We poked around Green Bay, Wisconsin today. The city and state taxes for hotel rooms in Wisconsin are exorbitant. Located in Green Bay is the Bird City Sanctuary which is a large bog next to Lake Michigan. Here we saw our first Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) of the birding trip. We also saw a Great Egret (Ardea alba). These are both large birds, standing about three feet tall. We talked to a delightful Ranger there, who wrote out directions to the other two bog like places in Green Bay. It was in this first bog that we took a photograph of a huge Muskrat in the water. He looks cute.
Berry started humming the song, "Muskrat Love". Then we saw another Muskrat in the Ken Euer Wildlife Refuge. They look like giant balls of fur in the swamp, but they have long rat tails. At that place we got a real good look at a blue-green winged Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) perched and perfectly still. These birds are usually frenetic with movement. They dart and dash across the sky, and it is difficult to get a bead on them. In another part of the same path, a small male Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) was preening his feathers endlessly in the sun. We see Downies at the suet in our backyard.
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Following the directions given to us by the Ranger, we next went to Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary. This facility is like a zoo for birds, including an animal hospital for injured birds. Here we saw a Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) sleeping in the sun. We also saw an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) flying majestically overhead across the whole park.
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After a very fun-filled morning of birding Green Bay, Wisconsin, we ate a nice lunch at the train station and headed back up the coast of Lake Michigan into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
LINGUISTIC NOTE: Informants tell us the correct pronunciation of the Michigan dish, "pastie" is "pass-tee" with a short a sound. It rhymes with the word, "nasty". Say "pass-tee", not "paste-ee", with a sharp yankee accent.
Robert
photos courtesy of wikipedia
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