Tuesday morning was the time Bernie and I had been in trepidation of. Heather had her first training session with her new team mates and it was time for us to say goodbye. She seemed perfectly OK - I'm sure she will be fine.
We hired a car and dodged the traffic in downtown Chicago (bit of a baptism of fire) and headed north. After about three hours we came to Horicon Marsh, Wisconsin, where we thought we'd stop for a while - what a spot.
It was mid afternoon, not the best time of day, but there was plenty to see. Most obvious were the rafts of American Coot and numerous Pied-billed Grebes along with several Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons and Double Crested Cormorants. There were lots of Black Terns over the marshes and then Bernie said "Do they have Pelicans?" Wow - seven American White Pelicans had sailed out of the reedbed. There were Redhead, Canvasback and lots of Blue-winged Teals and we heard an American Bittern call - not bad at the side of a busy road. Then Bernie spotted a yellow-headed Blackbird as we drove along - a sudden stop and search found the birds even though they were playing hard to get.
A short visit to elsewhere on the reserve gave me views of Eastern Wood Pewee, Tree Swallows, Catbirds feeding young, Cedar Waxwings and American Goldfinches.
It was a shame we had to leave but we still had another three hours driving ahead of us but we're now in Michicgan and added Eastern Kingbird, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher and Green-winged Teal to the list. Tomorrow we'll be up on the southern shores of Lake Superior and visiting Whitefish Point Bird Observatory.
We hired a car and dodged the traffic in downtown Chicago (bit of a baptism of fire) and headed north. After about three hours we came to Horicon Marsh, Wisconsin, where we thought we'd stop for a while - what a spot.
It was mid afternoon, not the best time of day, but there was plenty to see. Most obvious were the rafts of American Coot and numerous Pied-billed Grebes along with several Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons and Double Crested Cormorants. There were lots of Black Terns over the marshes and then Bernie said "Do they have Pelicans?" Wow - seven American White Pelicans had sailed out of the reedbed. There were Redhead, Canvasback and lots of Blue-winged Teals and we heard an American Bittern call - not bad at the side of a busy road. Then Bernie spotted a yellow-headed Blackbird as we drove along - a sudden stop and search found the birds even though they were playing hard to get.
A short visit to elsewhere on the reserve gave me views of Eastern Wood Pewee, Tree Swallows, Catbirds feeding young, Cedar Waxwings and American Goldfinches.It was a shame we had to leave but we still had another three hours driving ahead of us but we're now in Michicgan and added Eastern Kingbird, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher and Green-winged Teal to the list. Tomorrow we'll be up on the southern shores of Lake Superior and visiting Whitefish Point Bird Observatory.
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