Horicon Marsh - Horicon

For the longest time I drove past this area, daunted by the immense size of the marsh.  Even with all of the nice road signs you still didn't know if you were going to have a nice dry hike. It is a marsh after all.  If you were to have a staring contest with this marsh, the marsh would win. Back in the good ole days you didn't have a nature center with nice trail maps and bathrooms or a place to warm your bones. Fast forwarding a decade or two and it seems that there is finally a proper visitors center; a warm place to share the history, buy trinkets, and to relax and regroup. And yes, a bathroom.

Birdbrain

Of ALL of the birding sites out there, what I really would like is a database for birdbrains. It could look something like:

Q: where did you see said bird: (shore,marsh,woods,meadow)
A: shore
Q: what size was the bird (small, medium,large)
A: medium
Q: what color was the bird (black,white,brown)....
I think you get the idea. In researching Wisconsin Birds, you are led to well meaning sites that provide a ton of information...as long as you know the name of the bird itself. By the way, ever notice that your search results will vary even while using the same key words but on a different computer? The most helpful guide for birds is this little WI DNR made piece. It may look a bit daunting but the nice thing about pdf's is they are searchable and more user friendly than most of the birding websites I've encountered. I also recommend the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas

The extent of my bird knowledge is limited to a handful of the standard Wisconsin birds that most children know of: robin, hawk, cardinal, blue jay, geese; it wasn't until recently that I have been noticing other birds that don't fall within my 5 bird sphere: cranes, loons, vultures and startlingly White Pelicans. Say what? Long ago (ref to 'Distribution, Breeding Range), Pelicans were cataloged as far back 1884 as using this area for breeding. The most commonly known areas are at the Horican (National) Wildlife Refuge at Snag Island (Dodge Cty), but there is also Cat (not CAST) Island in Green Bay (Brown Cty).

This was a difficult post, taking over a week doing research and deliberating on the subject. Just shows how much I care, eh? My biggest obstacle was the title. I believe that if I would have come up with a decent title, that it would all flow together, and normally that is the case with me. Lack of birding knowledge made it difficult to drive the writing; just a bunch of random facts thrown together with very little personality, so I have to rely on the experts.

Here is a little bit of what studying Pelicans is like for one researcher:

After returning from the fishing grounds and lounging about the nests for a while the pelicans began to circle over the colony in a large company, rising higher and higher till they were almost lost in blue. By watching we could occasionally see the faint flashes of white as the snowy breasts reflected a gleam of the sun. For hours the sky would glitter with these great birds as they soared about Then It was thrilling to see some of them descend with rigid, half-closed wings. They used the sky as a big toboggan slide and dropped like meteors, leaving a trail of thunder. Several times when we first heard the sound we were deceived into thinking it was the advance messenger of a heavy storm and jumped up expecting to see black clouds rising from behind the mountains. - Mr. William L. Finley, Klamath Lake, Oregon (1907)

Last spring I witnessed a 5-6 bird flock that flew in a formation different than any bird I have ever seen. It reminded me of the Air Force Blue Angels in a diamond like pattern, turning only when the leader turned, flapping exactly as the leader would, flying so high you could not see their telltale bills. Always cruising, never landing. The author above describes a much larger group, which confirms to me that they had changed their migration pattern for a long stretch and their reemergence is still in the beginning stages.

This post is in no way a source of information either, and should not be construed as one. If I am to construe anything with this post it is out of ignorance. I am perfectly content to appreciate birds without getting excited over their plight, as I am guessing that even birds are unconcerned, being birds and all. As I do with anything that I discover, I research and discuss my findings like any pseudoscientist would.

As a final note, I want to share a photo I found that I found both humorous and touching:
Dr. Charles Kemper is a well known orinth....ornithologist and if you want to read more it will be found here.

Riggs County Park - Ripon

Ripon (Fond du Lac Cty)

First stop in my Road Trip from Saturday. Fond du Lac County's largest park in the system, it spans 300 acres. I wish I could say I traversed the entire park but it was more like 2/3rds.

This is a great park for birding. Well, I suppose any open prairie land is. My favorite picture was taken within the first half hour. On a grassy path, I approached a bend when a hawk (Northern Harrier according to my Flickr query) was startled into flight. What I didn't expect was to see it come back. It took three passes at me and was at times within 4 feet of tagging me, as I was frantically snapping away. Only three pics were passable. It was probably incredibly stupid of me to be standing there, but I seem to have the tenacity of the paparazzi when all that matters is getting the shot. Side note: based on the description on this site, the hawk has to be a harrier and I was too close to its nest. Originally I thought perhaps a cooper's hawk.

Aside from a number of birds, frogs, garter snakes, curious gophers, and monarch butterflies, there were zero humans. Pondering this I often ask whether I should be out by myself. This is a bit of a problem for me. Hiking is somewhat of a spiritual pilgrimage. I try to access all of my senses and I find it difficult to to really enjoy the moment when others are with me, mainly because my concern is for their experience. This probably isn't a fair assessment, since my hiking partners tend to be one of my kids, and are not always a willing participant.

At one point, I realized that I was probably dehydrated and sunburnt when I took a short break under a shady copse and took stock of my situation. My car was a short hike away, but the shortest route was through marshland, which would've been hell on my shoes. No, I stuck to the grassy trails until I could find some drier prairie land and made my way across. Needless to say, once I arrived at the car, I was more than ready to head to my next destination: Ledge Homestead and Rienzi Cemetery.

Wheretofind: For a map, go to Fond du Lac Cty's website and print off the map page. Forget about Googling it, it's not there. Just west of Ripon on Hwy 23. At Douglas turn north and the park entrance to the right is the bridge with the Historic (yet empty)Tenant House. Second entrance is on Hwy 23, right across from that little beige motel. I came from that direction and completely missed it. The park entrance sign was placed at the trail head, not at the park entrance. Jeeeeez. UPDATE 04/15/2015 - Park has since been loaded onto Google Maps

Incidentally, the man made trail spans between the two entrances, and the rest of the trails are hastily mowed, one having white markers that lead to the observation desk, which is where I found this funny looking set of four hollow markers, which doesn't seem to lead anywhere. The plant growth are really sticking out of the top. If these are trees, they weren't doing very well.

What to expect: Wide Open Spaces. Creature and vermin. Grasses and weeds. This is typical of the new conservation parks that have been cropping up as of late.