Just fifteen minutes from downtown Milwaukee is the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, a 185-acre stretch of undeveloped land on the shore of Lake Michigan. Over about four hours I wandered the six miles of trails in the centre, through woods where the trees were beginning to show autumn colour, grasslands thick with wildflowers, ravines filled with dense layers of vegetation, past ponds and along the lakeshore beaches.Last month the center held a raptor photography day which sounds like a great idea - at public displays it is usually impossible to get a good photo without other spectators, the light at the wrong angle or some other photography unfriendly element. Good to see bird photographers are becoming a sufficiently significant group to be catered for in this way. Wonder if the Hunter Wetland could be convinced to have a photographers' early morning opening.
Bird list:
Hermit Thrush (Pictured above)
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Red-tailed Hawk
Wild Turkey
Ring-billed Gull
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Eastern Phoebe
Hermit Thrush
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Great Blue Heron
European Starling
Cardinal
White-crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
marj,
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered about the Wetlands Centre and early opening. It's a great place, but terrible for photography because it opens too late. Maybe it's something we can look into through HBOC???
yeah i agree with the early opening for the hunter wetlands.
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered what this audubon thingie is????
John Audubon was to the US what John Gould was to Australia - he drew and catalogued US birds in the 19th century. The society named after him aims to educate the public about birds and preserve habitat. They run a number of nature reserves around the US.
ReplyDeleteThanks marj, i know nothing about the history of ornithology. doh!
ReplyDeleteThe Schlitz part of the name is a brewery!
ReplyDeleteIn Alan's talk at HBOC meeting tonight he said that Gould was in the Hunter for about 15 months in 1839-40.
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