Last weekend my father and I visited Horicon Marsh and National Wildlife Refuge where we went on an early evening, two-hour boat tour.
A few times we were fortunate to get some great views of birds close up, like this sandhill crane.
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Tag Archives: Birds
Easter walk
After a delicious Easter brunch at my brother Steve’s house, some of us decided to head outside for a walk. Below, Mike, Adam and Wil Bloy demonstrate that yes, waiting is hard.
The one that got away
No pictures on this post, just a story about an encounter with a bald eagle and the photo that didn’t get taken.
While on vacation last week, I was biking the trail along Trout Lake, hoping to get some photos of loons. That portion of the trail runs along the lake shore, with a buffer of trees of about 10 feet. The trees make for a decent blind, so the birds don’t get scared away. I had seen loons (fairly close by) along that section of trail in the past and I was hoping for a good shot. I had my camera setup with a telephoto lens, ready to go in my bike’s saddle bag. At one point I did see some loons off in the distance a bit. I took a few photos, but they were a little too far away. Back on the bike I went, continuing to scan the nearby shore. Suddenly, a shadow overhead caused me to look up. There was a bald eagle swooping by, about 20 feet above me.
Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge
About two miles north of where I was camping last week, was the Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge.
Yellowstone Lake State Park
Despite the threat of rain, I decided to do some exploring today and visit a park I’ve never been to before, Yellowstone Lake State Park.
Edgewood marsh hawks
While at work today, in the middle of a snow storm, my co-workers and I discovered two Northern Harriers (also known as Marsh Hawks) perched on a birch tree in front of the library.
Indian Summer
Right now where I live we are in the middle of Indian Summer. It’s tough for me to name a favorite season, but days like today make me think it might be autumn. I was lucky enough to have the day off and with the weather being so nice, I got out my bicycle this afternoon and rode through the beauty of autumn here in Wisconsin. While riding through one of the nearby parks in the area I spotted a great blue heron wading in one of the park’s ponds. I am always amazed when I see wildlife like that in the middle of the largest metropolitan area of the state.
Camping with the Eagles
I just got back from a week camping in Northern Wisconsin. One of my favorite things about that area are the bald eagles living there. While camping this year I saw the most bald eagles I ever saw in a week’s stay. On one occasion I saw a congregation of four eagles soaring over the same lake looking for food and twice I witnessed eagles diving down and snagging a fish out of a lake! I had never seen an eagle do that in person before so I felt quite fortunate to have it happen before my eyes twice in one week.
Those obnoxious starlings
By now you’ve probably figured out that I enjoy nature and the outdoors. Because of that I also like having a couple of bird feeders on my deck and watching them. About a month ago I was happy that goldfinches (one of my favorite birds) discovered my feeders and were regularly coming over to have snacks. Recently I’ve been getting some new visitors. Starlings have figured out how to perch themselves on the finch feeders (which are designed to feed the smaller birds) so they can eat. Being the bigger and more aggressive bird, the starlings chase all of the other birds away and end up hogging all of the food. For those of you that don’t know, starlings are an invasive species from Europe. Mother Nature never intended for them to be in North America.
This morning I found about ten starlings all perched on my deck rail, waiting for their turn to eat all of the finches’ food. “This means war,” I thought to myself. Tomorrow I’m planning a trip to the garden center to purchase a starling proof bird feeder. Stay tuned…
Update: After talking with a very helpful person at Wild Birds Unlimited (a great place to buy bird stuff by the way), I changed the feed I was putting out to safflower seeds, which the starlings don’t like. So far it seems to be doing the trick. Keep your fingers crossed.
Camping with Loons
One of the best things about being in this area of Wisconsin are hearing the loons calling at night. There’s nothing like falling asleep while listening to that haunting wail they make. One night I woke up about 3am (my bladder was calling me). After I finished my urgent business I must have stayed awake 20 minutes or so listening to the loons. No, they weren’t keeping me awake, I wanted to just lay in my sleeping bag and listen.