
Also in February my dad and I installed a cellular trail camera in a nearby Tree to hopefully get short videos of the owls going in and out of the nest box.
Unfortunately with this camera the motion sensor has not been picking up the owls, even on the highest sensitivity level lol🤦‍♂️.
I am able to check in and get a live view on this camera though. I generally check the live view a few times a day, and I’ve only gotten lucky and timed it up right to see an owl there a few times so far.
But hopefully over the last month the female has been hunkered down in the nest incubating the eggs.
I happened to pull up the live view video a few nights ago and recorded this video of the pair of owls hooting it up!
It was right around this time last year when the owls eggs hatched, so hopefully these owls will have another successful nesting season this year!
Hope you all enjoy the short video.

04/12/2026

Eastern Bluebirds!

About a month ago one of my favorite birds returned to the property, the bluebirds!
In the photos the male bluebird is on the left and the female on the right.
They have been busy inspecting all of the nest boxes on the property over the last month, deciding on which one will be best.
However in our area they generally won’t start laying eggs until later this month or early May.
These photos were taken in the yard recently as they are frequent visitors, stopping by throughout the day to snack on mealworms or get a drink from the bird bath. 🙂

04/10/2026

A Wood Duck in flight!

04/09/2026

Wood Duck Photos!

I always think of April as duck season in our area, as many migratory ducks are arriving. Some of the local lakes and wildlife areas will have rafts of hundreds or even thousands of migratory ducks.
One of my favorite ducks that always shows up here on our property are the wood ducks! With a 1 acre pond, some woodland ponds, and numerous nest boxes, these ducks call this place home for the season.
I setup my photography blind on the pond recently and had some good luck photographing these woodies. The other day while in the blind there was around 10-12 wood ducks swimming around the pond. Lots of calling, chasing, and displaying as the drakes (males) were trying to impress the hens (females).
Here were some of my favorite photos!
(More wood duck photos coming soon) 🙂

04/07/2026

A Red breasted Merganser!

Last week while out photographing Loons there was also a couple nice groups of these red breasted Mergansers on the lake. Which are a migratory species of duck that are just passing through the area now.
They are similar to loons in that they are excellent swimmers, and dive under the water to hunt for fish.
These Mergansers are also considered to be one of the fastest flying ducks in North America, with an airline pilot once clocking a flock of these birds flying at 100mph! They are said to often cruise at speeds of over 80mph in flight.
While photographing these ducks this Drake was doing a little running on the water as the group was chasing each other around. Then gave a little head on look in the 2nd photo, providing for some nice photo opportunities.

Also you just gotta love the hairdo on these birds!

04/06/2026

A Great Horned Owl & Barred Owl on trail cam!

Something pretty cool happened recently, one of my trail cameras in the woods happened to capture a few short videos of both a Great Horned Owl & a Barred Owl!
While these two videos were on separate nights it is still pretty neat to see two different owl species on this camera recently.

The great horned owl appeared to be hunting a squirrel, although I don’t think it was successful.
The barred owl on the other hand appeared to be successfully catching some worms after a heavy rain. It’s kind of funny every April I always seem to get numerous videos of the Barred Owls eating worms after a rainy day. I never knew how much they enjoyed worms lol. 🤷‍♂️

Hope you all enjoy the short video of these two owls! 🦉

04/02/2026

A recent Loon photo!

Every year during the end of March and early April there is a very cool bird event that takes place on a lake nearby us.
That event is an irruption of Loons!
Since moving to Wisconsin five years ago, we have made the short trip to this lake every year around this time and generally see anywhere between 30 to 80 Loons all on this one lake!

The theory goes that here in central Wisconsin around this time of year many of the lakes open up (no more ice) and are accessible to Loons. However, in the northern part of the state where Loons breed the lakes are still frozen. So this lake is sort of a resting or stopping place for many Loons as they wait for the frozen northern lakes to open up/melt.

While at this lake a few days ago I believe there was roughly 50 or more Loons there. It is always quite the sight to see!

I had been any bit of a photography rut over the last few months, not getting a whole lot of photos. So it was nice to get out the other day and photograph some loons.

As a final sidenote, I had a notification/memory reminder today that I started this photography page 6 years ago today! And I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the support and for following along. 🙂

03/23/2026

A big thank you to Birds & Blooms Magazine for sharing my photos and story!

Introducing Andy Raupp, our Photographer of the Week! Andy is a regular contributor and an incredible photographer who has had over 20 photos published in Birds & Blooms since 2019!

"I got into wildlife photography shortly after suffering from a traumatic brain injury and was looking for a new hobby that I could do while recovering. I started by borrowing an older zoom camera from my parents and photographing birds in our backyard. One day, a blue jay flew into our yard, and I was thrilled to get some photos of that stunning bird. After that, I was hooked!"
Andy Raupp photography

03/17/2026

A Common Grackle in the snow.

Some recent warm spring weather brought in a lot of migratory birds the last couple of weeks, which was then followed by more snow and cold weather.
The grackles and blackbirds have found our yard feeders recently. While they are a pretty stunning birds with their iridescent colors I am hoping they will soon move on. As they can be quite the bullies at feeders towards many of the other birds. However I did like this recent photo of a grackle on a nice perch with the snow.

03/10/2026

Wood ducks!

The past week or so we have been having a nice variety of spring migrants showing up in our area. Some of these sightings have included birds like Sandhill Cranes, Red winged Blackbirds, American Woodcock, Bluebirds, and these Wood Ducks!

This photo was from last week of a small group of four Wood ducks that decided they wanted to be some of the early migrators to the area. Generally we start to see more and more wood ducks arriving later this month or early April.
This photo was taken on a local creek, however the pond here on our property is slowly starting to open up as well. So I am looking forward to getting my photography blind setup soon, and will maybe be able to capture some close up photos of wood ducks and other migratory ducks later this month. 🙂