Wisconsin Prespring Birding

I had a meeting in Madison earlier in the week, so flew into Milwaukee and drove up to Hilbert in Calumet County to visit my uncle for a few hours while on my way. We got together about 22 months ago when I

Ancient Army warrior in USNA cap

had another meeting in Madison, but everything was in full leaf then and the area looked exotic, almost alien - this time the trees were still bare, and by my uncle's account, the lawns had just greened up that week. We drove up to Forest Junction to a favorite restaurant of his - all the waitresses know him - had a lunch special, and then headed out for an afternoon of driving around the county seeing Lake Winnebago, the two large mega-dairies, the Veolia Hickory Meadow Landfill that is now the 

Birds of Wisconsin place mat

highest point in the county, a cousin in Brillion, and lots of rolling corn and soybean ground - bare still with stalks standing brown where they have been since autumn - red barns with field rock foundations, and white farm houses. Lake Winnebago still was mostly frozen, as were the small water bodies like Bullhead Lake. Minnesota may be called the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, but it seemed that Wisconsin could hold a close second. As for America's Dairyland, the days of a dairy with 50 cows for every 100 acres are over.

The ruralness of the drive from Milwaukee to Hilbert to Madison and back to Milwaukee stood out more this trip than last. So much so, that I drove the entire time with the radio off. I just observed the countryside, reading the road signs, being careful of my speed - some of the small towns along the way obviously use their village boundaries as income generators, and the rolling topography is better than a curve along a freeway to hide a patrol officer's car and waiting radar gun. To go along with all of the open spaces was my running check-off list of birds sighted.

Dead Golden Eagle 

along northbound Interstate 43,
they are really large close up,
speeding by at 65 mph.

Peregrine Falcon (1)

on top of a tree,

to the right of Highway 151 -
Madison an hour away.

Red-tailed Hawk,

American Kestrel.

Red-wing Blackbirds,

every five seconds driving, 

everywhere. 

Canada Geese, 

not as many as the blackbirds, 

but many on ponds and flooded fields
and formations in the sky.

Mallard Duck

Long-tailed Duck

Tundra Swan

and Great Egret.

Glaucous Gull,
white beneath its wings,
flying overhead.

American Robin,

 Eastern Meadowlark, only one,

Downy Woodpecker.

Tree Swallow,
darting in and out of its nest box,
 in front of a small wetland,
mega dairy barns in the distance,
five thousand cows resting.

American Crow and

Turkey Vulture.

Lots of other small birds, 

impossible to identify while driving.

I wondered once, 

a flash of blue, 

would that have been my first 

Eastern Bluebird.

A good Website with a list of Wisconsin bird species and their status is found here, which is a from the All Bird Plan - a part of the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative. Photographs for a Wisconsin bird list can be found here, a site hosted by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology.
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(1) Interestingly, today in the Portland Oregonian newspaper, there was an article about how well Peregrine Falcon are faring in the urban environment there - front page Web news. Click here, to view the article.