Horicon in the Fall
Kate and I took a trip up to Horicon Marsh this weekend. We
started out with a short side trip to see some Black-billed
Magpies that had been reported on the hotline for a couple of
weeks. We were lucky and got a very good look at one of the
birds. This was a lifer for Kate and a state bird for me and
cleared a BVD as well. We were also able to point it out to
another birder that came by looking for the bird.
We got to Horicon later in the afternoon wandered around the
refuge. At one spot, we found ourselves in a blizzard...of aster
and goldenrod seeds. It was so thick, the trees had seeds caked
on their branches just like in a snow storm.
We stopped at the "Marsh Haven Nature Center" and viewed really
bad nature art at a show they had going on. We were trying to
figure out what makes good nature art and bad nature art. It
seems to me that the good stuff uses light very well. The good
stuff makes you believe there is a source of light and the talent
comes in making you understand this through the representation of
the subject. Bad stuff is flat and lifeless...it may be a good
reproduction, but it isn't alive because of bad use of
illumination.
We hiked around some of the nature trails. It was late in the
day and very windy so we did more hiking than birding although we
did see tons of male Red-winged Blackbirds heading for roosting
trees in the marsh. We got to see a front move in along with
a
spectacular storm. Unfortunately we were out on the trail as it
was coming. It was neat to watch, but being a tall guy, I was a
little worried about becoming lightning bait. Luckily, we were
able to get back in time, stopping along the way for some
Blue-Winged Teal and Common Snipe (I do have my priorities, of
course). The rain ruined the mission of the trip, which was
to
watch the Canada Geese coming in at dusk. We have been there
when the sky was just full of skeins of geese coming into the
marsh from a hard day out in the fields. We sat in the car in
the rain and waited for a break but we were not lucky. We did,
however, spot 2 Black-crowned Night-Herons.
The next day, we made an early morning hike around the upland
trail near the DNR headquarters in Horicon and had a fine time,
making up for the disappointment of the evening before. We
didn't see anything spectacular - Juncos, WT and WC Sparrows, GW
Teal, etc. But the brisk, fresh morning air, fall foliage,
beautiful blue skies and the Canada Geese honking and flying
around made it an exceptional experience.
At one point, we found ourselves by a pond when we suddenly had a
sky full of geese that apparently had decided to land on this
pond. There were easily 500 geese coming in when they suddenly
veered off and circled. Kate and I wandered about this until it
occurred to us that the geese might be a little spooked by two
humans watching them from the side of a lake. They didn't just
fly off, however. They circled a few times, apparently satisfied
themselves that we were ok, after checking for any casualties,
and came in.
It's always neat to watch Canada Geese land. They come in so
gracefully, carefully spilling air from their wings, gently
floating down, and then, at the last moment, they suddenly flap
furiously and settle into the water. I noticed, however, that
some of them did not have to flap nearly as much on that final
few inches and I wandered if they were the more mature birds that
have done this a few times and have gotten the knack of landing
with a little panache.
Turns out that Horicon is much closer than I thought. We found a
shortcut that makes it an easy 3 hour drive. We'll be visiting
it more often in the future.
Jim Frazier
10/25/94 |
|
