[wisb] No. Shrike at Horicon Sunday (Dodge Co.)
- From: "Peter A. Fissel" <pfissel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Wisconsin Birding Network <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:20:02 -0600
While hiking the Red Fox Trail off the Auto Tour loop at Horicon NWR
yesterday, I stopped on a high point to scan the surrounding fields and
was startled when a black and gray bird with white patches flew across
my field of view. Since I wasn't quite in winter birding mode yet, my
first thought was "Mockingbird!", but I quickly realized it was my FOS
Northern Shrike. It obligingly landed on the tip of a small tree about
50 yards away so I could study it. Not much else around, even before
the Shrike showed up.
I was coming back from Oshkosh on Hwy 151 and hit Waupun around 4:30
p.m., so decided to take a quick detour to the Bud Cook Hiking Area at
Horicon to see if I could spot any Short-eared Owls. I was surprised
not to see any geese on the ice along Hwy 49 as I drove across the
marsh, but when I got out of the car at Bud Cook around 4:45, I could
hear thousands of Canada Geese. There was just enough light that with
binoculars, I could see huge flocks streaming into the marsh from the
uplands to the east. The noise was almost deafening. As I drove back
across 49 in the dark, I could just make out the flocks of geese on the
ice well to the south on the largest impoundment west of the pump house.
(And no, I didn't see any SE Owls.)
Peter Fissel
Madison, WI
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- » [wisb] No. Shrike at Horicon Sunday (Dodge Co.) - Peter A. Fissel
