Horicon Marsh, Wisconsin

Spent some time over the weekend at the Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin. It is divided into two parts, a State Wildlife Area and a National Wildlife Refuge.

Migration has been slow due to the warm weather, but there was still a good number of water birds around.
I was thrilled to see this amount of Sandhill Cranes. This picture was taken from a viewing area, so it is quite distant.

Sandhill Crane couple

Was also fun to see them coming in for a landing.

A few firsts for me… Northern Shoveler, male

And the female

Bunch 'o' Gulls. Mostly Ring Billed.

Handsome male Mallards

A ton of American Coot

Nice ones Mrs Ed! I love seeing the Sandhill Cranes and American Coots! Congrats on the new birds!

Nice place to go birdwatching Mrs-Ed. Congrat on the Shovelers. Nice to see some Sandhill Cranes, and so much Coots!!!

Thanks to Burd for Identifying this Gadwall. A lifer for me.

A lousy pix, but a lifer as well, Pied-billed Grebe

ADORABLE American Pipit, (lifer).

Lots of lifers on your trip, congrats.

It looks like a great place, Mrs Ed. The Sandhill Cranes must have been a sight to see. Love the Pipit and congratulations on seeing a lifer.

Now....

Checked up; given a mean weight of about 650g, a ton of coots would be about 1,540 birds . . . ;-)

Resin

:0))

Har. A bazillion thanks to you!

I saw the sandhill cranes for the first time near Madison last June. Plenty of coot as DH did his master's thesis on them, over 50 yrs ago.

They are pretty cool. Everyone talks about seeing/hearing them flying over, but I never do.