[wisb] Horicon Marsh today
- From: Peter Fissel <pfissel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Wisconsin Birding Network <wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 05 Jun 2011 22:09:10 -0500
I stopped at Dike Rd. this morning on my way to Oshkosh. Ran into a few
Riveredgers, who hadn't seen anything more than I had. Shorebirds were pretty
much just breeders - Killdeer and Spotted SPs. No BN Stilts, either. There
was one Common Moorhen (apparently back to Common Gallinule soon) right by the
first pullout west of the water control structure. I headed up to Point Rd.
and stopped at a couple of spots along the Bud Cook Hiking Area to listen for
Sedge Wrens, which have been very sparse this year (I thought maybe I heard one
as I got out of the car, but it never repeated.) Lots of Bobolinks and
Clay-colored Sparrows, with a few distant Henslow's calling occasionally.
Along Hwy 49, there were some shorebirds south of the dead tree east of the
pumphouse. Most were White-rumps, with quite a few Semi-palmated SPs, Dunlin,
Pectoral SPs and Semi-palm Plovers. Carl Schwarz spotted three young Trumpeter
Swans on the Fond du Lac County side, at least two of which had consecutive
collar numbers. We wondered if it was last year's young from this location.
I stopped again on my way back to Madison this evening. Pretty much the same
suite of shorebirds along 49, although now there were two Black-necked Stilts
there, too (a little farther west of the tree, about 50 yards out.) Most of
the White-rumps took off around 7:20 p.m. and went north. I remembered that on
Memorial Day, I had noticed that the last pond along the Auto Loop was being
lowered, so I went on the Loop and stopped to scan. Lots of Killdeer on the
mudflats, but no other shorebirds. As I got out of the car, I heard an
American Bittern pumping, fairly close to the road on the south side. A bit of
scanning revealed it sitting more or less in the open. I got to watch it
pumping, which was really interesting. It gulped air three or four times and
then started doing the "oonk-a-loonk". Very cool. Really wish I'd had a video
camera with me.
Peter Fissel
Madison WI
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