Peering poorly at peeps

Last week we visited Horicon Marsh. First we drove down Dike Road, which was busy with birders looking for shorebirds.

View of Dike Road

View From Dike Road, Horicon Marsh

We lucked out when a fellow birder pointed out a distant Black-necked Stilt which we could view through our scope. We also flushed a Black-crowned Night-heron and got great looks at the bird in flight. Besides these we saw lots of American Pelicans and several, uh, peeps. Shorebird newbies are we. I’m pretty sure this is a Lesser Yellowlegs.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Dike Road ends (for visitors, anyway) at Main Ditch. We parked by the fishing pier and relaxed a while, enjoying the view.

Main Ditch along Dike Road

We then drove on the northern part of the marsh to the Horicon Ternpike auto tour. Along the way we saw these young Hooded Mergansers in a pond.

Hooded Merganser Babies

We took a short walk along the boardwalk trail about halfway through the auto tour. Here we saw lots of swallows and Black Terns, including the juvenile pictured below, who was crying for attention.

Boardwalk trail on the Horicon Ternpike

Black Tern Juvenile

It was a great morning out at the marsh and we’re looking forward to visiting again in the fall to view migrating waterfowl.

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