Mother’s Day at Horicon Marsh

I find myself here on Father’s Day, Justin working outside and Caroline at Girl Scout camp while John plays quietly downstairs, thinking back about a month to Mother’s Day. With the weather beginning to turn spring-like and my mind searching for something new and unique to do, I checked the Wisconsin bucket list. Plenty of ideas on there, but what to do with the whole family?

I lighted on the idea of bird watching at the Horicon Marsh and in doing just a little bit of research, learned that Mother's Day weekend also lined up with the 2018 Bird Watching Festival. It was the unique time of year when migratory birds by the thousands pass right through this part of Wisconsin, providing an opportunity to sight species that only appear in this region for two brief periods a year.

With a whole weekend of activities to choose from, we decided to keep it simple and opted for a boat bird watching tour on Sunday morning. While the weather had definitely improved from winter, it still wasn't quite warm yet, so a May Mother's Day was an occasion for long sleeves, coats and layers for the first time in many, many years!
After an easy drive south to the aptly named town of Horicon, we arrived in time to board the boat and head out with the group and our birder knowledgeable tour guide.
Over the course of a couple of hours, we saw or heard 42 species of birds, with excellent commentary by our guide. After having seen them for months, I could now identify the red wing blackbird by its call, which has been really cool to know as I sit in the house with the windows open. We learned about the American white pelican, how large it is, and how it does something called "kettling" where it circles a warm air updraft to gain altitude without having to flap its (really large!) wings, getting high enough in the sky to fly with less effort for its quite-large body.

We saw many smaller, colorful birds, enjoying the thrill of seeing and learning something new that was unique to Wisconsin.
Our favorite part of the tour, though, came when we saw the Bald Eagle! There was a huge nest in a tree as we made our way through the marsh, with one of the parents standing guard and watching us from above.
We had a lovely time exploring part of our new state, and spending time outdoors as the seasons began to turn toward longer days, the hint of warmth to come, and of course, the sunny days that are a signature of Wisconsin living.

**************

The birds we saw and/or heard:
  • American white pelican
  • Barn swallow
  • European starling
  • Northern rough wing swallow
  • Yellow rump warbler
  • Cormorant
  • Ring billed gulls
  • Gray catbird
  • Blue heron
  • Downy woodpecker
  • Canada geese
  • Wood duck
  • Red wing blackbird
  • Eastern king bird
  • Song sparrow
  • Chimney swift
  • Tree swallow
  • Prothonotary warbler
  • Blackpole warbler
  • Baltimore oriole
  • Tennessee warbler
  • Sand hill crane
  • Swamp sparrow
  • Marsh wren
  • Northern water thrush
  • Spotted sandpiper
  • MAllard
  • Osprey
  • Cape May warbler
  • Palm warbler
  • Sora rail
  • Bald eagle
  • Turkey vulture
  • Morning dove
  • American crow
  • Purple martin
  • House wren
  • American robin
  • Common yellow throat warbler
  • Common grackle
  • House finch

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, Part 4 - the climb out (Bright Angel Trail)

Image
the GRCA GRLS after crossing the Colorado River - Sunday, September 16th, 2018 Sunday morning, the alarm went off... and it was a simultaneous chorus of HOLY MONKEYS MY LEGS AND FEET ARE KILLING ME!! I honestly am not sure how we actually got out of the beds... all of the body was screaming. All of it. Shannon had us all supplied with Motrin, thank goodness, so we rucked up and headed out. NATURALLY! What else would West Point Women do?! First stop was the canteen, where a full, hot and delicious breakfast was ready for us to sit down family style. A little throw back to our cadet days, eating with strangers and shoveling in the food as fast as we could! coffee for energy! Thank goodness Melissa kept pushing us to get going early both days to avoid the heat as much as possible - in fact, we had to use our headlamps on Sunday morning for the first 15-20 minutes or so. Our headlamps had the side benefit of illuminating not just our path but the wildlife, to
Read more

Grand Canyon Rim to Rim, Part 1 - what it takes to get there

Image
We visited Grand Canyon National Park as a family about a year and a half ago, spending Spring Break 2017 in Arizona including several days marveling at a true natural wonder of the worl d. As just one stop on the family vacation, we did some day hiking, heading down the South Kaibab trail to an overlook with a spectacular view. As much as I love our family photo, there isn't a camera in the world that can capture the grandeur of the Grand Canyon. As with many of my vacations and experiences, when I came home I wanted to know more, so I checked out books from the library. I read about the geology and the formation of this incredible part of the United States, but I also read about the hiking and backpacking in the area. The small spark of an idea that had begun on this trip, when I snuck in one more short walk down the Bright Angel trail so that I could hike a bit more of the Canyon, began to grow into a flame, then eventually into a fire in my heart: I wanted to try to hike R
Read more

Living the Wisconsin Life

Image
Much to my surprise, I live in Wisconsin. This isn't a place I would've put on a list of likely destinations or homesteads, if pressed to do so at some point in my life. Even more to the point, when originally presented with the career opportunity that would eventually bring us here, I spent a few months emphatically stating that "it sounds great, but I'm never moving to Wisconsin." Ahhh, the quintessential Famous Last Words. Our timing might have been better; we moved here right as the seasons were turning to fall and now winter, so we have yet to experience the moderate nature of the climate up north. In fact, the arctic blast of the last few weeks has had me say on several occasions, why do people live here? Why in the world did the original settlers stay? My favorite answer yet to that question - because it's A Sunnier Version of Sweden. You see, the heritage of this area is quite Scandinavian. The hardy folks of the countries close to the top of t
Read more