Friday and Saturday mornings Helen and I spent birding at Pheasant Branch Conservancy, one of the best birding places in Madison (Wisconsin). Birds were exciting, the forest was wet with recent rain. Each morning we needed to go to a nearby coffee shop to wait out another rain shower. Warblers: Black and white, Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, Yellow-rumped, Blackpoll (many), Wilson’s, Tennessee, Magnolia, Nashville, Bay-breasted, and Redstarts. The Black-throated Green was a “heard-only” ID. Other highlights were Baltimore Orioles, Great-horned Owls nesting in a large hole in an old tree, a singing Indigo Bunting, and 2 Vireos (Blue-headed, and Red-eyed). We were able to see 2 fluffy owlets peeking out of the nest hole.
Backyard birding yielded a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and a Swainson’s Thrush, among others. Saturday evening my aunt, cousins and I went out to a movie, African Cats. Excellent photography. Sunday my cousins came over and we had a wonderful breakfast together, followed by a nice walk in Hoyt Park. I shared a matte with them.
The storm was blowing out, it was a windy, gusty day. I started driving west again, across Wisconsin and into Iowa. I crossed the Mississippi River at Dubuque at mid-afternoon. Open landscape, rolling farmlands, with trees on the edges of the fields.
An hour west of Dubuque I stopped at a state natural area to walk around and met some people mushroom hunting. Now I know something about Morels. Continued west and spent the night with a friend.
Monday dawned bright and sunny. Backbone State Park had a wonderful collection of birds and wildflowers. Limestone cliffs host many plants: ferns, flowers, just leaves, and moss. The forest floor was green with so many little plants growing. Photos of a Columbine on a cliff, and Jack-in-the-Pulpit. It was a fun day to be out hiking with no destination.
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